Now What?

Reprimanded

Loretta — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 18:02:09 +0000

By: Helen

I came to know Jesus when I was 31, coming out of an unchurched background. We chose to go to a little church close to our home where renewal was beginning to happen. Many changes were made within the church but the hierarchy stepped in and sent a man who was religious to try to contain the “outbreak”. Eventually many people left, joining other churches where Holy Spirit was allowed to move more freely. I found after, that when I challenged the leadership in other churches that I joined, on things I saw being done that wasn’t In God’s Word, I was reprimanded. But I know that I heard His voice….there were many confirmations of it afterwards. It has left me sure of one thing, that Jesus is alive and that I choose to follow Him with all my heart and cannot again go back into the “system” that binds. It has cost me over the years as many friends found it difficult to understand why I didn’t just submit and accept the “system”, but it left me without Jesus and His tender presence. Now many of them are asking questions as they are feeling trapped and don’t know why they are so restless.

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This mini testimony was found on this page: http://www.simplechurchjournal.com/2012/02/do-you-have-a-story-to-share.html

Filed under: Written Testimonies Tagged: Called Out, Christianity, Church, Churchianity, Following Jesus, Institutional Church, Leaving Church, Organized Religion

Leaving Church

Loretta — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 07:30:35 +0000

by: Lynette Woods

We consider and look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are visible are temporal (brief and fleeting), but the things that are invisible are deathless and everlasting. 2 Cor. 4:18.

When God first called us out of religion twelve years ago, we didn’t understand exactly what He was asking us to leave. Over time we saw that He was not just calling us to leave the church we were part of, but anything and everything that was a substitute for Him. Thankfully He did not reveal this to us all at once, but has been leading us on a journey, through a process, one step at a time…

Recently Father brought me to another step which involved my use of the word “church”. Until this point, I believed that although He had called us out of religion, we were part of the church which Jesus was building; we were called to BE the church because the church was the people rather than the building. I felt I needed to constantly correct the common “misunderstanding” of the word, both to myself and others, and yet saying “we are the church” was very open to misunderstanding too. Some would think we were saying “we are THE church” or “WE are the church” or thought it was just semantics. Unbelievers couldn’t fathom it at all. They understand what the word church means in English: It is a religious place where religious people go to do religious things!

Whether we like it or not, the church is a religious system which not only substitutes itself in place of Christ in people’s lives, but also actively prevents them from knowing Him outside of the construct of itself. Jesus is building something heavenly and not earthly; He is NOT building the religious, institutional, compromising, man-created mixture that is the church. While editing a book for a friend, Father suddenly opened my eyes to see all of this and simultaneously gave me the freedom to leave the word “church” and stop trying to redeem it. I sensed that there had a been a season for that, but now I felt released to simply use the word church for what we know it to mean. The author wrote about this in chapter 8 of his book: The Irresistible Kingdom.

When I saw this, I realized we could no longer say we are the church or part of the church. While the world will be able to accept this without much trouble, those who consider themselves part of the church may not find it so easy. To me now though, it seems like saying we were part of the church was a justification to those who were church-goers – a way of reassuring them that although we were not attending a church, we were still part of the church because the church was the people of God… It made them, and us, feel a little bit better about it all!

But now we have left not only the buildings, the meetings, the system; we have also left the word. And just because we have left those things, doesn’t mean that we don’t have more religious sacred cows that need to be slaughtered and barbecued! Our religious mindsets blind us regardless of whether we are in the church or not. We have met people who consider themselves outside of the church system and yet are just as religious as anybody in a church. This is not about where we go or do not go, what we do or do not do, what we say or do not say – religion is an affair of the heart, and the heart belongs to only One. Seeing our religious prejudices how God sees them is an unveiling which begins in the spirit, and then brings change to the heart, mind and body. But change is often not easy for us to accept…

The Word: Church

English is a language which is evolving and constantly changing. There is nothing sacred about the word “church” although some may feel like there is due to their mindsets and what they have believed. The words we use are important. To use a word which means one thing to most people but something different to you and a few others, is to ask for misunderstanding. For instance, with the word “gay”, we don’t see many people trying to redeem the word to mean happy or insisting that they will use it by its original definition regardless of what it now means. Instead most people accept that the definition has changed and know what others mean when they use it. It is the same with us and the word “church”; why use a word that doesn’t mean what we think it should mean?

Most of us have thought of church as being Biblical; after all, didn’t Jesus say He was building His church? That is what our Bibles say He said and although we can go back to the original Greek and look back in time to see how we got this word “church”, it won’t achieve anything unless we have been given eyes to see things spiritually. Only God can open our eyes to see and accept Truth… so what is shared here is not for convincing you or condemning you if you don’t see what I have seen, but is given in the hope of watering the seeds which have been planted in the hearts of those who know they are called out of religion.

Most linguists agree that the word “church” is derived from the Greek word “kuriakos” which simply means “the Lord’s”. The word was used only twice in the Bible: in 1 Cor. 11:20 for “the Lord’s supper” and in Rev. 1:10 for “the Lord’s day”. It did not mean anything like what the word church means today! By the time the Roman Emperor Constantine had legalized Christianity in the year 313, another word had been added: doma. Kuriakos doma meant the Lord’s house or domicile, a building that was the Lord’s. When the Emperor declared Christianity to be Rome’s religion, he gave tax exemptions to the leaders of it, appointed Christians as high ranking officials, supported the church financially, and… built churches – “kuriakos doma”. However, the phrase “kuriakos doma” is not in the original Greek Scriptures at all.

The word commonly translated as “church” in the Bible was the Greek word “ekklesia” which simply meant “called-out ones” – those who were called out of something, for something (see the article Being Called for more on what we are called out of and into). Obviously we do have this word “church” in our Bibles and this is because in 1611 when the officially sanctioned English version of the Bible was produced by King James (who was the head of the church in England at the time) number three of the 15 rules the translators were given by him was:

The old ecclesiastical words to be kept, viz.: the word ‘Church’ not to be translated ‘Congregation’ etc. (The rules can be read here)

The reason he had to mandate this departure from the Greek meaning of the word “ekklesia” was because there had been a previous translation of the Bible into English by William Tyndale in which the word “church” did not occur at all. Instead “ekklesia” was translated as “congregation” even though there were churches around when Tyndale was alive. But the translators for King James were specifically commanded to translate ekklesia as “church” and also to not contradict the traditions of the established church of which he was the head. This accounts for many of the mistranslations still in our Bibles today.

The House of God

Some people call the church “the house of God” and this phrase occurs in the New Testament six times and is from two Greek words: “oikos theos”. The word “oikos” (translated as both house and household or in some more recent translations as “family”) means an “inhabited house” or the “household of a house”, which obviously refers to people. The instances where the phrase “oikos theos” occurs in the New Testament are interesting. The phrase refers to people in 1 Timothy 3:15 and 1 Peter 4:17 and refers back to the temple of the Old Testament in all the other instances (Matt. 12:4; Mark 2:26; Luke 6:4; Heb. 10:21). The writer of the book of Hebrews had been comparing the Old Testament temple to what we now have in Christ Who is the unseen, spiritual, heavenly House and Temple of God, NOT built with man’s hands here on earth.

The Scriptures make it very clear: the Temple of the Old Covenant was an example and parable until Christ came: “When God speaks of a new covenant, He makes the first one obsolete (out of use). And what is obsolete (out of use and annulled because of age) is ripe for disappearance and to be dispensed with altogether. Now even the first covenant had its own rules and regulations for divine worship and it had a sanctuary, but one of this world… Into the second division of the tabernacle none but the high priest goes… by this the Holy Spirit points out that the way into the true Holy of Holies is not yet thrown open as long as the former tabernacle remains a recognized institution and is still standing. Seeing that that first tabernacle was a parable (a visible symbol or type or picture of the present age)… But when Christ appeared as a High Priest of the better things that have come and are to come, then through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not a part of this material creation, He went once for all into the Holy of Holies, not by virtue of the blood of goats and calves, but His own blood, having found and secured a complete redemption (an everlasting release for us). For Christ has not entered into a sanctuary (building) made with human hands, only a copy and pattern and type of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.” (Heb. 8:13; 9:1,7-9,11,12,24 AMP).

