Today it will be
found that many Christians are not attending church. There are two
camps for these people. One is the camp that are people who really are
not serious about their faith, and they simply would rather be out
doing other things than be in church. They have the name of
Christian, but do not have the life of one. The other group are
people who are serious about their faith. Very serious in fact, and
they too are leaving the church. But unfortunately, all of these
people are being lumped together by Christians within the church and
being chastised by these Christians via comments, social media posts,
etc. that they “should be in church.” They are more or less
considered an apostate for not being there. So what is the truth of
the matter? Can you not be a church-goer and still have a vital
relationship with Christ?
First of all,
salvation is by faith alone in Jesus Christ, not through the church.
While we must abide with Him in holiness, and keep His commandments
to maintain a good relationship with Him (John 14:15, 15:10),
attending church every Sunday is not a rule found in the Scriptures.
It just isn’t there, regardless of what some want to believe. It
is not a requirement for heaven, or even to walk closely with the
Lord. There is one verse in particular in the Bible that is thrown at
those who have left the church, to try to show them they are in
Scriptural error and disobedience. That verse is Hebrews 10:25, which
will be addressed shortly.
Now there is nothing
wrong with the idea of people going to church. It is beneficial and it is Scriptural to
get together with other Christians for study, encouragement, accountability, use of gifts, and
corporate worship, and we are encouraged to be with other Christians,
for where two or three are gathered, Christ is in their midst. (Matt.
18:20). I am not against gathering at all. I think it is essential in fact, however there is no
mandate as to when, where, and how often this should occur, nor a
requirement as to the size of the group. There is a totally free
license as to how we want to gather with others – our freedom in
Christ. We can do so in whatever way we are able or want to. It is
left open for a reason. Not everyone in the world is in a situation
where they can openly go, or just simply go to a worship service. In
some places churches are against the law. For some their occupation
prevents it. For some, such as a parent with multiple small
children, who might have to go alone, it is often not a spiritually
uplifting thing to go, but a trial and tribulation to get there at
all, much less keep several little children under control during the course
of the service, if there is no children's babysitting or junior church for little ones. They are exhausted rather than refreshed and often will miss the service entirely, because they have to take the little ones out of the service, so as not to disrupt it for others. Some are
infirm with illness and disabilities, or merely age. There are all
sorts of reasons that might prevent people from attending church. And
going to churches that are blatantly teaching sin against God is not
a church Christ would want us attending. I’m sure He would far
rather that we stay away and worship Him in spirit and truth wherever
we are, and preferably on the Sabbath. (This too will be discussed
below.)
The churches in the
western world, and most specifically America (and probably Canada
also) have mainly become venues for a feel good, entertained, worldly
type of Christianity. It is one where one names it and claims it as a
right from God, it is based on feelings, not a commitment of the will
combined with faith, it is self-centered, not God-centered, and it is
a pleasure palace for people to feed the fleshly lusts - worldly
worship music, concerts, plays, movies, cafés,
bookstores, media centers, ministries for self-help for every problem
under the sun, and shallow feel good sermons that tell you that you
are good and deserving and you shouldn’t judge others or yourself
for doing what is right
for you, even if it is not approved of by God. It is not taught that
you are wretched, sinful, and need to walk in holiness and according
to the Word. In the book of Revelation, we find that five of the
seven churches have sins that Christ holds against them and warns
them that they will be judged, if they don’t repent. These churches
can be found in the world today. It is called
apostasy.
On
the other hand, there are churches that are trying to keep from
falling into the worldly model, and as a consequence they have become
legalistic, judgmental and condemning, and restrictive to the point
where they rival the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. They
feel they can keep apostasy at bay by ruling with an iron fist, just
as the Pharisees did, adding rules to God’s rules to keep them so
far from sin that they have no chance to make the choice themselves
to not sin. This is no
better than the churches that are worldly in their apostasy, for many
of these churches have doctrines
that are
not Scriptural, but as the Pharisees have done, they have taken what
they want out of the Bible to uphold their legalism and restrictive
rules.
