About two years ago I wrote
an article called “Can’t Find A Church.” If you would
like to read that article
first you can find it on the Rapture Ready site at Featured End Time Writers,
then under my name, Grant Phillips.
It has been drilled into many
of us that if we don’t “go to church,” we will go to hell. For some reason,
that always coincides with a physical structure that is commonly “church like”
and is used for worship services. In these buildings are pews, a pulpit,
musical instruments and a name over the door. It is the one place we meet with
fellow believers and worship for about an hour. The remaining 167 hours are
spent in the “real world.”
Apparently, one can only be
saved in the structure we call the church, and our salvation is only guaranteed
upon our faithful attendance at this special place.
At this point, I’m out of
breath and hardly know where to start in responding to this fallacy, so let’s
begin with our salvation.
What is the Gospel?
“Now, brothers and sisters, I
want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on
which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold
firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For
what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for
our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on
the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and
then to the Twelve.” (1 Corinthians 15:1-5)
What must I do to be saved?
“If you declare with your
mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the
dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are
justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.”
(Romans 9:10)
Can I lose my salvation?
“For I am convinced that
neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the
future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ
Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)
It can be readily seen that
our attendance at a local structure neither saves us nor keeps us saved. Our
salvation is totally dependent upon Jesus Christ, and the security of our
salvation is also totally dependent upon Him as well. Jesus is the only means
of salvation and once we are saved, nothing
can undo the salvation we received through Him.
Should I go to church?
First of all, if you are a
true Christian, a legitimate child of God, you are the Church. So wherever you
go, you are there.
Should I worship with other Christians?
“And let us consider how we
may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting
together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and
all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:24-25)
The answer is obvious. We
should not be hermit Christians. We need to share company with other Christians
and encourage each other, especially as we see the Day of Christ’s return
drawing closer. However, there are no specifics given about where we meet.
When I was growing up our
local church was the only one in the hollow (holler, for some of us) where we
all lived. They actually taught, often, that we should not go to another church
out of our area. We had to attend locally. Even as a teenager, that made no
sense to me, and quite plainly, it made no sense because it was nonsense.
Yeah, but they say I can’t worship at home. I must go
to the local church, you know, the one with the name over the door.
“For where two or three
gather in my name, there am I with them.” (Matthew 18:20)
No matter how you slice it, I
see nothing there stating anything about not being able to worship at home. We
may worship God alone in our private time, and we can worship God publicly with
one or more other Christians. We may worship at home, at the local church with
the name over the door, in the back of a cab, on a mountain top, in a parking
lot, in a prison cell, wherever we happen to be with another Christian. We are
the Church. We are like a MASH unit in war. We are mobile.
It is sad that so many of our
churches today have become apostate. Most, and sometimes all, of those
attending are Christians in name only. These churches are near replicas of Old
Testament idol worshipers that neither knew God nor worshipped Him. They served
only their false gods, and were Israel’s kryptonite.
The true Church today is
being attacked by Satan’s false prophets just as Israel was years ago. The
world has come into most churches and set up their idols while true Christians
are being pushed out the door.
That’s okay. Let them have
the building. God will deal with that, but we should never forsake our worship,
wherever we are. Just as Daniel was faithful to God as a slave in Babylon, we
should be faithful to Him.
It isn’t important where we
worship the Lord, but it is important that we continue to worship Him wherever
we are.
If your local church remains
faithful to the Word of God, then praise Him because you are blessed. If your
local church is denying God’s Word, it is between you and Him what you do next.
Pray about it. Then do as Joshua.
“…But as for me and my
household, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15)
Grant Phillips
Email: Phillip5769@twc.com
Pre-Rapture Commentary: http://grant-phillips.blogspot.com
Rapture Ready: http://www.raptureready.com/featured/phillips/phillips.html
