WHY SIMPLY LEAVING CHURCH DOES NOT RECONNECT YOU WITH GOD
GREETINGS:
You may be like thousands of Christians, you thought you could simply leave church and find your own connection to God, and you are beginning to realize that while leaving church solved the problem of disconnecting you with spiritual abuse, it did not connect you with God.
Believes are openly talking about why people are leaving the church and we are looking at some of the dialogue on discussion boards, listening in, getting the heartbeat of the church through pastors, teachers, song leaders, and ordinary, every day Christians.
The poster that we are previewing in this article thinks he has an answer as to why people are leaving the church. This post was taken from the Strang Board. The thread on that board addresses pastors and asked the question, "Why are people leaving your church?"
The poster's name was provided as Antoine Thomas, and this is what he has to say:
"Holy greetings and blessings to you in the name our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. This subject on while people leaves your church was a blessing to me
and my home. As I read the article, what jumped out the most was UNBELIEF.
See, Romans 11:20-21 says, "Well; because of unbelief they were broken off,
and thou standest by faith. Be not highstandest, but fear. For if God spared
not the natural branches, take heed lest he spare not thee." This is what
happened to the Isrealites in the Old Testament. And by us being the New
Testament Isrealites, we have to learn from the old. We find ourselves
listening and living on opinionated statements and doctrine and not the Word
of God. We are living on emotions and feelings and not walking faithfully
unto death(Revelations 2:10). It starts with their church first(themselves).
If Jesus Christ is not the head of their church(themselves), then how are they
able to be a faithful member of any church? If they cooperate while the
Spirit of the Lord operates, they will have a successful surgery and be a
part of God's living organism (The Church). God bless and Be encouraged
in the Lord!"
ANALYSIS:
This poster targets unbelief as the problem. People are leaving the Church
because they are lost in unbelief. In order to do a correct analysis we would
have to know what constitutes 'believing' and what doesn't constitute 'believing'.
Then we will know what unbelief is.
Are people failing to believe the FUNDAMENT knowledge about Jesus Christ?
Or are they no longer believing the FOUNDATION knowledge about Jesus
Christ?
The poster is quoting from Rom.11:20,21, "Well; because of UNBELIEF they
were broken off, and you stand by FAITH. Be not high-minded, but fear."
"For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not
you."
In verse 25 we read that, "Blindness in part is happened to Israel." Here we have
a supporting element of discernment. Blindness goes hand in hand with unbelief.
Those who are lost in unbelief are also spiritually blind. But this still doesn't help
us to know what constitutes unbelief. Are christians blind concerning the
fundamental knowledge of Jesus Christ, or are they blind about the foundation
knowledge of Jesus Christ?
Hebrews 3:19 and 4:1-3 helps us to answer the question of what kind of unbelief
makes a person spiritually blind. "So we see that they could not enter in (the
promised land) because of UNBELIEF"
"Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any
of you should seem to come short of it."
"For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them; but the word
preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it."
"For we which have BELIEVED to enter into rest....."
The kind of UNBELIEF that causes spiritual blindness is the kind of UNBELIEF
that does not allow SPIRITUAL PERCEPTION.
Deut.3:35, "Unto you it was SHOWED, that you might know that the Lord He is
God; there is none else beside Him."
Deut.29:4, "Yet the Lord has not GIVEN you a heart to perceive, and eyes to see,
and ears to hear, unto this day."
God HAD shown Himself in power to the children of Israel through many signs
and wonders. Did not Israel PERCEIVE the Egyptians were destroyed? Did
they not SEE the plagues upon Pharaoh and his people? Did they not SEE the
Red Sea part for them by the word of the Lord, and then PERCEIVE that the Red
Sea had engulf their enemies? Yes, they did see. What then? We can take note
that the children of Israel DID believe the fundamental knowledge of their
deliverance.
But they did not perceive that God brought them out of Egypt and into the
wilderness to make a covenant with them. They could not PERCEIVE the
PURPOSE of their deliverance.
Even so, christians today DO believe the fundamental knowledge of Jesus
Christ, that He is the Son of God, the Saviour of the word, that He did die for
the sins of the world, and rise again from the dead on the third day and sent
forth the Holy Spirit. What they DO NOT believe is the foundation knowledge.
The foundation knowledge begins to set forth the PURPOSE of our deliverance
through Jesus Christ.