Neither
of these models are pleasing to God. We know this because Israel was
guilty of both of these sins, and God divorced Israel and has let her
suffer for millennia because of it. Is the church any less worthy of
judgment and punishment than Israel? Going back to the first model of
the church, where true believers gathered to meet in homes, we see
that this model is the one being used in countries of persecution,
and we find that this model is the one that has begun to surface in
the western world among Christians who are fed up with churches that
are self-centered rather than God-centered, or Pharisaical in
practice. They are also fed up with the fact that churches these days
are not teaching to the growth of Christians. The churches feed their
people milk and pablum,
not meat as instructed in Hebrews 5:12-6:2. Sometimes they teach outright heresy - doctrines of demons. Christians who seek to
know God want more, and the only way they can get it is to gather with
like-minded Christians outside
of the church to study and worship. Their stand against apostasy and
legalism has made them outcasts within the church assemblies, so they
leave to worship elsewhere. Because
of that, they are accused of not loving Christ, or being bad
Christians. Those within the assemblies feel that there is some sort
of umbrella protection for them by
being good church-goers, and
that they present to the world a show of Christianity, when in fact
once they leave the building their Christianity is sometimes very
hard to see. They have somehow come to equate being part of a
“legitimate” assembly as being part of the Church Universal,
meaning all those who truly are born again and love the Lord. It
is their safe haven to ensure their entrance into heaven. Nothing
could be further from the truth.
Many who are in churches are not born again, and many who are
outside of the church are true followers of Christ. A relationship
with Christ is not dependent upon a building, or an organized
assembly of believers. A relationship with Christ is personal and
independent of any other source.
There is much made
over Hebrews 10:25 by pastors. And why not? It is the only verse in
the Bible which they can find to use to try to lay a guilt trip on
Christians, who are not attending church on a regular basis, or at
all. It is their ace in the hole, so to speak, for if there were no
mandate to attend Sunday church services, and people realized that there were no
mandate, these pastors would, in many cases, end up unemployed.
On the face of it,
one would think that they are correct in how they are interpreting
it, for it says, “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.” Obviously forsaking
the assembling of ourselves together refers to Sunday morning worship
service, right? And "as the manner of some is" is what those who do not attend
church are doing, correct? And this directive is all the more valid
as we are seeing the Day of the Lord approaching, isn’t it?
Well, the last is true. We are in the end times, but that is all that
is correct about that interpretation. The accusation is that those
not going to Sunday morning services regularly are disobeying a
direct order. No. Not really. Just looking at the sentence itself,
without getting into the real gist behind it, one can see that putting that interpretation on it is adding to
Scripture, which we are warned not to do. If it did mean what pastors
want it to mean, it does not indicate when, how, how often or any
other parameters about what assembling together means. So technically
if one attends a Bible study during the week, that would fulfill the
requirement, even if there were only two people at that Bible study.
And if that study only happened once a month, still it would meet the
requirement of what this way of interpreting this verse says. And one
need not even have a Bible study. It simply says assembling. That
could be social gatherings. So to make this mean what pastors want it
to mean is to simply do a disservice to good exegesis. But it goes
even further. That is not how the verse was intended to be
interpreted. Here is what the book of Hebrews is about.
First of all, it was
written to the Hebrews, Jewish Christians who would have been
observing the Sabbath, not Sunday. Sunday would not be observed as a
tradition made by man until many years later, and would not become a
formal Gentile Christian tradition until the 4th century
when Constantine mandated it as a state law, outlawing Sabbath
worship. His reasons for doing so were not spiritual, or in some
response to a teaching from God, but political reasons. The reasons
being that the Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians were at odds
with each other and causing problems over this issue of the Sabbath
vs. Sunday, plus the pagans who were being forced into conversion
were used to worshiping on Sunday, as that was the pagan worship day.
It made the transition much easier.
Now the argument
comes that it is the principle that is important, not the literalness
of the situation, for times have changed and Sunday is now the proper
worship day. Well, no actually it is not, and that information can be
found here
https://bibleconundrumsandcontroversy.blogspot.com/2011/02/sabbath-or-sunday.html.
