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Wednesday 20 February 2013

In These days Of Apostasy and False Christianity, Should We Still Attend Apostate Churches?



A Little About The Apostasy
This blog has demonstrated, with clear evidence (over and over again) that the great majority of Christianity (including protestants and evangelicals) have become infected/infiltrated with apostasy. 


The apostasy includes an overwhelming acceptance of ecumenism, i.e. unity with  the pagan Babylonian originated Roman Catholic church, and even ALL FAITHS unity, New Age thinking and much occult activity. The church of the 21st Century has widely compromised on the fundamental teachings from the Bible by putting greater emphasis on the physical, mental, psychic, mystic and “spiritual” EXPERIENCES rather than following after the pure, unadulterated, simplicity of the Bible and NT Christianity.

They have forgotten the exhortation (in the Bible) that EVERYTHING must be weighed up by the plumbline of Scripture. What has happened to “testing all things” by the Word of God?  What about 2 Tim 3:15-16:

And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ JesusAll scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”

But the Word of God rarely NOW has centre place in churches and very few believers are discipled into proper Bible study and certainly are not trained to follow 2 Tim 2:15:

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

Instead many simply open the bible randomly (when they do actually go to that extent) and collect their doctrine from isolated verses and WELL out of context, instead of comparing scripture with scripture and properly seeking to understand the context of why something was written. 

Instead they are taught to seek “experiencing the Lord” rather than seeking to know the Lord through His word and prayer. For more on this, see footnote below

In the light of these apostate days and apostate churches,  SHOULD true born again believers STILL go to church? To find out, please click on the icon entitled  "read more" below. 
My answer is YES!  I will go on to explain why it is vital to still go to church. Although whether you should attend any specific church should be according to its own unique situation.

Who We Should NOT Have Fellowship With
Before I give my reasons why we should still attend EVEN an apostate church, we first need to consider what the apostle Paul said in 2 Cor 6:7:

Therefore come out from them  and be separate, says the Lord

What was he referring to?

Let us look at the context, verses 14-16:

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people

The context was about Babylonian inspired pagan religion which was seeking to infiltrate the infant Christian church. Paul made it clear that they should be completely separate from such pagan ecumenism.

Clearly a truly born again believer should NEVER seek fellowship/unity/ecumenism with paganism of any sort. This blog has already proved that the Roman Catholic church came into being from out of this Babylonic paganism and successfully (for hundreds of years) infiltrated the true Christian church by “Christianising” Babylonic idolatry and practices forcing the true church to go “underground”.

So, a true believer can NEVER feel at home in such darkness and will be badly affected by such darkness if they do not come out of it.

The NT is full of warnings about the dangers of apostasy. 

So, What is apostasy? 
Apostasy is basically a falling away from the true gospel as was first preached to the early first century church. It is a falling away from the true faith and teachings of the Bible by bringing in added extras  and teaching “another Jesus” and other ways of salvation. 

So it is clear that true believers should NEVER fellowship with the Catholic church, but come out from it.  It is also clear that believers and true churches should never fellowship with paganism either.

There are many churches today (maybe the vast majority) which DO fellowship with such paganism. Some are blatant ecumenists directly – some indirectly by joining an ecumenical organisation.

Does that mean that we should never attend ANY ecumenically (or such) linked church? 
It all depends on the circumstances. If they are seriously in fellowship with Rome or into the occult etc, then I would suggest there is nothing to be gained by joining them.

This is the key “IS THERE ANYTHING TO BE GAINED BY ATTENDING THESE (DIRECT OR INDIRECT) APOSTATE CHURCHES?

In many cases I would suggest that we DO STILL NEED to attend their churches. I will now give my reasons.

Why We SHOULD Still Attend Some Apostate Churches
The apostle Paul said that in the last days that the time of the gentiles would come to an end and at the same time a falling away from THE FAITH. There will be a time when (probably culminated after the rapture) the adoption of gentiles into the olive tree would come to an end but then replaced by a mass return of Jews to the olive tree.

