Is Going To Church A Sin

“...the wages of sin is death...” (Romans 6:23a)

You and I, and everyone else, are sinners and that is why we die. No amount of bible study, church attendance, witnessing, walking the aisle, or baptisms will change that.

The cross of our Lord Jesus did not change that fact. The human race are still sinners and "the wages of sin" is still "death". All of the saints of bygone eras have passed away. It is the destiny of human beings - ALL of us - Christians, Muslims, Atheists, and everyone in between - even Christ Jesus himself died.

What followed the cross is the gospel, the good news which revealed God's plan for sinful humans after we die. For it was after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus that God revealed to Paul the good news of what follows death...

"As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive…" (1 Corinthians 15:22)

And after the cross and resurrection of Jesus, God revealed to Paul why a world of sinful people will be "made alive"...and what we are to do with this good news...

"God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them." (2 Corinthians 5:19)

"And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation...” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Our commission is not to save the world, but to deliver the message that it will be saved out of death because the world is now reconciled to God.  After we are "made alive" God will no longer count our sins agains us.  We will have paid the "wages of sin" and thereafter been saved by the grace of God as a "free gift".

“...the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23)

Is going to church a sin?

It occurred to me that it might be - if we go to one that teaches things about God that aren't true. But of course the good news is that He will not forever count that sin against us either.

So by all means, go to your favorite Church if you enjoy going, but it is not a sin to quit if those humans running it stop teaching the truth about God.  

You should, in those circumstances, quit that church without quitting God.

All In All

"God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?" (Numbers 23:19).

The secret to worthwhile faith is figuring out whom we believe - God or man.

That is no easy job. For who among us has actually had a two way conversation with God? We pray but it is always one sided. We talk to God, He doesn’t talk back…does He?

What most people believe God has said comes from a man or women who claims to have spoken with God. If we have not heard from Him directly ourselves, we must then decide whether the person who is preaching to us has…or simply thinks he has…or is actually conning us knowing he hasn’t.

So what are you saying Robert?

Well, first of all I am saying I have NOT directly heard from God, and it is my conviction that I have NEVER met or listened to someone who has.

What I have done is to assume that God spoke to men of old, inspired to do so, and wrote down what God told them. And I am assuming that over time all that God wanted to say has been said and collected into a book we call the Bible.

“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness…for everything that was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope.” (2 Timothy 3:16; Romans 15:4)

That does not mean God actually did it that way, but I have chosen to believe that is what happened. It puts limits on what I study, and allows me to ignore anyone else who claims to have a word from God.

I have placed my faith in that book not because it is true, but because I have chosen to believe it is true - although quite honestly I cannot prove it is true.

OK, now what? 

Well now I have to figure out what the Bible actually says. That is also no easy job and most people do not bother. But it has been an obsession for me and one of the ways I determine for myself what it says is whether in the end it gives “hope” for all mankind, not just a few folks. 

It clearly does give me hope and peace, and thus was born my “random thoughts on the really good news”. My thoughts are written down with no expectations of people buying into them. Just food for thought. 

Paul sums it up this “hope” I have this way in his great chapter on resurrection.

“But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive… so that God may be all in all.” (1 Corinthians 15:20-28)

God “All in all”.

Now that is a God worth placing my faith in, and committing my hope to!

"I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day...with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good treasure entrusted to you." (2 Timothy 1:12-14)

Religious, Political and Journalistic Fabricators

“For us, who love God, who are the called according to His purpose, there is an awareness that He is working all together for good” (Romans 8:28).

God is working ALL together for the good of all. This truth is so refreshing to me in a world of religious, political and journalistic fabricators. Truth has become what they perceive it to be, or would like it to be. But when people discover an absolute truth about God, they will find that it is always working things out for the good of mankind, all of them. 

Yet it is my experience that only those who love God have the “awareness” that God is working “all together for good” in this world.  All who have lived on this planet - even the religious, political and journalistic fabricators among us - will discover the truth that they have been saved by the grace of God.