But regardless of that, whether the Sabbath or Sunday, going to a
meeting in a church once a week for an hour is not a directive of
God, nor is it necessary for salvation or to be a Christian in good
standing with God.
The next argument
comes that the early church got together on Sunday to worship
together, and so should we. Well, that is taking Scripture and
extending it beyond what is warranted. The early Christians met
together for many reasons. One, they wanted to learn about this new
teaching of Christ, and the only way was to gather with others. Two,
they were thrown out of the synagogues and being persecuted, so they
tended to congregate to encourage each other and have someone of
like-mindedness be their companions for fellowship. Three, because of
persecution, many lost material possessions and found themselves
without, so they came together to help each other materially. Four,
they did not meet in a building with all the bells and whistles that
so many have today. They met in homes and the meetings consisted of
prayer, study, possibly exhortation, and singing psalms and hymns.
For the most part, as most were Jewish and used to synagogue
attendance, they continued to meet on the Sabbath, so that the
apostles could teach them. They did not meet on Sundays. In time,
some chose to start meeting on Sunday as well, with the idea of
commemorating the Lord’s resurrection on that day of the week, but
it came about more when Gentiles, who were used to worshiping on the
pagan holy day of Sunday, were becoming Christians. They easily fell
into the tradition of continuing on Sunday with the excuse of
commemorating the Lord’s resurrection, rather than adopt the Jewish
Sabbath, which was the day God had declared His holy day from the
beginning. In the Bible, never does it indicate when, how often, and
on what days the people met. If anything, it would have been the Sabbath, because the early Christians tended to mostly be Jews. There was no precedent set for us to
have to follow at all. They simply met together as they felt like it.
We really don’t know anything else about these meetings as to time,
frequency, etc.
The initial model
for the church service came from the synagogues. The oldest evidence
of synagogues are from 3 BC. Some scholars believe the synagogues
came about after the destruction of the temple in 586 BC when lacking
the temple rituals, those few who were still faithful began to meet
in their houses. They gathered to study the Torah, pray, and worship,
just as the early Christians began by gathering in their houses, and
eventually years later were to start building synagogues, just as
Christians built churches or cathedrals in which to worship instead
of homes. All of this came about merely from men’s traditions, (in
the case of the Jews, due to the punishment for their disobedience by
losing the temple) not due to God telling them to get together and
meet for worship in this manner. What God instituted was the
observance of the Sabbath by resting, and the tabernacle which
eventually became the temple, for sacrifices. The temple’s purpose
was not for people to gather together once a week for an hour to
worship in a service overseen by a clergyman. Some people (women,
non-Jews) were not even allowed in certain courtyards of the temple.
People might gather there for various purposes, but there was no
facility for them to sit on a group of benches while someone got up
and gave a message, then go home. Never was the church building and
the gathering once a week on the pagan worship day for an hour or two
a model that God created for us to have to use to worship Him. This
was merely a model that evolved from the traditions of men. And in
the case of some of the traditions, they arose from paganism, not
Judaism or the Bible. Now again, I am not saying that gathering to worship
on Sunday is bad and should not be done, for we should worship God
every day, and gathering on any day is permissible, so there is
nothing wrong with it in that respect. In fact, it is very helpful for some people’s
spiritual growth, who need this habitual activity to maintain their
walk with God. At least it used to be before apostasy took over, but
neither is it mandated by God as an ordinance that has to be observed
or be a plumb line by which to measure someone’s spiritual state.
Nor is it a replacement for observing the Commandment that says we
should keep the Sabbath. God has never rescinded any of His Ten
Commandments. They are His eternal laws and to break one, is to break
them all and sin against God, for remember, they were given to show
man his sin, not save him. And with the apostasy that now consumes
the churches, we come to the dilemma that many faithful Christians,
who were observing this tradition, are now facing. Is it acceptable
to God to not attend church, if it is no longer a place where God is
being glorified?
So now we find
ourselves back at Hebrews 10:25. Let us take a look at this in
context. The book was written to the Hebrews, although we are not
sure of whom the author was. Some background on what was going on in
the Jewish Christian church might be helpful at this point.
