Does Anyone Else Not Attend Regular Church Services?

[LovethroughDove]

Jason, why did Jesus say he would destroy the temple and rebuild it in 3 days?

 

[LovethroughDove]

Just a little background to my stance. Not that it matters at all. I grew up going to church. I was there 3 times a week. Once on Sunday for mass. Once on Tuesday cause my mother lead the folk group for practice, and once on Wed. for CCD. I considered leaving my husband because of his stance of only going to church on major holidays. I was that zealous about church. Once I was baptized in the Holy Spirit, I read scripture for myself. Scripture points to an intimate relationship with God in every step you take throughout your day. And, to my amazement, it didn't say "go to church". The devil wanted me to leave my husband over "traditions of Men". Yikes.

 

[jasonc]

That's a harsh statement. Just because church means something specifically to you; doesn't make it the same for others.
The building is not the importance. If a structure stands bearing a cross does it make this a church? No. When we accept the anointing our hearts are the church in which Jesus resides.

Ekklesia means what in the greek? It's not what you said
it means a group called out of a politic that meets for a purpose. Online can't fulfill that. If you think no interaction is church.how do you know you have it right? Someone has to check your doctrines.good luck baptizing your self
home church with 5 can be as corrupt or as good As you complain or opine about.when Paul said there shall come ravenous wolves after my departure
what was the means of meeting?homechurches.Corinthian churches that all that mess were as they all were a single home where the pastor lead his group then those there spread the message he spoke to the others in their home church
I didn't say it was an edifice that made the church. If I did show me. I said to gather on person with others is a must.it's a command take Hebrews 10:25 in the context I gave you.when Paul wrote to galatians where is church buildings let alone villages?it's a region he wrote to they passed it to each other In their homes

 

[jasonc]

Church that started as homes in my county that are still around.
1 st Helens rcc
2 first United methodist church
3 Calvary chapel Vero beach
4 first church of God
5 Pilar community church
6 Vero vineyard
7 Vero Christian and missionary alliance

Of those pillar,first church of God , Vero Christian missionary alliance and Calvary chapel.all have home groups.Sunday and Wednesday and other days are for all to meet.groups met for special needs.I have gone to some of those.the oldest I listed is the rcc.the youngest Pilar is close to what like.I have yet to go there.I know the pastor and a few memberd.the meeting place is a public school.

 

[jasonc]

I can add more to that list.

 

[reba]

Jason, why did Jesus say he would destroy the temple and rebuild it in 3 days?

Maybe because the presence of God would no longer be in THAT temple..

 

[JoJoe]

Ekklesia means what in the greek? It's not what you said
it means a group called out of a politic that meets for a purpose. Online can't fulfill that. If you think no interaction is church.how do you know you have it right? Someone has to check your doctrines.good luck baptizing your self
home church with 5 can be as corrupt or as good As you complain or opine about.when Paul said there shall come ravenous wolves after my departure
what was the means of meeting?homechurches.Corinthian churches that all that mess were as they all were a single home where the pastor lead his group then those there spread the message he spoke to the others in their home church
I didn't say it was an edifice that made the church. If I did show me. I said to gather on person with others is a must.it's a command take Hebrews 10:25 in the context I gave you.when Paul wrote to galatians where is church buildings let alone villages?it's a region he wrote to they passed it to each other In their homes

Again you speak like you know the heart. I am not here to learn Greek nor am I here to push my understanding of church on others. The definition you speak of can certainly describe this board.

I am not saying don't go to church. I am saying that if one is called to a specific location is fine. However if one doesn't have a home church or even want a church period; doesn't make them any less righteous.

As for someone checking my doctrines, I let the holy spirit do that as no man has any influence on my soul. I have been bapatized twice by physical church. It wasn't till I was bapitized by the holy ghost that I saw truth in myself.

 

[jasonc]

Now My testimony. No man taught me all that I know in the church bible study .I read the bible in four months.god timed the books I read with Sunday school lessons and Sunday sermons. Later on as I attended church bible studies. I learned more. Add radio to that as well.