Stephen, who was accused of saying: “this Jesus the Nazarene will tear down and destroy this place, and will alter the institutions and usages which Moses transmitted to us” (Acts 6:14) further enraged the Jews when he said, “It was Solomon who built a house for Him. However, the Most High does not dwell in houses and temples made with hands; as the prophet says, Heaven is My throne, and earth the footstool for My feet. What house can you build for Me, says the Lord, or what is the place in which I can rest? Was it not My hand that made all these things?” (Acts 7:47-50).

These verses mention a Building “not made with hands”. This was a radical and offensive shift from the earthly buildings and systems of Judaism, which were seen and made by man, to the heavenly which is spiritual and made by God. He had originally given the design for the temple but it had become an end in itself and had served its purpose; now Christ was in full view: “In Him the whole structure is joined (bound, welded) together harmoniously, and it continues to rise, grow and increase into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you yourselves also are being built up with the rest, to form a fixed abode (dwelling place) of God in (by, through) the Spirit.” (Eph. 2:19-22 AMP). This House is spiritual but we humans delight in having something which WE can make, feel, touch, see, hear, name, go to and worship in the here and now on this earth; so we have churches.

The Ekklesia of God

You may well wonder why, if Ekklesia means something different to church, the word has not been ammended in subsequent translations of the Bible. Perhaps because few people today would buy a version without the word “church” in it! It would be unthinkable. The church has deep roots in our society, traditions, beliefs, and culture. Two versions of the Bible were subsequently published without the word church in them though: Young’s Literal Translation in 1898 and earlier, in 1826, a translation of the New Testament called “A Living Oracle” by Dr Alexander Campbell. In the preface entitled “An Apology for a New Translation” is written the following:

“A LIVING language is constantly changing. Like the fashions and customs in apparel, words and phrases, at one time current and fashionable, in the lapse of time, become awkward and obsolete. But this is not all. Many of them, in a century or two, come to have a signification very different from that which was once attached to them. Nay, some are known to convey ideas not only different from, but contrary to, their first signification… that the common version [KJV] was made at a time when religious controversy was at its zenith; and the tenets of the translators whether designedly or undesignedly, did, on many occasions give a wrong turn to words and sentences bearing upon their favorite dogmas… But some are so wedded to the common version, that the very defects in it have become sacred; and an effort, however well intended, to put them in possession of one comparably superior in propriety, perspicuity, and elegance, is viewed very much in the light of ‘making a new Bible’ or of altering and amending the very word of God. Nay, some are prepared to doom every attempt of the kind, to the anathema, in the conclusion of the Apocalypse, upon those who add to the word of God, or subtract from it.” http://www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/oracles1st/preface.html

If you look in the Bible for the church as we know it, you cannot find it. The closest you will find is the temple system which Jesus said He would destroy and replace with Himself. That is incredibly significant and yet many continue to unknowingly believe in and support a Judaistic type of an earthly temple, admiring churches that are large and impressive and even calling them “the house of God”. Those things appeal to our human senses and to our image of what we think is worthy of God. They appeal to our mind and emotions and so people confuse the soul with the spirit, and the emotional, cultural, and intellectual with the spiritual, and end up thinking that it is all of God when it is one unholy mixture. We desperately need Discernment… to discern not only Christ, but also to discern when something is simply appealing to our mind and emotions.

Substitutes for Christ

The focus of the church is on Self rather than on Christ: Salvation is for us, Heaven is for us, Fellowship is for us, Ministry is for us, Healing is for us, the Anointing is for us, Teaching is for us, Christ is for us, etc etc. Church is a place to go and get your needs met; whether it is your need to minister or your need to be ministered to, or your need to simply belong. SELF is the centre and circumference with God being presented as being like us – made in our image instead of us being transformed into His image.

“Since the Fall, blinded man has ever continued to make himself central. From his point of view, even in the religious realm, concepts and resulting methods become twisted until it often seems the church is presenting a God whose entire working is for man – his benefit, welfare, blessing and bliss. Some will admit they frankly feel this is the true work of the church. Who else is important? What else should we preach? Who else but man is important to God? Does not God Himself expend all His energies and purposes for man? Yes, until man has had a major rectification he will, even as a believer, be the very center of his very small universe – seeking to make all things serve himself.” (DeVern Fromke, “The Ultimate Intention”).

While I am not saying that everybody in the church is like this, many do cling religiously to the mistaken beliefs, teachings and traditions of man instead of allowing God to break through and shatter those and instead lead them to Truth Himself. While that breaking is very costly and uncomfortable, surely we don’t want to be holding onto things which WE think are sacred and yet which are simply the traditions of man! Otherwise we may be in danger of making void the Word of God for the sake of our traditions as Jesus said in Mark 7.

Often church is a substitute for Christ in people’s lives. Church is their focus, their identity, what they live for, what they work for, what they love and fight for and they cannot comprehend leaving it. Ever. It is their life! We are the Ekklesia – the Called-Out ones of God – called out of all substitutes to know and experience the Reality and Truth of Christ and His Life! There is only One Who is our Life and Love and through Him God has provided the Way to free us from Sin, Self, Satan AND from all Substitutes. A substitute is a diabolical way of keeping us from the real and true because we are usually satisfied and quite happy with the substitute – because that is exactly what it is designed to do. It is only when you have encountered the Real, the Most Excellent, the Truth, that the substitute is shown to be a lie, a counterfeit and a very poor imitation.

Called Out Ones

After reading this some may concede that even if the word “church” isn’t Biblical, the institution is still obviously of God because look at how people can find Jesus there and all the good it does in the community etc. I would say to just look at how it takes the place of Christ and not only turns people off but away from God. The fact is that He not only can, but does, use many people and many things which do not even acknowledge Him or know Him. We see this in the Bible and we see it now: He is God and He can utilize anything and anyone to reveal Truth! Just because He spoke through a donkey yesterday and uses a Hollywood movie tomorrow doesn’t mean those things are suddenly holy or sacred. Just because God uses something or someone in a church to touch people’s lives doesn’t mean He either approves of it or is blessing it. I have heard Him speak through believers and through unbelievers; but what is more uncommon is holiness… God is holy, and every one who is wholly His, will have the same character.

Being “out of the institutional church” is an accepted and researched phenomena now, but the fact is that while many have heard the call to leave the church, very few have had the church leave them. Many have heard the call out, but not many have heard the call in (see Being Called). Most of us have years and years of deeply rooted religious beliefs that still need to be uncovered and pulled out. While I can no longer say that I am part of the church (which to me is wholly temporal and earthly), I can say that I am part of Christ and His Body (which to me is wholly eternal and heavenly).

There is a danger that we will stop and camp out with the last thing God showed us and not go on. Leaving church is only one step! We must KEEP listening, KEEP seeing, KEEP walking, KEEP on leaving all those things which God reveals as earthly and which are mere substitutes for the reality of Christ in our lives.

“The implications of any movement of God are not always recognized at the beginning, but if we go on with Him we shall find that much that is done here and is of time is – and has to be – left behind. The spiritual and the heavenly is pressing for a larger place and becoming absolutely imperative to the very life of the instrumentality and those concerned. It is spontaneous and just happens. We wake up to realize that we have moved into a new realm or position, and no amount of additional earthly resource can meet the need… The great pity is that so many just will cling to the old framework or partial vision. God presents His heavenly pattern in greater fulness and demands adjustment… But because it is ‘revolutionary’ or not ‘what has been in the blessing of God’ etc., etc., it is rejected and put aside… God in sovereignty will run the risk of shattering, or allow the shattering, of so much that He has used of scaffolding or framework in order to realize the fuller purpose… So, things may be taking a new and different shape, but the purpose of God is the same. We may be presented with His vision in new and further-on aspects, but it is only what He originally meant. Can we adjust? Can we leave “the things that are behind”? Without raising any questions as to the right or wrong of what has been, can we “go on” and “grow up”, “attain”?” (T. Austin-Sparks, “Vision and Vocation”).

