Hi Mike,

In view of what you have been telling me, I have been wondering if there is any point in going to Church.

W____

Hi again W____,
You say:

… I have been wondering if there is any point in going to Church?

Christ has promised us that if we are faithful to Him and His doctrine, we would be put out of their synagogues.

Joh 16:2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.

Christ Himself was rejected by the priests and Pharisees of His day, and we are to be “as He is… in this world:”

1Jn 4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.

Years ago, as I began to see the doctrine of our Lord and how it so differed from the doctrine of the Pentecostal church I was reared in, I attempted to share what I was seeing with my minister and with others in the church. I learned at an early age that church doctrine will almost always trump the word of God. In less than two years time I was asked not to open my mouth in three separate churches.
I was in effect “put out of the synagogue”, just as my Lord had told me I would be. The scriptures teach that “all things are ours” and that “all things come alike to all”.

1Co 3:21 Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22 Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;
Ecc 9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

So all who follow Christ will stand up for His doctrine and will, in time, be “put out of the synagogue”.

Luk 4:29 And rose up [ the people in the synagogue], and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.

Those who do not take a stand with Christ and His doctrine are simply denying their Lord who was put out of the synagogue for His doctrine.

Mat 10:33 But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.

Just dare to stand on Christ’s Words, and you will soon come to know the meaning of this verse of scripture:

Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Our ‘crucifixion’ is not necessarily physical, as our Lord’s was. Our ‘crucifixion’ is spiritual. It is our ‘death’ to the doctrines of what the scriptures call ‘Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the world’. That is how Paul can say “… nevertheless I live”. Our ‘crucifixion’ is our daily dying (1Co 15:31) to all the things of this life to which we just naturally cling, whatever that might be. It is our attachment to the things of this life which keeps us separated from the doctrines of our Lord.

Mat 10:32 Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.
Mat 10:33 But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.
Mat 10:34 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
Mat 10:35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.
Mat 10:36 And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.
Mat 10:37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Mat 10:38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
Mat 10:39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
Rev 17:5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Rev 17:6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

“The woman” throughout scripture always typifies the church. It is, was and always will be the church which will be the first to insist upon the crucifixion of Christ and His Christ.

Isa 1:21 How is the faithful city [ Jerusalem] become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.
Rev 11:8 And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
Act 3:13 The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye [ His own church] delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go.
Act 3:14 But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;
Act 3:15 And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.

“Where also our Lord was crucified”. What does that mean? It means you and me, when we were in the church and not following Christ. It means the church which killed Christ two thousand years ago, and it means the church which, to this very day, would kill Christ if He were here today teaching us to “Love thine enemies… resist not evil”, etc. You and I ‘kill and deny’ the Prince of Life when we refuse to “come out of” Babylon The Great, and prefer instead to be accepted by the churches and people of this world.

Rev 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

What you do at this point is between you and the Lord, but you are in my prayers, and I am praying that the Lord will strengthen you to face the battle which must be waged by all who are granted the privilege to follow our Lord.

Luk 14:26 If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
Luk 14:27 And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.
Luk 14:28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?
Act 14:22 Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

Christ is our husband, and He will not play ‘second fiddle’ to anything or anyone in our lives. Count the cost, because it requires our life, but if we are granted to follow in His steps and endure the crucifixion of our Lord, the rewards will be well worth it:

1Co 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
1Co 2:10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
Rev 2:26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
Rev 2:27 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.
Rev 2:28 And I will give him the morning star.
Rev 19:9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
Rev 20:6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

We ‘will be hated of all men’, but our names will be in His ‘book of remembrance’ and His ‘book of life’, and that is worth far more than being well spoken of by all men.

Mal 3:16 Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.
Mal 3:17 And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
Mal 3:18 Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.
Luk 6:26 Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.

But as the law of Moses serves to lead us to Christ, so too, the churches serve the function of introducing us to Christ. It is usually in the orthodox church setting as children we learn such basics as the Lord’s prayer, the ten commandments, God is love and other rudiments that are often the starting point of our Christian walk.

Gal 3:24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Chris t, that we might be justified by faith.
Gal 3:25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

Your brother in prayer,
Mike>