 

[jasonc]

Again you speak like you know the heart. I am not here to learn Greek nor am I here to push my understanding of church on others. The definition you speak of can certainly describe this board.

I am not saying don't go to church. I am saying that if one is called to a specific location is fine. However if one doesn't have a home church or even want a church period; doesn't make them any less righteous.

As for someone checking my doctrines, I let the holy spirit do that as no man has any influence on my soul. I have been bapatized twice by physical church. It wasn't till I was bapitized by the holy ghost that I saw truth in myself.

I never said if you no reliable solid church you are lost if you don't go.but given what I went throw in Afghanistan with a similar situation of no fellowship For periods it's a good thing to be with others. I could go into my call to be a pastor.

 

[jasonc]

With what solid churches that I have listed .I have no reason to be a home church. That just a quick list.I include the rcc as they aren't all bad.they have the charismatic catholic meetings.I have gone to thoses.same as my home church at the time. Only two on that list that I haven't been too.Pilar and the methodist churches.I have gone one in Lakewood park.it wasn't any different then what I heard.

 

[Deborah13]

it's a command take Hebrews 10:25 in the context I gave you

I don't read Hebrews 10:25 as a command.
However, we are commanded to love others as we love ourselves. Paul says the purpose of the assembling is to edify each other, pray for each other, lift each other up.

From the 1st century until after the Reformation. The gentile believers had to learn what sin and faith were from the Jewish leadership. They didn't have Torah and the Tanakh the way the Jewish believers did. 300 yrs or so later, the gentile church had gotten a lot of things messed up, because they still did not have access to their own Bibles. Since the Reformation and books becoming less expensive, so that all people could at least have one Bible in their homes, there is absolutely no excuse for not knowing what sin is and how to live a Christian life.

To things about assembling with others is that it should make ones walk with the Lord easier and more joyful.
And if one doesn't assemble they may not be using the gifts the Lord has given them to enrich other believers lives and it too brings joy to themselves as well as others.
For me, I would rather not be in any church at all, then be in a bad one.

 

[jasonc]

Let us not forsake the assembling as the manner of some is
in Greek that is in a tense that has the command form.I can say to troops let us fall in.unusual but an order.I can say that as I'm front of the platoon.I can ask or order.usually a good nco will ask

 

[Runner]

Sounds as though a lot of people are missing out in a lot of things because of an "I" problem.
Instead of complaining about what a church does wrong, why don't you go there and show them how to do it right.
It may take some time but is it not worth it?
Unless, of course, your time is too valuable.
Unless, of course, you don't think people are worth it.
Unless, of course, all the human race is lost, so, what's the sense.
Complainers only add to the problem, complainers solve nothing.

I'm not complaining - I'm gone. To some extent, of course, my decision is an "I" one. How could it be otherwise? But it's not simply, "Oh, boo hoo, I don't enjoy the sermons, the music doesn't fit my taste, the members aren't my kind of people, Sunday morning isn't convenient for me, yada yada." I would like to think I'm not that shallow. It was more like, "I just don't think what is going on here has much to do with anything Jesus was talking about. I really don't feel as though I'm in a house of God at all. What actually am I doing here?" But my wife and I put up with even this level of discomfort until two separate pastors and their congregations demonstrated in a truly jaw-dropping way (in the situation with my elderly, dying neighbor mentioned in my previous post) that their idea of what it means to be a Christian was about 179 degrees removed from mine. I didn't "complain" - I begged them, repeatedly, to demonstrate some modicum of Christian caring toward a lonely 87-year-old man who had lived in our tiny community for 65+ years and been a member of both churches for many years. (And, yes, my wife and I did do our part; I was begging because we were exhausted and because my neighbor was depressed that his church and former church were so obviously ignoring him.) They showed their caring, all right - after he had died, whereupon they descended on everything he owned (which he had left to them) like eager vultures. After that, it was "Adios, amigos" for me and my wife - and this was a much more wrenching decision for my wife than for me.