God is delivering, separating, purifying, setting free and establishing what the enemy has always sought to destroy. Jesus IS building His called-out ones into an unseen, holy, heavenly Building of His design and making; He is calling us out of Sin, Self and Substitutes into Himself as The Place where God is… in Life, in Freedom, in Peace, Rest, Love and All that Christ Himself is!

Come and, like living stones, be yourselves built into a spiritual house, for a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable and pleasing to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Pet. 2:5

Visit Lynette’s website….Unveiling.

Filed under: Featured Articles Tagged: Called Out, Christianity, Church, Churchianity, Following Jesus, Harlot Church, Institutional Church, Leaving Church, Organized Religion

Jesus, Churchianity, and Me

Loretta — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 16:34:10 +0000

By: Evelyn.

Hello everyone. My name is Evelyn and I’m a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Like many Americans, I was raised in and out of church. And while I was a young girl, I became very active in church. I attended Sunday school, Wednesday night Bible study, youth retreats, vacation Bible school, revivals, pastor anniversaries, sang in the choir (and also served as the chaplain of the choir), worked in the nursery, food closets, clothes give aways, and the list goes on. But in all of my “church work,” there was a serious problem – I wasn’t born-again. Although I considered myself to be a Christian, in reality I was just an unsaved church girl. I knew some things about Jesus and the Bible, but I didn’t know or walk with the Lord personally, and my heart was not converted.

Since I wasn’t born-again and rooted in Jesus Christ, when I left home to attend college I got wrapped up in the occult and the New Age Movement. In fact, many professing Christians today practice some aspect of the occult and New Age Movement. For example, astrology/horoscopes, palm-reading, tarot cards, the paranormal, ghosts, seances and spirit-channeling (i.e., communicating with “the dead”), numerology, a belief in reincarnation, radical extremist environmentalism (which is a form of earth worship), believing that one is a god/goddess of one’s own destiny, believing that “all religions are a way to God/heaven,” etc. The occult and the New Age movement are nothing more than demonic science-fiction fantasy. It’s simply one of the many warm and fuzzy false religions that Satan is using to keep men deceived, separated from Jesus Christ, and thereby enslaved to sin and on their way to destruction.

Around the age of 22 I became very sick, yet God graciously used this valley of my life to humble me and draw me to Himself. It was at this time that I began reading the Bible and praying in the name of Jesus Christ, not just for physical healing, but more importantly for spiritual healing. Through my sickness and destitute state, God showed me that I was a sinner whose life was but a vapor. . . and that He was God, and I’m not. It was like God engineered my repentance by allowing my broken self-centered life to come crashing against the reality of HIM, and then in His grace, mercy, love, and kindness – He filled me with His Spirit, made me whole, and gave me Eternal Life through Christ Jesus. Old things passed away, and I became a new creation.

Even though my circumstances were far from perfect and my health was still poor, God strengthened me within and gave me joy and peace that passes all understanding. I didn’t know much according to worldly standards, but I knew JESUS. I knew His grace. I knew His love. I knew the spiritual freedom that comes from Him. I knew the spiritual rest that comes from taking His yoke upon me and learning of Him. I knew the simplicity of following Jesus Christ, which boils down to faith and love. I had not yet joined a church-institution, which allowed the Lord and I to fellowship free from distractions and diversions. Looking back in retrospect, I believe that God used this time of 1-on-1 fellowship to build me up in His Word and teach me how to personally walk with Him, because in His foreknowledge, He saw the obstacles and snares that laid ahead of me in churchianity.

Like every new Believer in Christ, I was full of joy because I knew for myself that Jesus is real, and I was beyond grateful that He saved me from my sins. And I wanted to express this joy with other Believers, so that we could share in our common salvation together. So in my time of fellowship with God, I prayed for fellowship with other Christians. And this is where things became interesting. . . .

I eventually ran into a “pastor” who invited me to his Charismatic Pentecostal ~~cult~~ “church.” It was a small assembly, and many of the people there were very kind. But there were more than a few serious problems. One of them being that the “pastor” fashioned himself as a modern “Moses” or “Joshua,” and told us to trust in his leadership, so that he could lead us into our “promised land.” He often spoke of our “promised land” as a big ‘ministry’ of our own, and said that God had not released us into these ministries yet because we weren’t fully trusting “the man of God” and supporting his “vision” for the ~~cult~~ “church.” He ‘preached’ these sermons under the guise of “faith” – yet he wasn’t speaking of TRUE faith, which is to be placed in Jesus Christ. He was speaking of placing faith in church-leadership, as if they were our personal jesus.

The leaders imitated and promoted false prophets from the prosperity movement such as TD Jakes, Juanita Bynum, Noel Jones, Paula White, and Joyce Meyers. They would sometimes bring dvd’s of their sermons to Bible study or prayer service, so that we could watch them. The “pastors” assistant (a woman who I will simply call “Sharon” for the sake of anonymity) gave me an unbiblical book by Juanita Bynum called “My Spiritual Inheritance.” This book promotes the antichrist concept of submitting to a church-leader for “spiritual fathering” “spiritual mothering” and “spiritual covering.” It implies that by submitting to church-leaders (in a top-down cult-like fashion) we receive our spiritual inheritance from God. Yet the Scriptures plainly state that we receive our spiritual inheritance by faith in JESUS CHRIST and His redemptive work on the cross.

Members were either praised or looked down on based on their frequency of “church-attendance.” If you attended every meeting throughout the week, you were spoken highly of as “faithful in God’s house,” “obedient,” and “on fire for God.” But if you didn’t attend meetings often, you were viewed as worldly, compromised, lukewarm, backslidden, and disobedient. When members who attended meetings frequently received blessings (such as a new job, a new place, money, etc) they would be paraded before the congregation, and their blessings were pointed at as “a reward for being faithful in God’s house.” And whenever someone who didn’t attend meetings often experienced hardship (such as physical illness, financial hardship, marriage issues, etc) the “pastor” would make indirect statements about their hardships, saying that it was evidence of “God’s judgment” upon them for being “unfaithful in God’s house.” I refer to all of this nonsense as church-attendance legalism. Hebrews 10:25 (“forsake not the assembling of yourselves”) is often used out of context to support this teaching and turn people into church addicts. It is a form of works-based righteousness (that your righteousness is based on how often you attend church-services), and in some cases works-based salvation (that your salvation is based upon how often you attend church services). It leads Christians to burn out and neglect their own families and outside responsibilities, just so they can be seen and known as “faithful in God’s house” by attending meetings all week.

Since the leaders were heavily influenced by false prophets from the prosperity movement, it’s no wonder that they promoted the unbiblical tradition of “tithing.” Every now and then, the “pastor” would harp on this tradition, which was really unnecessary because most of us were already cheerful givers. But I guess our cheerful giving wasn’t good enough, because he sat with a widow in his office and showed her the church’s bills, in an attempt to leech more money out of her. The “pastor” also tried to convince another widow to rent out a room in her house, over-charge the person, and give the profit to him. He tried to prey on these widows under the guise of “providing for the house of God.” But praise be to God, they saw right through his tactics.

The leaders taught an unbiblical view of “witchcraft” and they harped on it often from the pulpit. Their view of witchcraft is “anyone who addresses the behavior and teachings of leadership is operating in witchcraft.” Anything that was seen as “coming against leadership” was labeled as “witchcraft.”

