For as long as I can remember I was taught from every Christian avenue possible that it was just shy of an unforgivable sin to not go to church. I mean the building that has a ‘worship’ service, many events, speakers, classes, teachings and so on. I think if you ask most ‘Christians’ today they would agree to what I am going to use as my text to back up that teaching.
The main scripture that is used, quoted… and sorely misused is this: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. ~ Hebrews 10:25
It has been used as a guilt device to make sure that the weekly church folk keep coming to church. In my estimation it is a form of an up sale so that they guarantee they have a captive audience to their somewhat stale sermon and of course the higher the numbers in the seats then the more money in the offerings. (None of which is biblical I might add.)
Just hold on before you get too righteously indignant. Hear me out and let the scripture and the Spirit bear if there is truth. The two verses I will use to make my point are Matthew 27:46 and 2 Timothy 4:10. They read like this: And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? ~ Matthew 27:46 and For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia. ~ 2 Timothy 4:10.
The Greek word for ‘forsaken’ is egkataleipo and it means to abandon, desert, leave in straits, leave helpless, totally abandoned, utterly forsaken, to leave behind among, or to leave surviving. This word egkataleipo is used in all three scriptures mentioned so far.
While Jesus was on the cross about the die for all of humanity I do not think he was saying, Oh God why won’t you fellowship with me weekly. He was speaking of the unfathomable void of having him and his Father in a complete, total, indescribable separation. He was speaking of being utterly forsaken… even if but for a short time and for a great reason.
When Paul said Demas forsook him it did not mean that Demas just stopped fellowshipping with Paul but he loved the world more and parted ways. In James 4:4 it says, Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a ‘friend’ of the world is the enemy of God. Therefore, for Demas to love the world, not just have a friendship with it meant that he was an enemy of God, thus having forsaken the faith.
Too many Christians misuse this scripture in Hebrews and unfortunately, it is being spilled out directly from the pulpits that we trust in. This verse is speaking of completely walking away from the faith, turning tail, and loving the world more than the gospel and has nothing to do with the guilt trips the churches place on the brethren to get them into the church every week.
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. ~ 2Timothy 2:15
I think the ‘church’ has taken dividing the word rightly as an enormous task that can only be sermonized by the super spiritual or folks with degrees. I have neither of those. I have a concordance and a computer with Internet service to do a Google search on just about anything that turns my fancy. I have a few bible programs installed on my computer that give me commentaries, different versions, Greek, Hebrew and a whole host of other options. One I purchased for $10 and the other I got free at http://www.e-sword.net/... and I have basic common sense.
I do have one other thing that is necessary. I have the want-to to learn the truth and not be so gullible and weak kneed in believing every wind of doctrine that is being preached even if it is from your Sunday morning pulpit. It is sad and scary but true. Each of us independently will be held accountable for what we did with what we were told or not told. Our salvation, knowledge and growth in Christ are not solely dependant on someone else feeding us the milk.
Do me a favor, please? Download that program and do the research yourself. Get out your Strong’s or borrow one. Look up the verses I quoted to verify I am not just feeding you more junk. You will feel very liberated when you learn the truth. It is a bit disheartening and overwhelming if you have to come to grips with the fact that you may have been taught in error… and that you believed it. I have been there all too many times but I am learning how to handle the disappointment. Those teachers are still mere humans with grand faults… just like you and me. A bit more accountable for teaching false material to whole congregations but that is between them and God. In the meantime, your knowledge of truth is between you and your God alone.
Study on!!
4 comments:
The phrase that shocked me out of my boots was "the pulpits that we trust in." I never thought I would turn into an evangelist but I see the way my heart is going and I have become more sensitive to the lost, and especially the lost sitting in front of a pulpit. I'm afraid I would turn into one of those pastors who cries in every sermon because there are so many he sees in front of him that he just can't reach...
E-sword is amazing. You can easily spend $100 on software that doesn't work as well.
Yes E-Sword has truly been a blessing. I personally do not know the guy that made the program but the fact that he is giving it out for free and not asking for anything in return might be enough reason for some of us to give him a gift. Just a thought.
Ben, question: do not the folks in front of the pulpit trust it with their very lives? Unfortunately, unless one says something extremely blatant like all cows have 4 ears and walk on their tippy toes we know that is not right. But so much is being said from that very pulpit that most folks will not question. They assume whoever is behind it got the official degree and approval from 'Gawd' himself so they must be speaking truth. We are blind, blind little sheep!
your example is not far enough from reality to bear witness, you speak of these folks and we both have seen them, they will follow the shepherd like sheep and never open their eyes to test the reality for themselves
i had a long comment and changed it ten times before i quit on the 8th, it doesn't say what i wanted it to say
i once had a friend tell me he thought we HAD to rely on the preacher to interpret the Bible for us because we have jobs and families and we don't have the time to go back over everything he says and see if we agree with it or if it's really biblical and besides, that's his job, that's what we pay him for, to tell us what it says
i told him i thought we were each responsible for our own salvation and understanding of the word and the preacher wasn't the one that was going to burn for our sins
he told me a few years later i had convinced him to be a Christian every day of the week instead of just on Sunday
my charisma friends never much cared when i told them to look at hezekiah chapter 6 for the verse they remembered part of but couldn't find in their Bible
Hey hold up! Hezekiah Chapter 6 has some really cool things about every day living that we should all stop our Christ-like living for and obey!!!
We stand before God and God alone with a mediator that will or will not have the blood to present as witness as to whether we are his. We will be judged individually, gold, silver, and precious stones or wood, hay and stubble. We will not be able to blame it on anyone else. To leave it up to a pastor is the same as a Catholic leaving it up to a priest. There will be some very sad folks!! Adam wanted to blame Eve and Eve wanted to blame the snake. We are always wanting to pass the blame on someone else. That is the cool part about Christ is that it becomes a one on one issue and all the flimsy excuses will be burned away in the end.
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