“It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners…this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all…we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers. Prescribe and teach these things.” (1 Timothy 1:15, 18-19; 2:3-8; 4:9-11)

To learn this truth was a great relief to me that continues to brighten even my most difficult days in this present evil age.  An age dominated by religious, political and journalistic fabricators.  It gives me peace and enhances my love for God, not a love fabricated out of fear, but a genuine love strengthened by such goodness.

Religious, Political and Journalistic fabricators are obsessed with the idea that their adherents are the only ones who have things work out for good. 

They are wrong, God is far better than that.

Once For ALL!

“Then Jesus called out in a loud voice, Father, into your hands I commit My Spirit...It is finished…and when He had said this, he breathed his last.…with his own blood he entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption." (Luke 23:46; John 19:30; Hebrews 9:12)

“It is finished” - “Eternal redemption” - “once for all”

Rejoice!

Stop bragging – You had nothing to do with it!

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9 NASB)

After studying the Greek I think the Aramaic Bible in Plain English captures the truth better than some of the other English translations…

“For it is by his grace that we have been saved through faith, and this faith was not from you, but it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8 Aramaic Bible in Plain English)

So from where does this saving faith come if this faith “was not from you”? Glad you asked...

“Because we know that a man is not justified by works of The Written Law, but by the faith of Yeshua The Messiah, we also believe in Yeshua The Messiah, that we should be made right by the faith of The Messiah, and not by the works of The Written Law, because no one is made right by the works of The Written Law.” (Galatians 2:16 Aramaic Bible in Plain English)

Did you catch that – it is not YOUR faith, but the faith “of Yeshua The Messiah”. 

We are not saved by our faith IN Christ, but we are both saved and justified by the Grace of God as a result of the “faith of Jesus Christ”.

Claiming to be saved as a result of a decision we make, or our baptism, or our repentance of sin, or our profession of faith, or our good works, or our membership in a church, yada yada yada….is to “boast”. We had nothing to do with our salvation. On the contrary, our decisions inevitably result in sin and death.

“For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God...the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 3:23;6:23)

One of the reasons that Salvation is by the Grace of God bestowed freely on sinners is to prevent us from bragging about it...or working for it.  

But we should rejoice in it and brag on God for His free gift.

Four Dreadful Judgments

“For this is what the Sovereign Lord says...I send against Jerusalem my four dreadful judgments—sword and famine and wild beasts and plague—to kill its men and their animals!" (Ezekiel 14:21)

DEATH by various natural phenomenon are God's four dreadful judgments. Note that there was not even a hint of eternal conscious torment after death.God has and will continue to send those four judgments ending in death during this present evil again which we live.

At the Cross, however, God through Christ Jesus revealed His plan to save all from the DEATH caused by His judgments. This salvation is the result of the LOVE of God for the "ungodly", all of whom are "powerless" to save themselves from His "wrath" - DEATH.

”You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly…God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life…” (Romans 5:6-11)

In the days of Ezekiel the Jewish religious teachers were falsely testifying that God IS NOT ANGRY and will not bring judgment. And now, after the Cross, religious leaders of all professions are saying God IS ANGRY and in His wrath He will not only bring DEATH through His Judgments, but will add ETERNAL conscious torment in hell thereafter.

Religious men are getting worse.  They have always been wrong about what God has said, adding to what God actually says, or denying what God says. Jesus might say - "of what Spirit" are they?

"And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. But they did not receive Him...his disciples James and John...said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them...But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save." (Luke 9:54-56)

God has "justified" sinners to Himself by the "blood" of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his death "we were reconciled" to God. That is the gospel...the good news...the opinions of religious men notwithstanding.

Killing the Soul

"And do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul; but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” (Matthew 10:28 CLNT)

Your translation of the Bible probably renders the word "Gehenna" as “hell”. That is unfortunate and an example of how the Bible was translated into English according to the bias of the translators to promote the vain "directions of men" rather than the Word of God.