This unbiblical teaching led them to label and slander various members as “witches.” While I was there, 2 women who spoke at a Bible study were referred to as “witches.” And why? Because they prayed for someone near the bathroom at the back of the church-building. Even though they weren’t disruptive, leadership viewed this as “rebellion” because it was not a part of their liturgy or church program. Another lady (the children’s Sunday school teacher) was called a witch, because while the adults prayed at the altar before meetings, she would supervise their children in the back (makes sense right?). Yet since the leaders were controlling, they wanted her to stop watching the children and pray with everyone else at the altar. This sister ended up leaving, as well as a few of her friends who were offended by the actions of leadership.

Eventually, I too was called a “witch” for saying that leadership neglected teaching on grace and mercy, and spent too much time “rebuking” from the pulpit – and many times their “rebukes” weren’t even true, they were based on hearsay, gossip, rumors, evil suspicions, speculation, and imagination. They would use the pulpit to maliciously vent about personal issues with congregants, or make indirect innuendos about people they had a problem with. And who could defend themselves when leadership did this? No one. Because the leaders controlled the pulpit and used this advantage to assassinate the character of the saints.

I loved the “pastor” and his assistant Sharon, but I could not ignore this problem and brush it under the rug. So I spoke about their lack of grace, mercy, and love.

And lo and behold, they held a secret meeting with other church members while I was at work, and told everyone that I was operating in “witchcraft.” No one spoke to me about this meeting face to face (except 2 widows). Then when I showed up for a women’s meeting the doors were chained up and locked. Sharon came to the door and told me that the “pastor” said I wasn’t welcome there anymore.

This rejection confirmed what God had previously warned me about, that I would soon be kicked out. He told me this one day during prayer, but I didn’t understand how this could be, since I fellowshiped with “Christians.” Do “Christians” kick other Christians out of their churches?

I was young in the Lord, so I didn’t grasp this at the time. But when I got kicked out, it was like the Lord’s warning had built up a shield or a hedge around my heart, to protect me from breaking down and my faith from being shipwrecked. No glory to myself, and all glory to God – He kept me. Then He led me to the book of Matthew where He told the disciples that they would be kicked out of synagogues. Then He brought me to chapter 5 which says blessed are the persecuted. I was gradually shown all throughout Scripture that persecution against God’s servants comes primarily from within the religious system, and I was merely walking in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. Many others were persecuted before me (Hebrews 11), and I was simply partaking in the sufferings of Christ. This comforted me, increased my faith in God, and gave me confidence that I was doing the right thing before God.

I “church-hopped” for a while, not looking for a flawless church, but for a group of Believers I could fellowship with and hear the unadulterated Word of God taught. Sadly, I never found what I was looking for, so I eventually just stopped church-hopping. No, I didn’t stop seeking true fellowship with born-again Christians and Biblical teaching, but I stopped looking for it in what’s commonly called “church” today. Contrary to popular assumptions, I didn’t stop church-hopping because I was “hurt” “bitter” or “backslidden.” I just didn’t feel any inspiration from the Lord to continue church-hopping. Although I met some nice people in these churches, my overall experience of “church” itself just seemed so repetitive, monotonous, ho-hum-drum, empty, and dry. The beautiful buildings, great oratory, marvelous “praise and worship” music, professional lighting, high-tech sound system, conferences, special services, “out reach” programs, and all the ministries – none of it really satisfied me or moved me towards the mark of Christ’s high calling. And that’s because Jesus Himself was not in these things. Professing Christians have created a religion and church-system that is devoid of Jesus Christ. I call it “churchianity.”

Dare I say it? And not out of conceit, but I outgrew “church.” It actually became a hindrance and a stumbling-block in my walk with Jesus Christ. And no, I’m not referring to the church-building. The church-building was never the issue. But its the mindset, attitude, and behaviors that are often promoted, condoned, and cultivated in many church-buildings today.

Sadly, in many cases today, churches are collecting and warehousing church folk, rather than making disciples of Jesus Christ. Although many would call it the “house of God” I call it a Pharisee machine, because it pumps out droves of people who think, speak, and behave like Pharisees, religious enemies of Jesus Christ who come against God, the Gospel, and the true body of Believers. And this isn’t an isolated issue, it’s global and deeply ingrained within the system.

All in the “name of Jesus” through Scripture-twisting and churchanese language, a grand deception has been set up. . . . an antichrist religion that calls itself Christianity, yet subtly indoctrinates people AGAINST Jesus Christ, by bewitching them with false gospels, false teachings, and false prophets. No wonder Jesus said that on the Day of Judgment many shall call Him “Lord” and point to their religious deeds as evidence that they knew Him, only to discover that He never knew them, because they weren’t born-again and following Him. They were just ‘churched’. . . with form of godliness, but denying the power of God, which could make them truly godly within.

Romans 12:2 says do not be conformed to or shaped by the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Yet many churches today are conformed to the world, because the people within them aren’t born-again and personally following Jesus Christ. So what happens to saints who have a desire to pursue Christ, and somehow end up in the kingdom of churchianity? We find ourselves grieved and in conflict with church crowd. So rather than stay in churchianity, and try to reform a religious-system that is evil at the root, I obeyed God’s call to “come out from among them and be separate. Touch not the unclean thing.” (2 Corinthians 6:17). And I’m not the only one who heard what the Spirit of the Lord is saying about today’s antichrist man-made church-system, to “come out of Her My people.” There is a mass exodus of born-again Christians leaving churchianity behind to follow Christ in a greater way, and if you’re one of them, you might enjoy this blog. But if you’re a part of the false church and you see nothing wrong with “church as usual,” you may not like much of what I write about.

Speaking the Truth in love,

Evelyn

“Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way like Christ, who is the head of His body.” (Ephesians 4:15)

Evelyn is “Exit Churchianity”, “Faith and Reasons” and “Free Indeed” on the web, and has a new blog: http://inchristandunchurched.wordpress.com/about/

Filed under: Written Testimonies Tagged: Babylon Church, Called Out, Christianity, Church, Churchianity, Following Jesus, Harlot Church, Institutional Church, Kicked out of Church, Leaving Church, Organized Religion

Exit Churchianity

Loretta — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 04:35:19 +0000

How God called me out by: Loretta Heiden.

How God called me to be His and made me His: (1985)

I was in the Roman Catholic Church from birth to age 17. I was completely lost! That is a story right there. I made an appointment with my parish priest and asked him to tell me what I needed to know. I wanted to hear the gospel but I did not know how to ask the question. He did not have anything to tell me. I asked him what happens when we die. He said that we don’t really know. I asked him what we are supposed to “do” to have God and be right with God. He told me to “do everything we tell you to do in the Church, and you’ll be fine.” I knew that was untrue because I had been doing all those works of religion for 17 years and I did not have God, I had works of religion. I went home and prayed to God, asking Him to reveal Himself to me, (His Spirit made this happen I believe by His grace) and a NT bible arrived in the mail addressed to me. I do not know who sent it! Reading the gospels, Jesus revealed Himself to me as i was reading His words (His declaration that He is the Way, the Truth, the Life, and His call to repent and believe, His call to follow Him). It was a moment I shall never forget. He used His written word (the bible) to call me by His Spirit. As I read His words, He was talking to me, claiming me as His, and calling me to be His and to follow Him. By His grace I heard His call, believed Him, dropped everything and followed Him.

How God began to sanctify me and purge sin from me through the fires of tribulation(1998).

After Jesus first called me to be His(1985), He transferred me to His Kingdom and immediately began His work of purging sin and setting me apart for Him. The first thing He did was separate me completely from the RCC. He gave me insight and understanding and I repented so that I tossed my rosary beads & little ‘Mary’ idol statuettes and stopped worshiping the Pope & St. Francis and stopped going to the “sacrifice of the mass.”

The next thing He did was begin the work of healing my mind and heart from the devastating effects very bad sins that were committed in my presence and against me during my life, that did great damage to my soul. God did this through prayer and believing the Truth of the written Word, the scriptures applied to my heart through the power of the Holy Spirit. In other words, Jesus healed me!