Paul was called as a missionary to the gentiles. However, (as was his custom) would still go into the Jewish synagogues and preach there, despite that the vast majority of Jews rejected Jesus as their messiah and actually were “apostates” i.e., had fallen away from their relationship with the LORD. Jesus had said that they had reached a point where "their house was left desolate" and "you will not see Me again UNTIL you say 'blessed is HE who comes in the Name of the LORD' ".

From that moment, the grace of God was being moved from Israel (from their apostasy) to the gentiles, YET Paul still went into the Jewish congregations to preach regularly.

This tells me that despite the apostasy growing in our churches (in these last days)  we should STILL attend these churches and preach against their apostasy by declaring the truth and exposing the darkness by preaching the light.

God has not finished with these dead churches - NOT UNTIL THE RAPTURE, because there are some individuals (within these churches) who are NOT DEAD but are true believers. 

Only at the rapture will God have finished finally with the gentile church and return His favour on Israel and those gentiles who join themselves to Israel during the tribulation.

Therefore, we need to still attend these apostate churches (like Paul did in those synagogues) and take every opportunity to expose the darkness and preach the truth, because there are many who need to hear our message and maybe many may still respond favourably and join us in our campaign.


Despite this discussion, I still need to remind us that Hebrews 10: 23-25 says:

"Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: 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"

In these days it is becoming increasingly difficult to fulfill these verses and obtain REAL fellowship. Therefore, I would like to conclude this article by showing a shortcut link to another article I wrote on this subject:

Please Click here to read how we can obtain this sort of fellowship and how it relates to THIS article. You may also like to refer to this older article of mine on what real fellowship is Click Here (note: I may not agree with ALL of it anymore in the light of newer understandings, but most of it still applies).



Footnote:
Of course experiencing fellowship with the Lord is definitely to be encouraged, but HOW DO YOU KNOW you are fellowshipping with the Lord if you do not test these experiences with some sort of guide? God has given us the Bible as a guide (handbook) and as HIS actual voice to us, i.e they are HIS actual God breathed words.

God gave us the Bible as a means to speak to us and as a handbook to test our experiences by. As someone said “we speak to God through prayer and HE MOSTLY speaks to us through His Word (The BIBLE)”

10 comments:

Wayne said...

what are your thoughts on the History channels "Bible" miniseries coming on March 3rd?
I don't care for the history Channel too much myself and most certainly don't care for Mark Burnett the producer. Our Church pastor is recommending the series to people and asking us to do the same. Some I'm looking for some feed back.
thank you,
Wayne

Unknown said...

Anyone with more knowledge on the 12 hour drama? Any thoughts?

I have taken a look at the trailer which is less than 3 mins long. Difficult to assess a 3 minute trailer covering 12 hours.

Certainly (in these dark days) any biblical portrayal seems to get more and more blasphemous and watering down of what the Bible actually teaches.

chris said...

Any Church which which brings to the table things which Aren't written in the Bible and cannot be proved in the word of god is of false substance.I would like to bring to the attention
of fellow believers, In the catholic church which appears to be Christian on the outside but on the inside practices sheer idolatry , how can a man forgive sins? "call no man your father" and yet the priest is called father? The worship of Mary is another test in the word of god for it does not exist In the Bible But it is not only the catholic church which is of False substance.
I came across this video which in my eyes shows how lying spirits can infiltrate the church And how many even ministers are caught out with these lying spirits.This is a shocking and disturbing video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5ZvPwFamqs

So as we can see we have to be totally on our guard

Burning Lamp said...

This is an interesting discussion and certainly an issue that is relevant to believers in the day and age in which we find ourselves.

I think there are many variables to be considered in answering this question.

First, a thorough evaluation of what is available in the way of churches in one's area. By thorough I mean more than looking at their doctrinal statement. Of ocurse that is a good place to start and can serve to weed out certain churches right from the getgo. If they are Calvinist/Reformed, the theology is wrong from the ground up and there is no future there as it goes to the very root of our faith and the Gospel.

It is very important to pray and seek the Lord's guidance through this process, enlightening you and helping you avoid traps and pitfalls.

If there are elements of emergent teaching or compromise with false teachers one can rule out that place.

Of course there is no perfect church on this earth, but there is a level of tolerance and a line that one must not cross.