"Yet in vain are they revering Me, Teaching for teachings the directions of men." (Matthew 15:9 CLNT)

"Gehenna" refers to the garbage dump outside of Jerusalem where trash and dead bodies of animals and criminals were burned. Among that garbage, the worms did not die and the fire was not quenched until it had accomplished the job of destroying the body.

"And if your hand should ever be snaring you, strike it off. It is ideal for you to be entering into life maimed, rather than, having two hands, to come away into Gehenna, into the unextinguished fire where their worm is not deceasing and the fire is not going out." (Mark 9:43-44 CLNT)

So what is Jesus saying to his fellow Jews about "fear" and "Gehenna"?

Remember that while on earth, Jesus preached only to ISRAEL about their promised Kingdom. The Kingdom they once ruled on the earth was now in the hands of the Roman Empire. He told them that they needed to “repent! for near is the Kingdom of the Heavens”, referring to the restoration from heaven of their Kingdom.

"Thenceforth begins Jesus to be heralding and saying, Repent! for near is the kingdom of the heavens!...teaching in their synagogues and heralding the evangel of the kingdom" (Matthew 4:17,23)

Jesus was presenting himself to Israel as the Jewish Messiah who would restore on earth the Kingdom promised to Israel. But he told them that to follow him as Messiah could result in his followers being treated as criminals and could result in their death, with their dead body being cast into "Gehenna".

This would and did bring fear to the Jews. Jesus said they need not fear men who kill them because that is all they could do. Jesus said for them to "fear" God, not those who kill the body and can then do no further damage. For God only could raise both body and soul out of the ashes of the fire of "Gehenna" to reign with Messiah during the Kingdom.

The “souls” of those Jews who did not receive Jesus as Messiah would not be revived until after the Kingdom and would therefore miss out on the reign of Messiah during the 1000 year Kingdom Age.

"And the souls of those executed because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who do not worship the wild beast or its image, and did not get the emblem on their forehead and on their hand- they also live and reign with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead do not live until the thousand years should be finished." (Revelation 20:4-5 CLNT)

Those who use the above verse to teach eternal conscious torment in hell show either their lack of study, or that they are intentionally deceiving people for the purpose of growing their institutions. They will one day be "ashamed" to have tried to save souls from the Greek mythological hell of eternal conscious torment…they should fear that they themselves may not be raised to the free gift of eternal life "until the thousand years should be finished".

"For whosoever may be wanting to save his soul will be destroying it, yet whoever shall be destroying his soul on account of Me and of the evangel will be saving it...For whosoever may be ashamed of Me and My words in this generation...the Son of Mankind also will be ashamed of him whenever He may be coming in the glory of His Father." (Mark 8:35-38 CLNT)

The Evil Eye

Jesus said…

”...is it not lawful for me to do what I want with what is mine...is your eye evil because I am good..." (Matthew 20:15)

Muslims believe they are the only ones destined for heaven. Christians think the same thing. The reason is that both want their good deeds or faith to determine their salvation. Nevertheless, the world has only one Savior, and his salvation is a free gift, according to the Bible…

“For by Grace are you saved...For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life...For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive...The last enemy that will be abolished is death… so that God may be all in all.” (Ephesians 2:8; Romans 6:23; 1 Corinthians 15:22-28)

Christians and Muslims alike have leaders whom they believe are men of God. They follow their teaching and trust and put faith in those men. They may think their faith is in Allah or God, but it is really in what their leaders have told them about Allah or God.

Nevertheless all are destined to hear directly from Jesus, a few in this life and all in the next. And then they will finally understand what God is doing through Jesus His Son, and will declare...

"It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world." (John 4:42)

God saves by "Grace" because God is "good", but religious men see the saving "of the world" by such grace and goodness as "evil".

That is sad...the evil eye.