Perhaps there is a reason God has shut down the church gatherings in our country. Yes, I said that it was GOD Who shut them down using the unsaved to do it. There are many things the church does today that are based not on God's word but rather on human ideas to control the people.
1. Forgiveness without repentance...wrong
2. One man pastor...wrong
3. Women pastors...wrong
4. Becoming a Christian without sorrow over sinfulness...wrong
5. Divorce accepted as a right...wrong
6. Remarriage normal and common...wrong
7. Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Birthday Celebrations,...wrong
8. Worship of human beings as heroes...wrong
9. Seminaries to Train preachers...wrong
10. Rejection of the head covering for women...wrong
11. Encouraging believers to bring unbelievers to
12. worship...wrong
13. Altar call after preaching in worship...wrong
14. Paying a salary to pastors...wrong
15. Entertainment bands in the gathering...wrong
16. Elevation of paid pastors above other in the
gathering...wrong
17. Choosing leaders outside the gathering who are unknown to
the congregation based on their credentials and talents for
speaking...wrong
18. Leaders who control the congregations...wrong
19. Prosperity preaching...wrong
20. Name it and claim gospel that guilts people into thinking they
do not have enough faith if they can't just make things appear
by the word of their own mouth the way God did with the
universe...wrong
21. Infighting over the nature and timing of the rapture...wrong
22. Dismissing prophesy as unimportant...wrong
23. Leaders intimidating rather than leading by example...wrong
24. Older folks leaving the teaching to paid hirelings rather than
obeying scripture to teach the younger ones...wrong
25. Young folks refusing to listen to the older folks...wrong
26. Joking and flippancy in the believer's gatherings...wrong
27. Allowing the "leaders" in the church to speak anything they
wish without challenge as though they are the authority
over the people...wrong
28. Leaders who lead by intimidation rather than by
example...wrong Lack of discipline and accountability for sin
and error...wrong The mentality that only the "preachers" can
know truth...wrong The idea that those who bring the gospel
to the unsaved must only be trained missionaries...wrong
Our church gatherings have so much wrong with the way they worship, the reason they meet, and those who lead them that they no longer resemble the model of the gathering as described in the first-century church that God gave for born again believers.
Many people have the erroneous ideas that we should not correct one another, that we should accept sin in the body and that the only ones who should teach, preach and rebuke are trained pastors...all of this is wrong according to God's Word.
Over the next few days and weeks, I would like to bring scripture to bear on every one of these false beliefs. Having been raised with the "cultural" Christianity and having my eyes opened by the Lord about it, I can say that most people who have been raised in this false system or who became born again and entered them after salvation have these ideas so firmly planted in their minds that it sounds very wrong to them. If anyone will ask God and search the scriptures without reading other books for the answers, God will open their eyes.
The problem is that so many teachers have been indoctrinated themselves by seminaries and bible schools that have brought their own bent to the teaching, using outside the bible writings and psychology in addition to the scriptures that they have not had "the pure milk of the word", it has been mixed with human traditions and sociological thinking of our time.
May the Lord be the focus and the Holy Spirit be the teacher of those who would desire to know the truth as each one seeks Him and His Word for themselves. Let no man be the hall monitor as you study, let no man influence what God has told you unless that man brings more scripture.
Consequences, circumstances, and life experiences do not determine truth, only the "pure milk of the Word" along with the tutelage of the Holy Spirit brings unadulterated truth.
1 Peter 2:1-3 "1 Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander. 2 Like newborn infants, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.…"
Shed the idol worship of educated teachers who have been trained by schools rather than the Holy Spirit. If it was not the Holy Spirit Who taught then it must be questioned according to the Scriptures as well as the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
An idea or thought entering your head does not constitute the prompting of the Holy Spirit, when you hear from Him you will know it and it will do two things, it will match perfectly with the Bible and it will glorify God.
John 16:13-14 "13 However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come. 14 He will glorify Me by taking from what is Mine and disclosing it to you.…"