Gnosticism, which became a problem right at the beginning in the
first century, had its roots (in the Christian faith) in the Jewish
Christian groups. Some of them (apparently this group) wandered away
from the truth and started adopting gnosticism, which was the belief
that within everyone is a divine spark that is released through
knowledge and enlightenment. It does not adhere to the ideas of sin
and repentance, but to the idea that the material world is an
illusion which can be transcended through enlightenment. One of the
beliefs held by some gnostics was what the New Agers today call “the Christ
spirit,” which in other words is a human being who has become
enlightened and tries to pass that on to others. Some saw Christ in
this way. Another belief that some held was that Christ was an angel
incarnated, which is called angel christology. Yet another of the beliefs that some gnostics adhered to was called Melchizadekianism, in which they worshiped Melchizadek as having been the Messiah. Gnostics were often
ascetics, which meant that they led lives depriving themselves (of
things such as dietary and sexual pleasures), and they often became
hermits. In fact within a few hundred years, the deserts of the
Middle East were dotted with thousands of these ascetic gnostic
hermits. They did not believe in the resurrection, but might believe
in reincarnation. So this was the belief system that was evolving
within some of the Jewish Christian groups at the time that this
letter was written.
When one looks at
the context of what was written, it begins to be easily seen that
this was one of those groups, and that the problems and issues which were plaguing this group were being addressed in this letter. The
first two chapters are spent in teaching that Jesus was not an angel,
but the Son of God and a completely different person from the angels.
That addresses the angel christology and “enlightened spirit within
a human Jesus” problems that some gnostics were teaching. It then
goes on to talk about the rest which we enter into (the hope of the
resurrection) which addresses the lack of belief in a resurrection
and the idea of reincarnation, and then he chastises how the basic
principles of the gospel have to be laid down again for these people,
for they are still children in their knowledge and are not growing in the
faith. In fact, they are obviously walking away from the faith and
substituting this gnosticism in its place. He warns them that once
they have actually been enlightened, through accepting the gospel,
and have partaken of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling, if they reject
Christ and their salvation to opt for another path, it is impossible
to ever come back to repentance. That is because in rejecting the
gospel and renouncing Christ as Savior, they blaspheme the Holy Spirit who then is obliged
to leave them, and that is the one sin that cannot be forgiven.
Committing a sin is one thing. Rejecting or renouncing Christ after
having once received Him and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is an
entirely different matter. It is an unpardonable sin. Twice in this book, this dire warning is given. That means that the issue they were dealing with was very serious, and gnosticism was a serious issue that could deprive people of their salvation. It wasn't like some of the other sins in the other churches, which could be forgiven. This was a spiritual death issue. And it obviously was affecting this group.
He follows with an
explanation of Christ’s priesthood, specifically relating it to being greater than the Levites', and Melchizadek's. This refutes Melchizadekianism, for Christ is the last Priest in that heavenly order (which is greater than the earthly one of the Levites) for there is no need for a further intercessor other than Christ. It also refutes the “divine
spark within us” teaching, for only Christ is divine and can come
before God for us to intercede for our sins. We are not divine
ourselves, we are sinners. An explanation follows of the purpose and
pattern of the tabernacle/temple which was to teach them these truths
that Christ fulfilled, and His priesthood. So now given that he has
once more laid the foundation of these beliefs, he then tells them
that they should hold fast to faith in these things (the gospel and
promise of a rest in the resurrection) and encourage each other to
the good works that will keep them in the faith. Then we come to that
controversial verse which we are putting under scrutiny, where he
addresses the last problem with gnosticism, the fact that they were
separating themselves from other believers and becoming hermits to
reach enlightenment. He tells them to not do this. To not stop
getting together and socializing with other Christians, as was the
manner of the ascetics, who obviously were coming out of their group
to become hermits, so that by interacting they might, as he said in
the previous verses, keep each other encouraged in the faith, and
keep each other on the straight path of truth, especially as one sees
the Day of the Lord, when God will exact His vengeance on a wicked
world, approaching. This is what the meaning of this verse is. NOT –
attend church for an hour once a week regularly (in most churches
that means to get entertained), because that is your obligation as a
Christian.The meaning is clearly to not follow the behavior of the ascetic gnostics by becoming hermits and shunning people.