The next thing He did was begin to sanctify me in the area of besetting sins and issues of my immorality… this happened over a course of time, through repentance and God was faithful to completely remove these sins from me in His faithfulness.

Fast forward to 1998. I had become complacent in my relationship with the Lord. I was comfortably settled in the routine of Evangelical Church. My heart grew lukewarm to the Lord as I started committing major idolatry in my heart, desiring the things of this world. “Someday we will move to the good neighborhood and get out of this ghetto, like my Church girlfriends have. Someday we’ll take great vacations like them, Someday we will live the good life, be rich, buy nice clothes and achieve the American Dream!” My heart was wandering. I was desiring another love (the world and the things of the world) and I had put the Lord Jesus on the shelf. Oh but everyone could see I was a I was a good Christian; I went to Church faithfully. But where was my love for Jesus that I once had? Where were the ‘things I had done at first’ (my love, devotion and faithfulness to Him)?After all He still loved me…..

In His love for me and faithfulness to His commitment to our covenant relationship, God used a hard trial that was happening, as the means through which to purge and cleanse the sin (leaven) in my heart with burning fire, to bring my heart back to Him. What was the trial? Out of the blue, to my shock, my young husband of 7 years got stage3 cancer, “the whole shebang” medically. Our children were 5y,3y and 8mos. old. Here is how God used that for good. http://witnessingencouragement.wordpress.com/2007/04/30/good-suffering/

How God preserved my faith and made me an overcomer through the earthquakes and tribulation of spiritual distress, agony and confusion (“Babylon”) experienced at my Church (2005).

After the intense cancer trial and it’s aftermath, God made me hot spiritually with love for Him and greatly increased my love for the lost, for the gospel, and for Truth.

The year was 2004-2005 and i had just completed 20 years in our Neo-E Church, working in the baby/toddler nursery, preschool, VBS, and K-1 Sunday School. (This was the Church where i met my husband, married and dedicated our 3 children to the Lord.) I entered into a series of experiences that left me utterly devastated, confused, bewildered, rejected, and afraid. I shall attempt to summarize. They hired a woman pastor of children’s ministry. She introduced the “globalist” teachings to us teachers to teach the children. She trained us teachers in New Age mystical contemplative exercises. She got up in the Church service (to talk about being a volunteer in children’s min) and literally led the entire assembly (except me) in a “guided visualization” ritual. She did this for 2 services and the pastors/elders did nothing. I confronted her in private about this, with scripture. She was after all, subtly and methodically introducing elements of witchcraft and New Age into the Church. She laughed in my face, mocking me harshly and said, “Who do you think you are? I have advanced degrees! We do things (in ministry) differently now!” She called me critical and divisive and said I had no authority to question her. She laughed and blew me off. I was beyond shocked at her response. I did not even bother telling the elders. They would only have circled the wagons to defend and protect themselves and their Church.

They signed the Church up with Habitat to build a house with their “All-Faiths” interfaith project. I called HH to ask about how the interfaith program works. They said they were so excited to see Churches participating and all the religions coming together. I began to realize the Church leadership had no discernment.

They adopted “Vision 2010″ and told us we all had to volunteer. They said everyone was required to go through the church growth study material. They said EVERYONE had to be on the same page. They adopted Willowcreek and told us they wanted to grow to 5000. A staff man (making announcements) got up and ridiculed traditional evangelism where you go out to reach the lost– he mocked it “We wouldn’t want to go out on the street or anything Noooooo, Hahahaha!!!!” and led the assembly in “group psychology-must conform-behavior” laughter- laughing at evangelism. The whole crowd laughed because he laughed. He said we all have to bring them in (to the Church) through any means necessary, even through “the back door”. I felt shamed for wanting to do biblical evangelism.

I made an appointment with the pastor to tell him how God had worked in my life radically and i was ready to serve! I volunteered to teach a “new believers” bible study(women). Meanwhile a very prominent man in the Church laughed at me and challenged me condescendingly (“little lady, haha”) when I questioned him upon finding out he is a 32 degree Master Mason in his city for 30+ years. I said to him, one cannot be a Mason and a Christian, you have to choose. He laughed at me and dared me to prove it. (This is Christian behavior?) I wrote a 10page apologetic on “why”. I had reason to know. My paper was 75% scripture and 25% personal eyewitness account. I was upset (having memories) and my dh said, don’t give it to the man. My dh was protecting me. I needed closure so I sent it to the pastor.

Then I went to the appointment with the pastor; the only one I had in 20 years. I told him how awesomely God worked in my life and now i was ready to do anything for Him. Pastor told me I was not allowed to teach the new believer bible study; I had not been through “their training”. I told him I had equivalent previous training via my extensive ministry experience as a believer (goes beyond teaching sunday school). He denied me. He told me I can be “in” a bible study (for new believers!). I was pretty humbled by this. I submitted, trying to humble myself and submit to the Lord’s will in my life. I again offered to teach a group, he said no I would not be allowed. They put me in a group as a learner. Before the group even began meeting, it was cancelled because the teacher suddenly got married and did not have time to lead the group. So the entire group was cancelled. I said “I can lead the group.” He said I was not allowed to. I suggested they put me in someone else’s group. They denied me. They said the groups were all full. They said they can have “no more than 5-7 people in it or it won’t work.” (It= the Dialectic group psychology process.) It was about a week later when I was told by the woman’s ministry pastor (a woman) that maybe they can get me IN a group in a couple of years! I got the message: I was not wanted at all.

Then he brought up the 10 page apologetic. Ha, I actually thought he was going to say “good job” to me. “IT WAS UNLOVING” he said. He said there is no point writing such a paper, the man sees nothing wrong with it” (It =being a 32degreeFreemason). I told the pastor that is why I wrote it, to show him “why”. He asked me if i was involved in “Discernment ministries” and I said, “What ‘s that?” (never heard of that term before that day.) He did not answer me, just stared at me for a long time with a concerned and disapproving look on his face. Then he stood up and changed the subject! He did not answer my question. He said, “You seem very interested in Truth?” as if that were a concern. I was so in shock I just said, “yes.” I was terrified and very intimidated, and felt ashamed. I asked him what I can then do to help serve the Church (the Vision2010 Church Growth Program) and he said, “Why don’t you go work in the Sunday School”(preschool children, which I had done for 20 years but was no longer called to do that). That was the moment I was in effect disenfranchised from the Church, from any ministry outside nursery to 1st graders. I was proverbially “shown the door”. I was denied permission to serve in Church according to my gifts, qualifications and the leading of the Holy Spirit in my life. After that I reviewed the bible study curriculum for those groups they shut me out of (they had given me a copy of the book before deciding I was not allowed to be a leader or be in one). The entire teacher training portion was all about using Diaprax and group psychology to make the people feel part of the group. It was all New Age nonsense! No wonder they would not let me lead this: there is no way I would play group therapy facilitator and twist scripture, but rather I’d lead inductive bible study and teach didactic truth about being a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. I did not fit in the Church “Vision”.

Then they had Chap Clark from Fuller come give a lecture. It was marketed to Christian parents. The theme: “Hurt, understanding the minds and hearts of youth today.” The packed Church building was full of ppl from different Churches and the community. This professing Christian leader did not preach the gospel to the lost, he did not teach anything biblical to the Christians. He gave a 3 hour talk on modern youth culture Psychology and Sociology and diapraxed everyone together for a social communitarianism false gospel that sounded more like the Humanistic New Age religion of Oprah. He advised Christian parents NOT to encourage their teens to share their faith at school, if the friends did not like it, that would jeopardize their kids standing in the social cluster(gang/clique) and that would be the “worst possible thing that could happen to them.” He went on to say that our kids would be the change agents. Clark was the change agent acting as antichrist as they come, right up in the pulpit, a lying deceiver, misrepresenting our Lord Jesus Christ. My system was in shock. http://witnessingencouragement.wordpress.com/2007/03/30/educate-me/

Then my dh who was on staff, was fired. But! The rest of the staff was told that he quit! I found this out the hard way.

