By OUTCAST
It seems that there are churches nearly on each block in the cities, and one cannot take a walk around their neighborhoods without passing a sign that announces yet another “bible believing” church. Yet, does your city or community appear to be full of caring and loving Christians?
Now, it is valid to note that one can find church pantry groups handing out food for free each month to people who “qualify” for it. Of course, since most of them get their food at a discount from a government supply, there are requirements as to how and to whom the food is distributed as well as what one may or may not say or do while handing out food.
But, the point of this article is not whether Christianity can serve as a light on the hill demonstrating the love of God around our country. I dare say that we have changed a lot since 197 A.D. when Tertullian wrote of the Christian church - the days when it was noted how Christians showed their love to others. (It is well worth reading.)
Everyone with whom I am familiar will declare knowledge that Yahweh, our Father, does not change. Yet, it appears that those within the New Covenant have. There is a difference that is apparent to those who note the individual and group behavior of those who claim to be Christians. To be brutally honest, the decline of Christian behavior did not start recently. One can study the actions of churches over the last 1800 years and be wondering “what happened?”
I would like to share my view of the straw that broke the Christian back. I know that it was never a surprise to our Father, but for the person calling His Son “Lord, Lord,” it may be difficult to see without the reflections of God’s spirit within him. As much as it may be difficult to appreciate my perspective on this topic, I hastily state that there are genuine followers of Yeshua in this world today – but they are very few.
Give in random order, I’d like to present my points of thought about the cause of this decline that so badly tarnish the church that Jesus initiated.
Man took over the church.
Scripture ends with Jesus giving purpose to His 11 disciples. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations – and baptize them. I’ll state here that there is a controversy with the name by which the baptisms took place. Matthew 28:19 is the only place where it was other than in Jesus’ name. If it had been in the name of the Trinity, the disciples missed it. One, if interested read the Catholic encyclopedia and see what a massacre of scripture took place under the leaders of the Catholic church.
Scripture did not name a replacement for those disciples (Apostles) except for Paul – who was personally chosen by Yeshua. The churches formed under the evangelism of the Apostles had church leaders and there is no record that these leaders appointed anyone else.
When man took over, he also edited the scriptures during translations to fit their church doctrines.
These amendments were instituted in secret, and since the population was largely illiterate, and the price of a copy of the translations was so high (and prohibited for a long time), the people simply took the words of their preachers as truth.
It does not take long in reading the history of the Catholic church to see the destruction of the church that arose in the first century and have it decline into something unrecognizable to the first century Christian.
However, there came a day when people found a way to provide copies of translation more to the public – though still expensive until the printing press came about. It is important to note that people were killed for doing this.
A simple search for names like John Wycliffe, William Tyndale, and a priest named Thomas Hitton will tell the story.
I think the heaviest straw in breaking the back of the early church took place when it became polytheistic.
The church placed another God up with Yahweh. At first, it was only His Son who became a god, but sixty years later, they added the Spirit of God as another god to deal with.
One must wonder how that came about. After all, from the time of the apostles when there was only One True God (and there still is only one), the church people were recognized for their behavior and love for one another. After the influence of Rome in the fourth century, there were threats, torture and murder to enforce the doctrines of the churches. It was no longer about our Creator and His love. It was about the power and control of denominational leaders.
It may surprise you to know that John Calvin of Tulip fame had Michael Servetus burned at the stake for refusal to believe in the Trinity.
Finally, as personal experience has shown me, the ineffective efforts of “the Church” is because the truth is forced to take a back seat in scriptural studies.
Note that we live now in a time when scripture, history, and cultural studies regarding the Hebrew people are readily available to anyone who is interested. Access to interlinear bibles, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek dictionaries cost nothing to consult. Yet, the churches do not want scripture to be studied in open forums. Despite people losing their lives in order to provide scripture to each of us, we refuse to actually study it.
Each denomination presents their Statement of Faith in their online presence. This should be taken as an announcement of just how much they are against scriptural studies. When one must accept those statements as truth for acceptable membership and service in the church, a red flag should be flown over the church.
The New Testament words of the Apostle Paul declares to the church in Corinth:
1 Co 12:28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.
These gifts are given in order to serve, but the words given by the servants come from God – and not man.
John 6:45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught of God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me.
1 Jn 2:26–27 I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him.
The problem would seem to not exist since we expect to be taught by God. But, if anyone leading a scripture study shows controversial evidence in scripture, that person is silenced. Now, why would that be?
In small group scriptural studies, all of scripture is open for discussion. The members have their own views of the content and each person's view is discussed. In a true study, the resulting beliefs comes not from any man – it comes from God when his spirit gives validation. Ideas and views are not true belief.
If churches today believed that truth comes from God, there would be no censorship of scripture. The reason people are censored is that churches do not believe what God said - that He would teach us.
Summary
The reason that churches today don’t resemble first and second century churches is because they do not exist.
If anyone is truly a follower of Christ Jesus (Yeshua), it is because God has called him and teaches him.
I cannot say who is called and who is taught other than for myself.
There are many deceivers in this world – they are all around us. I wrote
this to cause thoughts and self-reflection. There is a reason to
consider where each of us is at in our relationship with Yahweh and His
Son.
Would you fit into the first century church ?
That's between you and the one true God.
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