[virgil283]

Just as Jesus was persecuted by the religious leaders and said 'If they percecute me they will percecute you'. So all moves of God have met the same resistance but not from the people but the established churches. Whitefield was attacked as a radical and wasn't allowed to preach .....the same is happening today.

[Secret Agent Man]

Martin Luther. Death sentence on his head.

[D-fendr]

Whitefield was attacked as a radical and wasn't allowed to preach .....the same is happening today.

You're referring to... ?

[alexander_busek]

Supposing for a moment that your thesis ("All moves of God have met resistance from established churches") were true - can that be used to prove anything? How does it help us separate the religious "nutwings" and "zanies" (e.g., Rev. Jim Jones, "Heaven's Gate," "Branch Davidians," etc.) from whatever new religious movements you might deem "of God?"

Obviously, the fact that established churches might "resist" or even "persecute" some new movement does not prove for an instant that that movement is authentic (the fallacy of "Post hoc ergo propter hoc").

Conversely: What if the established churches take absolutely no notice of a new religious movement? Would you claim that that proves that the new movement is NOT "from God?"

So what good is your assertion that "all moves of God have met resistance from established churches?"

Regards,

[darrellmaurina]

This doesn’t need to become a thread with fighting between Protestants and Roman Catholics.

Whitefield’s primary opponents were in the established PROTESTANT churches of his day; Roman Catholicism wasn’t his primary target. Whatever we want to say about Roman Catholicism, I think Catholics and Protestants would both concur that a fair number of medieval preachers who were later canonized by the Catholics met significant opposition from the hierarchy during various parts of their careers.