In a Judy Canova movie, the country girl she plays has just boarded a train. When it begins to move, that is what she says. She is moving, but it seems as if the station is.
My tight little coterie of friends, both dead and living, have one terrible thing in common. They did not and do not go to church. They once did. Some were immersed in corporate churches. They were all believers, and most studied the Bible in depth.
I have read Hebrews 10:25, but I have also read (and cherish) Revelation 3:20. I feel these two verses represent the history of the church from the time of Paul to the end times written of by John. Further, I am certain that the time in which I live is the one written about in John's Revelation.
Please let me say, I have recently tried, and two denominations have either been Bible-denying or have put up barriers to my membership through their insistence on my being re-baptized. To them, my childhood baptism is not valid. Martin Luther and I (such company!) will suffer eternally in a devil's hell. Not only was I baptized as an infant, I believe very strongly that it was valid. So I did try.
Why is it that my best friends and I avoided and now avoid church? My sister's girl went regularly and contributed to a corporate church. Her family no longer does.
For some, continual pressure to "dig deeper" combined with extremely shallow treatment of the Bible, has made their church intolerable. Now, in her fifties, she studies on her own and gives money only to those she knows. No more "associate youth pastors" to pay for.
Church practices have long imitated government bureaucracies--always increasing staff and budgets, and shortchanging on the Bible. The lady and her husband study and pray at home.
There is a church which Jesus spews out of his mouth. I do not wish to be in it. Did the churches move away, or have we? Either way, we have parted company.
No comments:
Post a Comment