Structural and Denominational Hindrances to the Good News

And not for a single day, either in the Temple court or in private homes, did they stop teaching and proclaiming the Good News that Yeshua is the Messiah.

Acts 5:42 (CJB)

It is clear for all to see that the church building has been elevated to the very essence of Christianity in many cases, and it may have been like this for a very long time. How often have we heard, “if we can just get them to come to church, then their lives will change”? Is this really what a relationship with God is all about?

Several years ago, I counted nearly 20 churches in a 30-mile radius of my home. That is twenty heating bills, twenty pastors’ salaries, twenty buildings to repair, parking lots to plow, lawns to mow, etc. Many of these churches had parsonages or rectories. Let’s be conservative and say each one of these churches costs $50,000 a year to operate. That is half a million dollars a year, and we know it is probably double that. How many real-life changing conversions do we see for $1M? Imagine if that money were put into feeding, clothing, and housing people in need. What about the widows and orphans?

Where is the unity of all of the congregants? These are folks who worship on the same day, supposedly to the same God, Messiah, and Holy Spirit. Yet somehow they are all divided on points of doctrine, ways to worship, and other lines in the sand that have accumulated over hundreds of years.

In my example, we could build one church to service all twenty of these congregations, and there would be enough money left over to do some serious outreach. It doesn’t work this way, however, because, if we are truthful, many of these people will never speak to each other, never mind meet in church together.

The church building becomes a necessity to band together a small group of isolated people with similar beliefs. This is why there is so much hand-wringing if there are things such as road conditions that might cause people to stay home. People will pride themselves on never missing a Sunday service like it is a badge of honor, thinking that they are somehow more “saved” than the person who was too sick to come or afraid to drive in a snowstorm. If someone misses a Sunday service, they may not come back the following Sunday; then, after the third missed Sunday, they will be backslidden so much that they will turn their back on God, lost forever. This is the attitude often found in the various sects of Christianity across North America in my experiences.

Then there is this idea that if the church were closed on some snowy Sunday morning, that could be the time when some poor lost soul happens to show up only to find the church locked. As if God set him up so his only chance of salvation was dashed by a locked church door on a snowy Sunday morning.

This is not a sign of a healthy “body of Christ.” We are all supposed to be knit together by one Spirit of truth, studying the scriptures daily. The writer of the letter to the Hebrews was lamenting that the believers could not understand the more complex aspects of God. What would be said to the average churchgoer today?

Hebrews 5:11-6:3: ¹¹ Concerning this we have much to say and it is difficult to explain, since you have become sluggish in hearing. ¹² For indeed, although you ought to be teachers by this time, you have need of someone to teach you again the beginning elements of the oracles of God, and you have need of milk, not solid food. ¹³ For everyone who partakes of milk is unacquainted with the message of righteousness, because he is an infant. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have trained their faculties for the distinguishing of both good and evil. 6Therefore, leaving behind the elementary message about Christ, let us move on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and faith in God, ² teaching about baptisms and laying on of hands, and resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. ³ And this we will do, if God permits.

The milk is the “beginning oracles of God.” This is the instruction God gave us to practice a righteous life. These are the commandments and examples found all throughout scripture. The Torah, the examples of Israel turning its back on God and getting destroyed in the prophets’ writings, building one’s house on sand and all the parables, the Messiah saying, “Get out of here, I never knew you who practiced lawlessness,” watching others recline with Abraham and Isaac, but you being locked outside, etc.. Over and over the scriptures tell us how to live and how to receive the Spirit of truth. This is the Holy Spirit. At some point, we should all reach the level of maturity where we “ought to be teachers.” Instead, we do not understand or accept the milk!

1 John 2:24–27 (LEB): ²⁴ As for you, what you have heard from the beginning must remain in you. If what you have heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. ²⁵ And this is the promise which he himself promised us: eternal life. ²⁶ These things I have written to you concerning the ones who are trying to deceive you.

²⁷ And as for you, the anointing which you received from him remains in you, and you do not have need that anyone teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you reside in him.

Similarly to the writer of Hebrews, John writes, “And as for you, the anointing which you received from him remains in you, and you do not have need that anyone teach you.” He is not telling us to separate ourselves from other believers, but that we can know the truth so well individually that we should not have to be taught. This is not a subjective truth that follows “our conscience” where we get to determine sin and lifestyle choices by “how it feels to me”. This is having the Spirit of truth sent by the Messiah so that we can understand his teachings and apply them in our life. He promises it to us and John expects his readers to have it.

John 14:15–17 (LEB): ¹⁵ “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, in order that he may be with you forever—¹⁷ the Spirit of truth, whom the world is not able to receive, because it does not see him or know him. You know him, because he resides with you and will be in you.

This is like an if-then-else statement in programming:

If (love Messiah) on then

If (keep commandments) on then

(Spirit of truth) on Else

(Spirit of truth) off.

End If

People will truly gain the Spirit of Truth when they strip all of the man-made doctrine away, all of the “isms,” and realize that one should keep the commandments given to us as milk in the Bible. At this point, it creates a group of people who essentially believe similarly and will want to spend time together sharing life, deepening their understanding of God, and fellowshipping together. This is the “church,” which is the word used for ekklesia in Greek and qahal in Hebrew.

ἐκκλησία
ekklēsia, n.c., assembly; assembly of the citizens regularly summoned. 97× +NT +AF

Hebrew Alignment
קָהָל—contingent, assembly; convocation, congregation (64): Dt 9:10; 18:16; 23:1, 3, 8; 31:30; Josh 9:8; Jdg 20:2; 21:5, 8; 1 Kgdms 17:47; 3 Kgdms 8:14, 22, 55, 65; 1 Ch 13:2, 4; 28:8; 29:1, 10, 20; 2 Ch 1:3, 5; 6:3, 12, 13; 7:8; 20:5, 14; 23:3; 28:14; 29:23, 28, 31, 32; 30:2, 4, 13, 17, 23, 24, 25; Esd B 2:64; 10:1, 8, 12; 15:13; 17:66; 18:2, 17; 23:1; Job 30:28; Ps 21:23, 26; 25:5; 34:18; 39:10; 88:6; 106:32; 149:1; Pr 5:14; Lam 1:10; Joe 2:16; Mic 2:5
מַקְהֵל—assembly, congregation (2): Ps 25:12; 67:27

The Lexham Analytical Lexicon of the Septuagint (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012).

People are realizing this and coming away from standard congregations to meet in homes and rented buildings. Sometimes a mainline church will rent their building to a Sabbath-observing group on a Saturday. People are finding each other with the help of online fellowship finders and social media groups.

How do we reverse hundreds of years of lackadaisical churchianity, man-made traditions, and all the “isms”? When I say “isms,” I am referring to sects like Calvinism, Arminianism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Antinomianism, Fundamentalism, Evangelicalism, Dispensationalism, Cessationism, Christian nationalism, Zionism, and the list goes on. I believe that we should follow the model of the early church that met in homes. There came a time that they were no longer welcome in the synagogues. As the home is outgrown, then some people move to another home. Building lasting relationships in each home fellowship instead of rushing out the door Sunday after the last hymn is sung. This is where we would learn to depend on each other and learn from each other. Everyone would be responsible to “study to show themselves approved.”

There could be elders and servers just as in the early church and very low overhead. Money could be raised to help people in the community rather than pay a large heating bill for a handful of people to gather a couple of times a week. We will probably arrive here through necessity in the coming years as these congregations can no longer afford to keep the lights on. Perhaps we should be ahead of the curve!

Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash