What Church Should I Go To

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

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What Church Should I Go To