A common complaint today is “I can’t find a good church.” There are many whose answer to that complaint is to recommend another church. But what if the churches are the problem, not the solution. What then? Where is one to go for fellowship?
THE FELLOWSHIP DILEMMA
“Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: 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 10:23-25
“I can’t find a good church.”
It’s a common enough complaint in the times in which we live.
One assumption to get out of the way: Hebrews 10:25 says nothing of assembling together publicly or in a church building.
Still, most Americans turn to their churches when they think of “fellowship” and “assembling ourselves together.”
Fellowship becomes an even bigger concern as more and more recognize that as far as apostasy goes, the modern churches are the problem, not the solution.
I could write a book on this topic. It has come to the point in America where people are having to leave church to find God and truth. The average pastor has been caught up into the apostate new evangelical movement, i.e., the wishy-washy, compromising, weak-kneed, milquetoast, head-in-the-sand, bible-corrupting, cotton-candy religion of our time. There are many inherent dangers of going to church today…
—The Dangers of Going to Church
People recognize there is a problem with their church. They then turn to another church in hopes of fixing the problem. But many times, they do not find a “good church.”
IN the times in which we live, one is sometimes tempted to forsake the “assembling of ourselves together.” This goes hand-in-hand with the difficulty of finding a church which sticks strictly to the Word of God.
As opposed to finding plenty of churches which claim to stick to the Bible but who insert tons of their own doctrines, advice, speculation, etc.
Almost inevitably, a church will be recommended, visited and evaluated. Almost as inevitable, it will be found wanting in the very basics of what a Christian church should be.
—Assembling Together, Fellowship and the Apostate Church
So, if the answer is not to be found in the churches, what is one to do?
ELIJAH
Some have virtually given up on finding a “good church.” This writer can sympathize. Sometimes, one feels like Elijah after he had the people of Israel slay the priests of Baal.
“And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.“
—1 Kings 19:10
NARROW ROAD: True Christianity is a Lonely Road
“and I, even I only, am left;”
But Elijah was not alone and God told him.
“Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him. “
—1 Kings 19:18
As in Elijah’s time, so as today: there are true believers but they are not to be found in the houses of idolatry.
This brings up the point: what is one to do if one is convinced that the churches are NOT preaching the Word of God? This writer knows one person who answers the frequent unbiblical preaching and events in his church with “Well, I don’t agree with everything they do.”
Is this a Christian response?
“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?”
—2 Corinthians 6:14
So again: if the answer is not to be found in the churches, what is one to do? Where can one go for fellowship? And what of the “assembling of ourselves together?”
This past week this writer received an email asking essentially the same question.
Here was part of the reply:
“The churches are clearly not the answer: we’re not to be unequally yoked.
It’s a slow road, but it is worthwhile.”
It is also Biblical.
If the reader cannot find any true believers where he lives, share the gospel.
Then fellowship with the new believers.
THE GOSPEL
“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:”
-–1 Corinthians 15:3-4
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by Jeremiah Jameson
–with Mondo Frazier
image: Renjith Krishnan, FreeDigitalPhotos.net/ETPR
© Jeremiah J. Jameson and End Times Prophecy Report, 2012-14. © Mondo Frazier and End Times Prophecy Report, DBKP 2007-2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Jeremiah J. Jameson and End Times Prophecy Report with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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