Because God no longer dwells in temples as in the Old Testament we do not meet in buildings treated as though they are temples. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 6:19 "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?"
When we have trusted Christ and He lives in us we no longer need to have a temple to go to as in the Old Testament.
These buildings have created a mindset that thinks they have to "go meet God somewhere" as if He is not with us unless we go to that place.
We have created a "priest" or mediator between us and God with the one-man-paid-pastor system in which the people view as having authority over them. The Holy Spirit is the only Authority over every believer.
Looking to man is usurping the Holy Spirit. It takes faith to trust in the Holy Spirit we can not see, it is easier to trust in a man we can see and easier to allow a person to dictate our beliefs than it is to take the time in prayer to seek the Holy Spirit.
The modern Christian is lazy and indulgent, depending on men rather than Christ.
We are not forsaking the gathering by not attending those buildings called "churches." Whenever we gather wherever we gather is the gathering of believers as described by God in His Word.
Matthew 18:19-20
"For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
Doing things man's way to satisfy our lust for sight that replaces faith has created a trust in the way things are done and not in Christ.
Mark 7:13. "thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do."
Much of what goes on in those church buildings is against the word of God creating a dependence on the building and the appointed one-man who has been deemed worthy by his education and not by His walk with Christ.
Colossians 2:8
"See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ."
Using one phrase from the bible those who follow their traditions pressure others to do things the way they do them. That phrase is "do not forsake the gathering together." They interpret this phrase in terms of their own ideas that it must be in a building away from your home, it must have paid preacher, pews facing him and him lifted up hight to be above the attendees.
A prayer, a song, the worship team and other traditions are seen as the way we must experience the gathering for it to be the "right way", and yet, God never describes these things in His Word, they are man's concoction. A hierarch is created in the gathering that God never endorsed and yet everyone attending believes it is the only way to walk with God.
When we read God's word seeking His truth we see how perverted and distorted the modern church is and how displeasing to God in many ways.
2 Timothy 4:3-4
"For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths."
2 Peter 3:16
"As he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures."
We must free ourselves from the clutches of man's thinking and begin to fly with the wings of eagles as we follow God's ways. It will not be easy and there won't be many friends who come with us but we will have the joy of the freedom to follow Christ even if no one supports us.