Is it not worth it to show them how to do it right? Frankly, no, it's not worth it. Is my time too valuable? Frankly, yes, my time is too valuable. Do I think the churches in my experience were doing much for the lost human race? Frankly, no, I don't. If I were inclined to show anyone how to do it right, I'd start my own church along the lines of the WORKship model mentioned in my previous post. At 65 years old, however, I'm really not into starting my own church or spinning my wheels trying to find a different church. I spend a great deal of time on my relationship with God and my Christian walk, and frankly I believe both have improved since I stopped even trying to play the "church game." If someone thinks that going to church is a Biblical command, or needs that particular type of fellowship, or believes this is the truest way to worship, or has found a church that meshes with their idea of what it means to be a Christian, fine - but I truly feel no guilt for having concluded that my church lies outside the walls of any conventional church.

 

[reba]

Another Dad story...
Small town of about 2000... A kid not the same one who made the offering box. Made a pulpit for the church... IT was very obvious a teen had made it.. The little cross on the front was off centered... just enough to be NOTICED.. The grains did not exactly match... The fancy one was put away ...That heart felt one was the one Dad used... many complained... Mom, just most often fix the flowers to of set the cross... I went back to that town for a visit about 30+ years later... got told by the Pastor about the legacy of Daddy... What a blessing... It is a Shepard heart a pastor needs... The shepherd who splits and stacks wood on the porch for the widows He may go fishing at sunrise on Sunday but the catch is cleaned and delivered before service... Case you cant guess i still miss my dad He has been fishing with St Peter for 20 years.. now... Remembering these things bring tears to my eyes but a deep joy to my heart...

 

[jasonc]

Another Dad story...
Small town of about 2000... A kid not the same one who made the offering box. Made a pulpit for the church... IT was very obvious a teen had made it.. The little cross on the front was off centered... just enough to be NOTICED.. The grains did not exactly match... The fancy one was put away ...That heart felt one was the one Dad used... many complained... Mom, just most often fix the flowers to of set the cross... I went back to that town for a visit about 30+ years later... got told by the Pastor about the legacy of Daddy... What a blessing... It is a Shepard heart a pastor needs... The shepherd who splits and stacks wood on the porch for the widows He may go fishing at sunrise on Sunday but the catch is cleaned and delivered before service... Case you cant guess i still miss my dad He has been fishing with St Peter for 20 years.. now... Remembering these things bring tears to my eyes but a deep joy to my heart...

well take comfort one day you shall see him. recently a family friend of my grandparents and uncle came buy. it was both business related and friendship. he told stories about my uncle and grandmother that I didn't know. she was wise in business. very good at making money.

 

[Free]

I'm pretty sure you and I will not see this point the same. What I get when I read through Jesus's words and the rest of the New Testament, is that he was going to destroy temple worship.

1 Corinthians 6:19 Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own

John 16:13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

The veil was torn so that all people, everywhere could have access to God. So, yes, Temple worship was brought to an end, but that in no way whatsoever means that Christians don't or shouldn't gather together. The whole NT speaks to followers of Christ gathering together on a regular basis, part of which was instituted by Christ himself with the Lord's Supper.

The Hebrews passage is not about temple worship. Hebrews 10:25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

This is about people filled with the Spirit who are satisfied with doing it totally alone.

I know you will not see what I am saying.

Of course the Hebrews passage isn't about temple worship, no one has said it is. But what it does clearly say is, "Let us not give up meeting together," so I cannot at all see how you can think this about people "doing it totally alone"--"meeting together" and "doing it totally alone" are mutually exclusive. To do it totally alone is to go against the point of the church and this is made clear throughout the NT:

Rom 15:5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus,
Rom 15:6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Rom 15:7 Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.

1Co 1:2 To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours:
...
1Co 11:16 If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God.
1Co 11:17 But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse.
1Co 11:18 For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part,
1Co 11:19 for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.
1Co 11:20 When you come together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat.