That December we watched “The Christmas Show” Christmas Church outreach service, at home, on the internet. The show had all the staf…f going up to the mic one at a time, to read a “letter from God”, such as, “dear lonely one, dear addicted one” etc. Each letter had God telling unbelievers that He loves them just the way they are. For example, “I am with you always”
“I love you and accept you no matter what”
“accept you’re powerless”
“will you include Me (God) in your plans for the future?”
“I’m (God)waiting to share My plan with you.”
“heaven rejoices over your happiness”
“I (God) created you longing for deep community”
“make room for Me (God)” There was nothing that we would call part of the gospel message. Then the pastor got up on stage! (The same pastor i had the meeting with.)I thought, “Yay, now he will preach the gospel to the hundreds of out of town holiday visiting relatives in the audience.” He said, “Wouldn’t it be an amazing thing if billions of people all over the world said ‘yes’ to God tonite? Think about how the world would change. Think of what would happen in the international conflicts. THERE WOULD BE PEACE. We would be able to wipe out poverty, reach out across racial, economic boundaries- if people said yes to God all over the world- they would touch the hurting people of the world. There are 40 million people suffering from AIDS in Africa. If we said ‘yes’ to God COLLECTIVELY what would happen? Not only in this country but in this world. I say that because I want to encourage you this Christmas to pray for our world. It is so easy to think about everything that’s wrong and to walk thru life defeated, but you know what? Pray. Pray for our world, for what’s happening around the world that more and more people would ‘say yes to God’……..and His gift of love and peace and grace through Jesus Christ.”
(The last part said very quietly.) Our jaws were on the floor. We found out that Christmas show material was bought from Willowcreek for $$$$ and read (recited) word for word.

Fear, confusion, bewilderment, rejection, mocking, Fuller, Willowcreek, ChurchGrowthMomement, TQM, rejection of truth, Diaprax, SOCIAL/GROUP gospel, anti-gospel, RickWarren PEACE plan global gospel, false gospel, Truth vs Compromise. Thus w…e started a season of “Church-hopping”. I am thankful that the Lord protected me from despair and preserved my faith in Him, and made me stronger in Him, as He led me to seek Him and His approval, and not approval of man. He led me to more of an abiding relationship with Him.

How God called me out and delivered me from the apostacy, lovelessness, confusion, hypocrisy, shame, condemnation, bondage and lies of Institutional Religion. (early2010).

(Reviewing)…After I left the RCC at age 17 I entered the world of Neo-Evangelicalism where I attended a Willowcreek style Modern megachurch for 20 years. After experiencing great distress and confusion at the apostacy of Humanism, Pragmatism, Man-controlled Corporate Business model (top-down, TQM) organization, false gospels and false teachers that had come in, I fled the megachurch thinking, “there must be a spiritually safe place somewhere in Christendom.” There must be a place in Christianity that is unaffected by the apostacy, I assumed at the time….

Looking for this last bastion of true Christianity that was not affected by the apostacy, we Church-hopped a while. We ended up in a small, traditional, old-fashioned, Bible teaching “independent Baptist type” Church where we were for 4 years. The issues here were many and complex. They were like a small private “club” that you had to conform to, in order to be accepted. I desperately wanted to be accepted, one reason being, I thought I must make this work since I was equating being a good Christian with going to Church. I began to live to try to conform myself to their expectations of what a proper Christian lady was supposed to be. I began to be shamed for not performing and conforming to expectations. I experienced shame and social rejection for not adequately conforming to all their Church traditions. I was even literally shunned as punishment for misbehavior for about a year by an “important person” in the Church. My crimes were: preferring street evangelism to lady’s teas, wearing jeans rather than dresses, bringing a filthy hungry homeless person to Church, correcting an important lady’s legalistic shame and bondage based false teaching out loud in class (whoops, but that was for the spiritual benefit of the baby Christian women present), as she taught the women, not faithfully attending all the social functions, just generally not conforming to Church cultural traditions well enough.

While experiencing this social-emotional punishment, guilt and manipulation, I began trying real hard to conform myself to the Church culture, so that i would be accepted and my shunning would stop. I tried to do everything that would please them and make them accept me, including: working in the nursery and preschool again! Pretty soon I was obsessed with what stylish/pretty outfit I was going to buy to wear to Church the next week (no i’m not joking). I put a lot of time, money, thought and energy into coordinating blouses, skirts, shoes, nylons, and doing my hair and makeup pretty. I knew this would garner “approval”. I was putting all my energy into conforming and trying to be accepted at Church. This was religion and bondage to me, and went against my conscience. I knew it was not the real life in Christ! But I was doing it anyway. I was sinning against my own conscience. I was putting on an “act” at Church. I was, with knowledge and against my conscience, choosing to do this, I was so desperate for acceptance. I was becoming a total religious self-righteous “outward form” hypocrite. I realized that I was striving to please these people at the Church, not living to please Christ. I was seeking approval of “man” rather than approval of God. I was trying to submit myself to, and be obedient to “Church” instead of submitting to and being obedient to Christ. I was becoming (once again, as in my Roman Catholic days) very religious. I was substituting “Church” in my heart for Christ Himself. That is scary. I was serving “Church” and not our Lord Jesus. I was listening to Church (people) and not to Christ. I was living for Church first and not for Christ first. I was being conformed to the image of “Church” and not to Christ. I was committing religious idolatry in my heart. These things went against my conscience as a believer. And I was substituting Church for Jesus Christ in my heart and life. I knew it and I was very conflicted in my mind and heart; “religion” was making me lose my mind.

Besides this, they taught many Church doctrines that I did not even believe in, and they had traditions that I was very opposed to, anyway. Let’s just say I would not pass muster on paper, if I tried to become an official “member”. One thing was, the pastor always taught whatever John MacArthur taught doctrinally. I don’t believe everything that John MacArthur teaches. I think the pastor taught whatever was in the JMac Study Bible. I was not happy when I heard the pastor teaching that the actual blood of Christ is “no big deal, it’s just a “symbol” of the whole atonement”, and “it’s just a symbol of the death of Christ.” I believe the blood of Christ is a very big deal and this teaching upset me. That comes from JMac teaching. Also, I am not a Dispensationalist. I just do not believe in Tim LaHaye/David Hocking theology. I don’t believe in the “Ryrie Study Bible notes” I don’t believe in the “John MacArthur Study Bible notes”. I believe Dispensationalism is a huge lie. Also, they were pretty heavy on the “patriotism” themes; I recall them having patriotic songs during “the worship service” on patriotic holidays. There was a lot of support for the government and military from the pulpit (it was the Republican administrations at the time.) I am very much opposed to combining our faith in the Lord Jesus with any kind of naitonalism/politics/patriotism etc; I believe this is “mixing”, it is idolatry. I kept quiet about these beliefs; I kept this to myself. But these things went against my conscience as a believer and vexed me greatly!

I finally came to the great spiritual distress of realizing that I was faced with the choice of either living for Institutional Church or living for Christ. It became unbearable. I was under pressure to conform to “IT” (a Thing) and to accept ITs customs, traditions and doctrines, in order to be accepted. I was trapped in spiritual slavery, shame, guilt, bondage and lies. I was in Babylon!
2009 was an emotionally difficult year. But the Lord had prepared me spiritually with all the suffering I had been through before. He now had a new assignment for me for the year 2009: comfort many hurting people, especially brothers and sisters in Christ! (John13:34, 1John4:7, 1Thes4:18, 1Thes5:11) Here is a snapshot of people in my life in 2009: A family friend experienced an unbelievable tragedy and he spent a lot of time with us. One of my best friends had cancer and was very sick during her recovery; we spent a lot of time together. A family member went through a crisis, I tried to be there for her. On Thanksgiving day, my daughter’s athletic teenage best friend became paralyzed from the waist down, we went to the hospital several times to visit her. And my 95 year old grandmother was dying; I was helping my 75 year old mother care for her in her home for two months, until she died on Jan.1, and it was sad, very sad. There were other people, too. By the end of January 2010 after we buried my grandmother, I was exhausted.

