I have been in several different churches over the course of my life, and the initial pattern in each of them has always been the same. The niceties are observed, the handshakes, what’s your name, where do you live, where do you work, come from, marital status, all of the general items one would expect when first meeting someone.
My memory is poor at best, but I cannot recall anyone asking me if I knew the Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, and if so, where I was in my walk with Him at the time. Friendly happy people who were glad to see me there, but rarely if ever expressing any concern for my soul.
There is a verse that sadly fits quite well into these churches, but not in the way it was intended.
“They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.” (1st John 2:19)
As long as you remain in their family, as long as you believe everything they believe, never rock the boat, question any in authority or put to the test the faith of any who sit in the pews, you will be welcomed. Question any of these things or their own motives for being in that building, and you may not be asked to go out from them, but you will no longer receive the hand of fellowship from them.
They may not use the word “hate,” but the verse will be applied to you, unless you sit there quietly and start to see things their way.
“Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?” (Gal. 4:16)
They call themselves a church, I call them community clubhouses, and membership is not based on the truths of the Word of God as it is written, but as they have perceived it, and when the truth is expressed to them, when the error of their ways is revealed to them, you will no longer be welcomed in their midst.
“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” (Gal. 1:8)
Even when they are corrected, even when the error of their interpretation of the Scriptures is revealed to them, you will be the one who is bringing a false doctrine in their eyes. They have settled into a lie, and the deception of it has become comfortable to them.
Perhaps the greatest sadness comes from those who understand full well that you have exposed a long-held falseness in their doctrines, and they see it as such, but will not leave the assembly because there is no other place of “worship” convenient to their location. They realize the misinterpretations, the lies, but they will not speak up against them, nor will they leave for then in their minds they will not be able to fulfill Hebrews 10:25.
“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.”
I ask you this question, though they may indeed be born-again, is John 12:43 a truth in their lives then?
“For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.”
Are they more concerned with their image, their reputation, themselves in the eyes of those they sit with each Sunday morning, or how they are viewed in the eyes of the Almighty?
A community clubhouse pretending to be a house of worship, people gathering together to offer praise to the Lord that He will not accept, for if the heart is deceived, if the truth is revealed to them and they have decided to adhere to traditions instead of the truth, He is not listening.
When, and if you leave that congregation and they meet you on the street, they will be polite, but they will treat you like a Gentile, because you would not see things their way, because you brought the truths of the Word of God to them and they refused to accept them as such.
If you are in such an assembly and know these truths, you must make a decision, is close enough good enough for you?