1Co 12:12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.
1Co 12:13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body--Jews or Greeks, slaves or free--and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
1Co 12:14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many.
1Co 12:15 If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body.
1Co 12:16 And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body.
1Co 12:17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?
1Co 12:18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.
1Co 12:19 If all were a single member, where would the body be?
1Co 12:20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
1Co 12:21 The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you."
1Co 12:22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,
1Co 12:23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty,
1Co 12:24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it,
1Co 12:25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.
1Co 12:26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.
1Co 12:27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

1Co 14:23 If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds?
1Co 14:24 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all,
1Co 14:25 the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.
1Co 14:26 What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.
1Co 14:27 If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret.
1Co 14:28 But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God.
1Co 14:29 Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said.
1Co 14:30 If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent.
1Co 14:31 For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged,
1Co 14:32 and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets.
1Co 14:33 For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints,
1Co 14:34 the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says.
1Co 14:35 If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.

1Co 16:19 The churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord.

There are numerous other verses I could give but the above are more than adequate. (All from ESV).

These passages all show that the Christian way is to gather together; we are one body and all need each other. There is not one single place in the NT where it is even implied that we are to do it totally alone.

But here is a question, why are you so connected to the idea of going to a building to listen to someone else preach? You don't have to answer that, just curious.

Because that is a clear teaching of Scripture; it is throughout the entire NT. Most of the letters that were written, were written to specific churches, and others, like 1 & 2 Timothy, were written to help and encourage one who was leading churches. And there is more:

1Co 12:28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.

Eph 4:11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,
Eph 4:12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
Eph 4:13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
Eph 4:14
so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

Again, there are more verses that could be given but this is sufficient to show that God has appointed teachers to teach us and pastors to shepherd us. To think that we can or should do it all alone is to go against God's Word and his way of doing things.

Of course, as several have stated in this thread, it can be difficult to get to church regularly, or even at all, for various reasons. But for those who can but choose not to, they had better be careful and read what the Bible has to say.

 

[Free]

Jason, why did Jesus say he would destroy the temple and rebuild it in 3 days?

Joh 2:19 Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."
Joh 2:20 The Jews then said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?"
Joh 2:21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
Joh 2:22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. (ESV)

 

[Deborah13]

Another Dad story...
Small town of about 2000... A kid not the same one who made the offering box. Made a pulpit for the church... IT was very obvious a teen had made it.. The little cross on the front was off centered... just enough to be NOTICED.. The grains did not exactly match... The fancy one was put away ...That heart felt one was the one Dad used... many complained... Mom, just most often fix the flowers to of set the cross... I went back to that town for a visit about 30+ years later... got told by the Pastor about the legacy of Daddy... What a blessing... It is a Shepard heart a pastor needs... The shepherd who splits and stacks wood on the porch for the widows He may go fishing at sunrise on Sunday but the catch is cleaned and delivered before service... Case you cant guess i still miss my dad He has been fishing with St Peter for 20 years.. now... Remembering these things bring tears to my eyes but a deep joy to my heart...

The pulpit story brought tears to my eyes, what a beautiful person.

 

[Mike S]

Another Dad story...
Small town of about 2000... A kid not the same one who made the offering box. Made a pulpit for the church... IT was very obvious a teen had made it.. The little cross on the front was off centered... just enough to be NOTICED.. The grains did not exactly match... The fancy one was put away ...That heart felt one was the one Dad used... many complained... Mom, just most often fix the flowers to of set the cross... I went back to that town for a visit about 30+ years later... got told by the Pastor about the legacy of Daddy... What a blessing... It is a Shepard heart a pastor needs... The shepherd who splits and stacks wood on the porch for the widows He may go fishing at sunrise on Sunday but the catch is cleaned and delivered before service... Case you cant guess i still miss my dad He has been fishing with St Peter for 20 years.. now... Remembering these things bring tears to my eyes but a deep joy to my heart...

Your dad sounds like a very good Christian man, there is no higher compliment. I have no doubt you miss him very much.

 

[LovethroughDove]

Free - what you posted does not address a "building" church. It is addressed to the body of believers. There are people assigned by God in the world that will guide the church into understanding. The pastors that you are talking about, but they are not divided into little groups. They are leaders of the church around the world.

When the New Testament letters were written to the churches, it was to that body of believers in that city.