A very early mention, and description of the financial motives, of early schismatics is provided to us by St. Paul. Phil. 4:10-19, Today’s Reading, contains a passage in which St. Paul gives one of the earliest mentions of what appear to be Protestants. He thoughtfully explains the motive of these early Protestant schisms.
“You Philippians indeed know that at the beginning of the Gospel, when I left Macedonia, not a single church shared with me in an account of giving and receiving, except you alone.”
St. Paul is telling us some early churches he founded refused to share financial information with him, the Apostle chosen by Jesus to tell the Gentiles about Jesus.
Similarly, the 40,000 schisms today continue to keep their accounting private. Vast sums of cash, difficult to track and trace, flow into various pockets. “We like it that way!” say the leaders of 40,000 schisms.
In the First Century, schismatics said: “We believe in Jesus, but we’ll keep the money and the accounting for it among ourselves. Don’t bother us, St. Paul.”
In the Twenty First century, things haven’t changed. But, the number of financially unaccountable schisms has grown from half-a-dozen to over 40,000. The number of churches Jesus founded? That number is still one.
