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8/3/2019 What Church Should I Go To
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What Church Should I Go To?
Paul Howey
Just as with any important area of life, whatever
we do as Christians regarding church life must
have a sound Biblical basis or it is meaningless
and has no value whatsoever in faith or
practice. I do not know of a single professingChristian who allows their banks to randomly
establish their own peculiar valuationof the
dollar or who allows a grocery store to
randomly decide what they think a pound of
meat should really weigh. No, they insist on setstandards of measure in such things but as far
as what concerns the church, for most of these
people, its an anything goes mentality. As
long as its popular, they reason that it must be
acceptable to God. Not so. For many, the Bible
has been thrown out the door and manmade
teachings prevail. It should be of great concern
when most of what are passed off as Biblical
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Christian churches today are not remotely
like anything we see in the Bible.
Secondly, a proper understanding of authority is
a critical issue because it is by false authorities
that many well-meaning Christians have been
and are being led astray. If you get this wrong,
virtually everything in the Christian life (beyond
salvation) falls apart rapidly.
While Gods Word clearly teaches that we are
to submit to police and governmental authorities
(who exist in part to minimize crime and keep
the peace), God does not permit Christians to
have controlling authority over other Christians
in the church. (Matt 20:25-28, Mark 10:42-45,
Luke 22:24-27, 1Pet 5:3, Matt 23:8-12, etc.)
Elders have authority to watch, warn andlovingly persuade others to live according to the
Scriptures, but they have no authority
whatsoever to control, dictate policies or crack
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out commands. As far as submitting to elders,
we are supposed to submit to the Word of God
as faithfully conveyed by such men. This iswhere our submissions to them ends. For this is
not really a submission to them personally at all
but rather to the Word of God through them.
Men have no right to cast a personal vision and
demand obedience to their ambitions. But we
must all admonish each other towards
obedience to God's Word.
Such men who establish earthly thrones for
themselves in the name of Christ or who take
over existing thrones should be rebuked andadmonished to come down off their thrones and
take their place among the brothers and sisters
as equals (see Matt 23:8-12). If they refuse to
repent, they should be counted among the
wicked and expelled from the church (see 1Cor5:12-13.). If any repent at a later time, they
should certainly be welcomed back as equals
(and of course not once again as lords).
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A good church recognizes that all authority has
been given to Jesus (Matt 28:18), not partialauthority to Jesus with some alleged balance
having been bestowed on clever lording
dictators. A good church does not have a
Diotrophes of 3rd John or a group of
Diotropheses at some manmade helm (see 3rd
John). A good church recognizes Jesus as its
sole Head. (Again see Matt 20:25-28, Mark
10:42-45, Luke 22:24-27, 1Pet5:3, Matt 23:8-
12, etc.). A good church lifts Jesus up so that
He can draw all men to Himself. They do not lift
up men. They do however respect faithfulelders and because of this respect they will
carefully consider what they have to say. The
wise will heed any Scriptural warnings that
these men bring.
Although many profess and give lip service, few
churches really recognize (in practice) the
following CRITICAL fact that Jesus alone is the
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Head of the church (John 5:26-27, Eph 1:22-23,
Col 1:18).
The head of every man is Christ (1Cor11:3), not
a pastor! Jesus said that you cannot obey two
masters and that if you try you will love the one
and hate the other (Matt 6:24, Luke 6:13). The
context of these verses is money but the
principle remains the same for anyone or
anything that would try and master you. For it is
impossible to obey Jesus as master and a
pastor as master at the same time. You will
truly love the one and hate the other if you
attempt to do so. Today among many churches,Jesus gets the hatred and men get the
obedience. Please note that in these verses the
word serve is often substituted for the word
obey and this makes it seem like it is possible
to do both, but it is not.
Unfortunately today, healthy churches are few
and far between. For many of the unhealthy, in
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the words of Paul the Apostle, Their meetings
do more harm than good. (1Cor 11:17). Think
about it logically. Does it make any sense at allto go somewhere where the meetings do more
harm than good? Of course not. So if there is
not a genuine no-doubt-about-it Biblical
Christian church that meets in your area, then
consider studying the Word at home (which you
should be doing anyway), meeting with your
family and those of the truth, not despising
humble beginnings. Reach out to your
neighborhoods through preaching the Gospel
(not building and advertising a mini institutional
church in your home). Adhere to sound doctrineand see if the Lord will add to your numbers.
That is what those who went before us did and
that is why it is the only thing that makes any
sense.
Paul Howey