We read in I Cor.10:6-11 that spiritual blindness began when the people
lusted after evil things, they were idolaters, they committed fornication, they
tempted Christ, they murmured. Their heart was not towards God. They were
our examples so that we could understand that when people try to use the truth
of God to confirm themselves God will not sanctify them. The grace of God
does not work with our own truths about Jesus Christ.
The Israelites thought that their deliverance from bondage centered around
THEM, but it did not, it centered around God and His plan. The Body of Christ is
in darkness (ignorance) because people who have made a confession of faith
in Jesus Christ also do not have a heart to perceive their deliverance.
They think that the plan of God centers on them just escaping hell. But the
plan of salvation centers on God and His redemption through Jesus Christ.
Therefore there is a responsibility on the part of the believer to be joined
in covenant with God.
Heb.8:9, "Because they continued not in My covenant, and I regarded them not
says the Lord." Just because salvation is free does not mean it is free from
responsibility. This is what christians do not want to believe.
God provided the children of Israel with the power of their deliverance so that they
would apply themselves with the knowledge that came through Moses; to 'fear'
Him, 'serve' Him, and 'cleave' unto Him (Deut.10:20). The children of Israel heard
with the physical ear, but not the spiritual ear. The children of Israel saw with the
carnal eye, but not the spiritual eye.
And so God said of them, "Oh that there were such an heart IN THEM, that they
would fear me, and keep all my commandments," Deut.5:29. It was because they
did not apply themselves to the revelation of God that God did not give them a
heart to perceive.
We can see clearly that when God 'shows Himself' (grace) there is a responsibility
on man's part to apply himself.
This is why Jesus said, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock, if any man hear My
voice (grace) and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he
with me," Rev.3:20. He was not speaking of "inviting Jesus into our heart." He was
speaking of the yielding of the will to the grace of God throughout our life. We must
yield when Jesus is knocking (when grace is present). This is when you will be given
a heart to perceive.
We read this again in Hebrews 3:7-9, "Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost says, To-day
if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of
temptation in the wilderness. When your fathers temped me, proved me, and saw My
works forty years."
The grace that God gives must be responded to in the time it is given. We cannot
go to answer the door hours or days after a caller has come knocking, and expect
to still find him waiting at the door.
God will give the heart to perceive when the will is yielded to grace. This is called
mixing faith with the word. Heb.4:2, "For unto us was the gospel preached, as well
as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith
in them that heard it."
This is what the poster seems to be reflecting upon when he said, "We find
ourselves listening and living on opinionated statements and doctrine and not
the Word of God. We are living on emotions and feelings and not walking
faithfully unto death."
Faith has to be the lifestyle of the righteous, not just a foot in the door of heaven
through a confession of faith. But the Church is no longer familiar with the tools
and articles of the covenant that God established through Jesus Christ. Therefore
they don't know where to find the grace of God and have learned how to replace
grace with religious rituals which are of no power. They are now living under the
persuasion of false knowledge and a false inspiration.
The poster ends by saying, "If Jesus Christ is not the head of their church
(themselves), then how are they able to be a faithful member of any church? If they
cooperate while the Spirit of the Lord operates, they will have a successful surgery
and be a part of God's living organism (The Church)."
Let it be known that Jesus' headship is only experienced through government.
This is why the apostle Paul said that the apostles were 'first' in order of
government (I Cor.12:28). Not first in a carnal sense, but that the headship
of Jesus Christ is first seen through the delivery of pure doctrine to the
Church through apostles (Acts 2:42). Doctrine first, then function.
People are not able to believe the foundation knowledge of Jesus Christ
because they no longer know what that is. I agree, the Church HAS been
living on the doctrines of those who are not called as apostles. Therefore the
BELIEVING of the fundamental knowledge of Christ is not mixed with faith.
Let us heed the warning, "Well; because of UNBELIEF they were broken off, and
you stand by FAITH. Be not high-minded, but fear. For if God spared not the
natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not you."
Let us who are prepared to join God in covenant through our Lord Jesus Christ
accept the yoke of His knowledge and receive with meekness the engrafted
word (the anointing of truth) so that we can PERCEIVE the purpose of our
deliverance and serve God with reverence and godly fear.
We are ROC are prepared to help you reenter the true Church. The doctrine of
Christ that is delivered through the apostle Eric is not the doctrine of man.
It is the grace of God that makes doctrine divinely inspired, not the vessel.
Strong In His Grace,
Maria / Teacher
R.O.C. Analyst
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