It makes a difference if one has a family or young children to consider. What they are exposed to in the church will impact them for years. It is important to take on the responsiblity to teach them at home and train them up in the ways of the Lord.

One has to determine if a church is a "safe" place. These are few and far between in this day and age.

It is a good idea to meet with the pastor or at least have a conversation with him and assess his attitude - does he have the heart of a servant or does he appear to have a lack of humility. This is important because if an error comes to your attention in the church, is he approachable?

I think that this can be a very slippery slope considering the state of Church and the world today. Apostasy is in full bloom.
I know folks who drive over 30 miles to church to receive teaching and get fellowship. That is not uncommon. One must not be contrained by convenience.

Even if the church passes all the filters, one must be constantly aware of leaven and false teaching creeping in and make a concerted effort to deal with it in a bibilical manner. Never go around behind the pastor's back and talk to others. Take it to the pastor and depending upon his response you will know if you should continue to attend there.

There is another issue that enters in. What about women whose husbands are oblivious to the errors that are so obvious to them? This calls for much wisdom and is a most sticky wicket.


The Bible instructs us to guard our hearts and minds and listening to false teaching is detrimental to our spiritual health. We should not be broadminded when it comes to biblical truth.

There are issues that are critical and watershed level and there are other more mole hills that don't need to be made into mountains.

This is not an easy question. It all comes back to seeking the Lord with all your heart and staying in His Word. He will guide and protect.

We are told to occupy until He comes and we are told to be salt and light. We can't lock ourselves away, but at the same time we need proper feeding and edifying fellowship. It calls for balance.

Unknown said...

Thanks Chris

I have seen this video before. It is clearly disturbing and reinforces what I wrote on this article. What we see on the video is a clear example of whom we SHOULD NOT fellowship with - if they are displaying these false spirits in their midst.

One caution though. The person introducing that video Andrew Strom is not someone I want to recommend on this blog.

Although he has come out from the worst of the apostasy, he is still caught up in the same type of teaching that is presented by New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) regarding the fivefold ministry of the church.

This includes his promoting of latter day apostles and prophets as something which the church needs to have returned.

Chris said...

Hi John.
To be fair I haven't done any research on Andrew storm but the video shows just how false Spirits can invade the church and even ministers can get influenced by them.
As I feel we need to be aware of these things as in these last days as these things will, come about More frequently.
The catholic church dosen't believe in the" rapture or the millenium "here is a vid on it i sometimes wonder how they dont believe things which are in scripture.

Unknown said...

Hi Chris

I have deleted the url address which was on your last comment. I took a look at it. It was an undedifying message from a catholic priest. I try to NOT show links on this site which could lead to readers confusion, being deceived, unedified, irrelevant or harmful in some way. That video could be used by the enemy to destroy some who visit my blog. That is why I will not show it.

But thank you for informing me. It is clear (from that video) that Catholic's are amillennial. I thought they were but was not 100% sure. The guy quotes from an extra biblical book Judith. If they cannot prove their point from the Bible, they find something to support their views from the apocrypha.

drno said...

Hi John, I have recently read quite a bit on your site and am enjoying it immensely. Some other believers and I began a House Church about 8 years ago. We began with only 5 people and have grown to about 18. We share a pot luck meal for an hour then worship and teach and pray and testify to one another for about another hour and a half or two (depending on the moving of the Holy Spirit).
We have 4 teaching Elders who lead by serving, not dictators. I will hope to write more another day, it's getting late here. God bless you and thanks for the site. Another site that has been very informative is called PROCINWARN, you may want to check it out.
Thank you,
Dale Noland USA

Unknown said...

Hi Brother Dale

Thanks so much for those words of encouragement. Bless you.

Thanks also for the kind words you sent me by private email. Much appreciated!

Anonymous said...

Going to church does not make you anymore christian than going to the garage makes you car.

Your beliefs don't make you a better person, your behavior does.

Your words mean nothing if your actions are the complete opposite.

Having true faith in whatever it is you believe must be shown in action,believing is only half the battle.

Let your dreams be bigger than your fears, your actions louder than your words, and your FAITH stronger than your feelings.