He follows this
again with a second warning about this sin of willfully turning from
the gospel of Christ to another doctrine and its consequences. If
they willfully sin (reject the gospel and Christ) after having
received the knowledge of truth (having accepted Christ), there
remains no other sacrifice for their sins. Christ is the ONLY
way of salvation. There
is no other, but only the wrath of God's judgment awaiting.
He asks how much more deserving of God's wrath is one that has
trodden underfoot the very blood of the sacrifice of Christ whereby
he was sanctified (set apart as holy and
justified) at one
time, as an unholy thing? That amounts to
blasphemy. He then reminds them to recall the
former days when they had been illuminated or enlightened (by the
gospel) when they had endured afflictions. This reference to
and specific use of this word "illumination"
also points to gnosticism
as being the problem within
this group of Christians, for illumination
was what they sought. They once
understood and believed in the promise of a
resurrection and life to come with God. He tells them to not cast
away that faith, for it will have great reward in
the end.
The
rest of the book goes on to list the heros of faith who did not see
the promise come to pass in their lifetime, but lived by faith looking forward that
one day, even after their death, they would see that promise come. He then
tells them to basically keep the faith and not lose hope, but to
patiently endure. He tells them that they haven't yet
resisted sin to the point where it has cost
them their lives, and they should expect that God will chasten them
when they do wander and get into sinful ways. He is basically letting them know that
this apostasy they have allowed might be the cause for their
tribulation, for God chastens His children. If they are not chastened
for it, then they are not really God's children. He
again issues a warning to them about staying on
the path, and then encourages them to walk in
love. This is followed with
another warning against strange and diverse doctrines, as they
apparently had been accepting them.
Then he finally
exhorts them to walk according to the way we
as Christians should walk.
When
taken in this context, that the problem besetting this group was
gnosticism, all of this book makes complete sense in
what subjects are being covered. The
various things discussed fit very neatly into the problems gnosticism
would cause. The discussion of Jesus versus
the angels, the hope of the rest to come, the laying down all the
precepts of the gospel and Christ's ministry
as our heavenly Priest, the refutation of Melchizadek as the Messiah,
the warnings of losing one's salvation by turning from Christ, the
warning against separating totally (as a hermit) from other Christians,
the warnings against apostate doctrines, and the justification of
tribulation when one does accept them. All of this makes complete sense, so that
the verse in Chapter 10 is now taken in context, and it clearly does
not indicate that someone has to attend Sunday morning worship
service or be a bad Christian. It is not a
mandate to Sunday morning worship service at all. It is a warning to
not become a hermit, thinking that this is a better path to
enlightenment and salvation. Notice that the directive is a negative
one. It is not "make sure to get together weekly with others to
worship", but a negative – "do not
forsake other Christians." There is a
marked difference between "do not become a hermit and stop
socializing and fellowshipping with other Christians whenever,
wherever, and however it may occur" and "it is necessary
to go to church on Sunday for an hour to be
entertained and listen to a pastor preach
what are probably apostate doctrines in
order to be a good Christian."
An added detriment to
the insistence in church attendance
is that those
who put their faith in the church, as
being the mark of a relationship with Christ, have
opted to abdicate their responsibilities as parents in favor of
letting the church lead their children to Christ. And what is
happening? The children are leaving the churches in droves. If they
do remain in church, they want a feel good, entertainment venue that
allows all the worldliness they want to embrace. And these parents do
not know where they have gone wrong. In fact, the parents are there indulging in the worldliness themselves along with their children. It is just that the tradition of attending Sunday morning service is more ingrained in them, so they feel the need to be there, and so the worldly church services work well for them.
The
church is not the
only way one can gather with other Christians for study and worship.