I wrote a letter to my pastor. What was I thinking? I was seeking comfort. I was weak and drained, but trusting the Lord with faith. Why did I not just go to the Lord only, for comfort? I had many more lessons to learn. I told the pastor about the hurting people that the Lord brought into my life, (which I accepted gladly) and how I did not know “why” all these people with tragedies were my “assignment” from the Lord for those months, but I was trusting Him, not knowing the “why” of all these painful tragedies. In his response to me, he suggested that often Christians think that the Lord is the one who brings these people into our lives, when in reality it is our own fault that we are put upon by others, because we have not put up the “Boundaries” to keep these people out of our lives, so they do not take all our time and energy. He told me some of those people I probably should stay away from; they probably needed professional help. He suggested it was my own fault I was so exhausted because I did not put my hand up to keep them at bay, I did not say “no” to these people from imposing on my life. This time, “I WAS TOO LOVING” to those who needed it: to my dear Christian brethren, family and friends. The Lord brought me through suffering so I could minister to the suffering in 2009. I was shamed and confused by his response. It was my fault for choosing to love and minister to the hurting that the Lord DID bring into my life in His sovereign plan for my life. The pastor’s “counsel” was devastating to me. Where was the love of Jesus? I was confused, disheartened and discouraged to say the least.

My soul was being destroyed by religion. My relationship with Christ was being damaged by all this. I got the call from God to come out in January 2010 the moment my husband said to me, “I think we are done with —–(this Church)”. At that very moment, God released me from that Church. At that very moment, God released me from the Babylon of the organized Churchianity System. “You are released, free to follow Me.” He called me out –and I ran for the door– exiting Churchianity. God has freed me to follow Jesus Christ unhindered, without shame, bondage and lies. Now I listen to my Shepherd. Now I follow the Lamb wherever He goes.

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The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. Psalm 23

For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord GOD. I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick….Ezekiel 34

Filed under: Written Testimonies Tagged: Babylon Church, Called Out, Christianity, Church, Churchianity, Following Jesus, Harlot Church, Institutional Church, Leaving Church, Organized Religion

My Journey Out of Babylon

Loretta — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:45:34 +0000

by: Jim

My life before Christ

And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience -Ephesians 2:1-2

I grew up attending a catholic school until 5th grade. My family were nominal Catholics, it meant little to them, but I jumped through all the hoops as far as confirmations and first communion go. My parents divorced when I was a teenager and I turned to drugs and a lifestyle somewhere between hippy and punk and was heavily involved in the underground techno scene. I managed to graduate high school but had two children out of wedlock by the time I was twenty one. From there I flopped along into my mid twenties, ended up with a decent job, and spent weekends with my young children.

I eventually ended up working for a Christian boss at my job. He was pretty bold in sharing the Gospel with me when I gave him opportunity and eventually I started to come under conviction. At this time I met my wife, who had grown up in a hypocritical religious home, and we planned to get married in the fall of 2001. On September 11th, just four days before our wedding, the physical judgment of God began on this nation whose christendom had long since been under the spiritual judgment of God. I had a lot of questions for my boss and I started to consider the claims of Christ more seriously.

My life of compromise with Christ

And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? – Luke 6:46

Within a year after getting married my wife and I began attending a small (250 on Sunday) AOG church in our area. I started to learn more about Christ and started attending Wednesday night services too. I remember one night coming under deep conviction of the horrible sins I had committed in the course of my life. I prayed silently in the pew and the Lord touched my life that night when I believed on His name, however little my faith was. I believe I was saved that night despite some terrible backsliding that would later take place; God began a good work that He has been faithful to complete to this day.

Shortly after this the interim pastor, who I remember to be a humble servant, left for California and a new pastor who had previously been a regional director for AOG took over. He was a lot different than the first pastor that had been there. For the next couple of years I was at the steeple house any times the doors were opened. I had great religious zeal but it was largely without knowledge. I had stopped smoking, drinking, and drugs but I was very worldly, watched things on television that God hates, was a professional sports addict, and given to a besetting sin that is common to many men in this internet age. I also was very greedy, I was taught to start tithing by the promise that God would give me more back in return if I did. This went on for a couple of years.

The Lord opened my eyes

Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. -2Timothy 3:5-7

I can’t recount the exact order that the following sequence of events took place, but it was roughly over the course of a year or so. I still worked for the same boss who had first shared Christ with me and he went to a questionable AOG church too so we got along well. One day I told him about some struggles I was having in my Christian walk and he recommended checking out a minister named Ray Comfort. My wife and I ended up turning on an episode of “The Way Of The Master” (on TBN of all places) while flipping through the channels one Saturday afternoon. I was shocked by the things ‘Mike Seaver’ and Ray Comfort said. From WOTM I was lead to teachings from men such as Charles Spurgeon, David Wilkerson, and Leonard Ravenhill. The Lord started to open my eyes. There was something terribly wrong… both with my own heart and the local church I attended.

It was during this time that I started to learn my Christian experience was at best very weak and at worse completely fraudulent. I started to dig in God’s word to see which Christ was true and which was “another jesus”. I learned that we were using mission’s money to support an emergent church plant that took communion with U2 songs playing and called it u2charist. I learned that the church was constantly begging for money using emotional manipulation while pretending to not be begging for money. I learned that the pastor was a nicolatian who was standing between the people and Christ (though I didn’t even know what that word nicolatian meant at the time). I learned that the prosperity gospel and seeker sensitive movement were subtly at work. I also learned, from working in the music ministry, that during a service the pastor pretended to get a spontaneous song for us to sing but I had already seen that song was cued up in the computer several days before.

The pastor closed my eyes

Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. -Luke 11:52

During that same time period, every Sunday at the end of service false converts were made by using the soft piano music followed by the invitation “If you are here and do not know Jesus we are going to ask everyone to close their eyes and bow their heads and you just raise your hand if you want to know Jesus. Everyone has their eyes closed so you don’t have to be embarrassed, I saw the hand, I saw the hand”… then everyone claps (God have mercy I had even once brought some Indian coworkers and most likely made them false converts like this). Since the Lord had opened my eyes to the unbiblical and damning effects of this foolishness I was very grieved. I even started praying against anyone raising their hand every Sunday and the leadership leading people into damnation.

I also began to notice that the pastor skipped over any part of scripture that involved self denial, turning from sin and worldliness, counting the cost of forsaking everything to follow Jesus, the justice of God, the eternal damnation of hell, etc. He literally would stop reading, and skip over any ‘offensive’ words. I seriously paid attention and this was a regular trend. Once in a while he would give a general reference to Jesus dying for your sins while being to cowardly to name those sins (most likely because his job depended on not offending his false converters who cherished those sins).

It eventually became too much of a burden to bear and I went and shared with him about True and False Conversion and gave him the message on CD. He told me he would give it a listen since he had “checked the records and saw I was a faithful tither”. No I’m not kidding; I couldn’t make that up (either his statement or my own ignorance and greed in supporting that place). The next Wednesday he announced to the congregation that he had heard something that really shook him and announced that a copy of True and False Conversion by Ray Comfort had been burned to CD and was available to everyone in the congregation free of charge. I was shocked and overjoyed at this, maybe revival was coming! Over the following months he even agreed to show season one of the WOTM on Sunday nights.

Sadly that was short lived and had no visible effect on the congregation other than the senior pastor not outright declaring people to be saved and going to heaven if they responded to an alter call. In fact, afterwards it seemed a flood of other apostasy came into the church. Benny Hinn and Joyce Meyer were being promoted from the pulpit, foolish comedy skits were put on and a non-offensive laodecian message was still being preached.

