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By Neal Griffin
Everything that is not of God will come to nothing and that is why most churches fail to accomplish their Divinely appointed task of building up the body in love. God is love and Jesus is God (Deity). The primary message of Scripture is to announce and glorify Jesus. The Pharisees missed this vital point. Jesus is the center of it all. But sadly, as was the case with the Pharisees, He is not the primary promotion of most, if not all, denominated religious organizations.
When Christians decide to mold their fellowship into an organization that has corporate entity (existence) separate and apart from the members who constitute it, they have created something foreign to the Bible. They have created a man-made institution and mis-designated it a "church". And worse yet with most of them, they have given it a proper noun name. The Holy Spirit has not revealed anywhere that He has assigned a proper noun name to His called out people. He has referred to them as His "assembly", "children", "army", "people", "saints", "family", "race", "congregation", "ekklesia" (mistranslated ‘church'), "descendants", "adoption", and etc., but He never singled out one of these descriptive terms to be used as a proper noun name (title). If it has a denominating title it is a denomination regardless of whatever other Scriptural similarities it has. It is something other than the church of the Bible. It is not of God. It is of man. The church of the Bible is people. When Paul laid waste the church he was not attacking a denominated religious organization. He was persecuting persons--saints. When the church was scattered from Jerusalem it was not a denominated religious organization that was scattered. It was people. Paul's letters to the churches were to God's called out in various locations. They were addressed to people and not to denominated religious organizations. If we are going to us the term "church" we should use it in its correct sense.
When Satan convinces a gathering of saints to incorporate he has achieved one of his major objectives. This probably is his first step in redirecting the saints toward institutional involvement and away from personal involvement with Jesus. His next order of business usually is to "bring in" a polished, paid, pulpiteer. And then a fine cathedral is required to establish the corporation in its rightful place in his (Satan's) religious community. Both pulpit orators and cathedrals are but monuments to the pride of men. They are nowhere called for in Scripture. Every saint is a priest and minister. Paid shepherds flee when their financial interest is threatened and the idea of cathedrals is foreign to New Covenant religion. "God dwells not in temples made with hands". According to one historian a pulpit sermon was not preached until about 300 A.D., about the time the first cathedral was built, and the church has been asleep ever since. After the paid shepherd has been installed and the cathedral built it's all downhill. Satan must maintain his institution. Sermons piled high on top of sermons are preached to promote the institution. Jesus becomes only an adjunct. Satan has in the truest sense replaced Christianity with "Churchanity". His institution must be promoted or else Christ cannot be preached. So says Satan the deceiver.
It may appear that denominated religious organizations are on the move. It may appear to the unwary, by their large numbers and lip service to God, that they are ordained by Him when in reality their candle sticks were removed long ago probably when they first incorporated.
Please consider these thoughts in light of the Word. Your servant in Him, Neal Griffin.
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