It is not a
replacement for personal study, prayer, individual worship, nor is it
a replacement for the responsibility of leading your children to the
Lord and doing it by the method the Bible tells us to use. We are to
talk to our children when we
sit, when we
walk, when we
lie down, and when we
get up. (Deuteronomy 6:4-9, 11:19). We are to constantly be an
example, and constantly talk to them and show them how to love God,
how God works in our lives, and how we should behave. My experience
with the church teaching my children is that they were taught some
Bible stories, and told to accept Jesus into their heart, without
much explanation as to why they are sinners who need redemption. On
the other hand, when we home-churched, they learned a lot more than I
ever anticipated two little children could learn. We covered both Old
and New Testament and years later when speaking of various things in
the history of Israel, my son would talk about some incident and I
would be surprised given his extremely young age when we covered
these things that he remembered them. He told me that he was
listening a lot more than I thought. Little children take in so much
more and understand so much more than we give them credit for
understanding. It made me so glad we had chosen to teach them
ourselves, rather than trust the church. We also home-schooled, so
this was normal for us to do something like this, as they were
learning the Bible every day. And
today they are grown men who have a true relationship with the Lord
and have never strayed. One
goes to church, because his wife needs it for herself, and the other
does not. Yet both have the Lord in charge of their lives.
I
am constantly amazed that while Christians will say that you must be
born again to get into heaven, the emphasis upon attending church
being almost a major requirement, along with being born again, has
almost been elevated to the level of idolatry. If you don’t attend
church regularly,
you can’t possibly be saved. Attending
church is all important. It is sacred. The
church (local assembly) is the plumb
line against which a Christian’s relationship with Christ is
measured. There
is NO excuse for
not attending which
is acceptable - including apostasy. Of course those
who insist upon this also declare that their
church is never
apostate
or legalistic or unscriptural in their doctrines. It
is very true that getting together with other believers is a very
important part of our walk with Christ, but that may have no
relationship to church attendance. The kind of Christians you
assemble with is also very important.
It
is
true that nobody will ever find a perfect church, for people are not
perfect and love must overlook a multitude of faults. We
all sin and fall short of the glory of God. However
I do not think that God wants us to ignore or put our stamp of
approval on false doctrines, worldliness,
the
unrepentant
sin within the congregation and
leadership that is tolerated,
or the reverse – Pharisaism,
judgmentalism,
condemnation, and church discipline of people
who are not sinning according
to the Bible, but
do
not live by the man-made rules some of the people in the church have
set. We
should not tolerate sin, and it should be judged, and walking in
worldliness should be strongly cautioned against when we see someone
drifting away, but freedoms in Christ are just that, freedoms.
If God says it is okay, who are we to say nay? One
extreme is as bad as the other. And
a church that teaches against God’s Word should never be tolerated.
The
irony here is that these people who
insist that attending church on Sunday makes you a good Christian, in
ignoring the Sabbath, break the Ten Commandments every week, for if
you break one commandment, you break them all. They are all in
flagrant unrepentant sin regarding
the fourth Commandment, which
they deny is
a sin to break,
as man’s tradition
of observing Sunday instead has become the rule rather than God’s
eternal
law of the Sabbath.
This
is exactly like Israel. They chose their own rules over God’s. Some
who have left the church, on the other hand, have come to the
conclusion that the Sabbath must be observed, and so are observing
it, often meeting for home church or Bible studies on the Sabbath.
If
insisting that Hebrews 10:25 talks about church attendance, then they
still are not breaking any rules. They
don’t forsake the assembling of themselves with other believers,
they are simply particular with
whom and
on what day they
worship, and are not dependent upon a particular building to worship
in.
And yet the church assemblies consider these people apostates, who
have walked away from the Lord.
For
those who have walked away, not because they are no longer interested
in the things of the Lord, but are deeply disturbed by the lack of
holiness and adherence to God’s Word, take heart. The remnant is
being called out of Babylon. It’s the best place to be, regardless
of what the Laodiceans might tell you. Like Christ said to the
remnant overcomers of the seven churches, “he that hath an ear to
hear, let him hear.”
For a list of
legitimate spiritual reasons to not attend church, click on this
link.