Please don’t send me to hell

My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth. -Proverbs 3:11-12

Through all this my own heart had become backslidden in a sense and I continued on with a couple secret sins in my life without the fear of the Lord. One day I received a call from one of my Indian coworkers, one that I had most likely falsely converted. He was in town on business for a few weeks and I picked him up one Sunday to take him to evening service. We made it about a block down the road from his hotel to the freeway overpass when I didn’t notice a red light. I heard a scream and a loud crash, I had rolled out into the path of two cars exiting the freeway at full speed. After getting knocked around by the air bag I was in shock. I ended up trying to get out of the car and tried to run but fell face down in the gutter next to the curb. I could hardly think and was trying to feel my numb body as I lay face down in a puddle of oil and gravel. I was gripped with fear over what had just happened and over the fact I had been playing the hypocrite, continuing on in willful sin even though I knew better. I could barely breathe, I prayed silently “Oh God, I know I deserve it but please don’t send me to hell”. At that moment I heard the Lord speak these words to me “I chasten those whom I love as [my] children”. I ended up coming home from the hospital with not much more than an arm sling and a deep, reverent fear of the Lord. I found out I was the only one with any serious injury out of all people in the three cars involved. The impact on the trailblazer I was driving was so violent that it did over 20,000 worth of damage. I feared God and I loved Him and I had an absolute hatred for sin in my life, though I was certainly still shackled by it to some degree. I still had no idea that God was preparing to remove me from Babylon and Babylon from me.

So we returned to the AOG church after the accident and I shared with a few close friends there everything the Lord had been doing and showing me, both about my own heart and the church. Not long after a scandal broke out where a member got pregnant during an adulterous relationship and filed for a divorce from her husband. No church discipline was taken and she even started to flaunt this fact at service. Then one Sunday a dear sister (there were a few sheep there amongst the majority of goats) got permission to share a word with the congregation. She started to talk vague about living holy before the Lord then broken down in tears and cried out “I’m sorry pastor, but I’m not going to keep silent on this like you told me to. Sexual sin should be dealt with in this church.” The pastor looked like a deer in the headlights, not only had he refused to take biblical discipline he also had only allowed to let this sister speak if she didn’t specifically say anything about the situation. He later told me that if he was mean to people … they would not come back to church so he could Sheppard them. He basically said he aimed to please carnal men over obeying a thrice holy God.

The living and powerful word of God

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. -Hebrews 4:12

It was right about then that I met a few brethren in a God ordained meeting. They were leading a group down to Detroit one Saturday to feed and preach the Gospel to the homeless. I met them at their house and the group prayed in the living room together. The presence of God came into that room so powerfully and in such an undeniable reality that it was truly awesome. It was completely different then the so called presence of God that the soulish worship at the beginning of a charismatic church service was suppose to induce. There we were praying and sharing things that the Lord had taught us one with another and it was like I had been kidnapped as a child and was just meeting my real family for the first time. We went down to Detroit and I saw the Lord do amazing things, the New Testament became my life, Jesus the object of my affections, His bride my brothers and sisters. The New Testament was not just a historical account I read, it became real in my life! It would take a book to write every wonderful thing that the Lord did during that time, and maybe sometime I will. I learned so much more in Christ in just a few months meeting in homes and ministering to the homeless and gangs then I did in all my years as a puppet in the pew. I have read about great revivals of the past, and this was a time of great revival for sure, though on a much smaller scale.

Still we attended the AOG a few more times. The youth pastor had an outreach planned to give supplies to kids in a poor neighborhood and I was invited because of my zeal for evangelism. Before we left for the park to pass out the backpacks someone had to remind the youth pastor “shouldn’t we pray”. He gave a 20 second prayer then said ok it’s time to go. We basically went, put on a show, and passed out some supplies and advertisements for the church. I was so grieved, this was so fake and powerless and now I knew it because I had experienced the real. My heart weeps for true brethren that are caught up in a cheap imitation Christian life. That life is meant for the tares – those who having itching ears, refuse the cross, and delight in religious lies. That life is not meant for true saints who love God and His every word with all of their hearts (even when it exposes things in our lives).

We went back to the AOG one more week when something happened during the worship. We were seated near the front, in a room full of people raising their hands, singing “I am a friend of God” and yelling about the presence of God. I just kept my eyes closed so grieved and weeping in heart because I knew it was fake, that Jesus said we were His friend only if we obeyed Him. I finally opened my eyes and looked ahead at the choir. I saw everything in the spiritual, almost like an x-ray of what was taking place. The choir was full of demonic spirits seducing the people. The hand raising and clapping was lewdness and flesh. I looked over at my wife and I knew this was our last day as captives in Babylon. The Lord was setting us free. We would run for our lives from this place of religious delusion and never return.

The end of our captivity in Babylon

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. – Revelation 18:4

I managed to get the pastor to meet with me one more time after this for lunch. I did not say anything negative to him about “his church”. I just told him we were meeting for home fellowship with the group we had been doing the homeless ministry with and went on to declare all the wonderful things the Lord had done in our lives. He looked at me and sarcastically said “well how does it feel to have it all figured out?” I didn’t say it at the time but it felt incredible, Jesus was alive, the New Testament was real, and I had been set free into this reality. I gently and humbly exhorted him not to be a man pleaser and coward. We said our goodbyes and departed. It was like the long term prisoner shaking hands with the warden of the jail on the day of his release. My time was up. King Jesus had signed a decree to release me from my sentence of religious bondage and unreality!

I remember the following Sunday morning, after having spent the previous day fellowshipping with saints and preaching on the mean streets of Detroit. I sat there on the front porch, drinking my coffee, and just overwhelmed with the presence and joy of Christ. Looking at the clock, I knew service was starting and I wasn’t there. I knew I couldn’t use my church attendance to gage my spiritual condition any longer as many in America do. All I had was Jesus and in Him I had everything. During this time, while praying for freedom from that certain besting sin I mentioned, the Lord spoke to me and told me I was already free in Christ. By Gods grace alone I have not fallen to it since (To my own shame I have frustrated the grace of God in various other ways since and in no way am claiming to be “sinlessly perfect”). Religion will always seek to keep us in bondage while the Spirit will always draw us into freedom.

From the time that I was saved I knew catholicism and cults were false and had nothing to do with Jesus, but I had no idea, even after leaving, that the protestant and evangelical churches were becoming just as bad. One day I was driving down the road and came to the shocking realization that it is all a lie. If the Bible is true than popular christendom is part of the strong delusion sent to damn all those who delight in unrighteousness. I already believed, as many do, that 80-90% of church members are not saved (including leadership). I just never put it all together before then. I finally understood why the apostle John in revelation marveled how such a thing could even be. The harlot imposter of the bride of Christ was deceiving the very elect if that were possible.

With that said, I do not believe that all institutional churches are Babylon (yet). There are surely still a few institutional churches and some saints scattered about in the system that have not bowed their knee to Baal. I believe a few are even called by God to stand there and be a prophetic voice in this generation. There are even still a few true elders that are not proud in heart though they pastor institutional churches (though they are hardly the typical pastors we see today). Some of them have been used mightily by God in my life and brought me closer to Christ. I do not write these things to slander any of these true brethren in any way and love them deeply in Christ. I encourage every brother and sister that has already fled Babylon to remember that we have true brethren left in there. If your heart is hardened against them you’re no better off than those still under delusion. Who made you to differ to anyway? The same Lord who wept over His city that would reject and crucify Him is who made you to differ. Guard your hearts against pride and bitterness brethren; this is one area where I fell shamefully after fleeing Babylon and that I have to watch to this day.

I will also say to those true brethren in the institutional churches, that I long to see them forsake the traditions of men. Many of these traditions such as sola pastor, a clergy laity system, pews, and a pre-programmed service lend themselves to religious unreality. Some are flat out unbiblical and are only justified by the traditions of men. These traditions keep true saints in spiritual infancy as God has ordained that His body is brought into maturity through the many member body ministering to each other, as brothers and sisters in Christ. It is undeniable that the normal Christianity we see in the book of Acts is almost completely lost in the west. After having experienced the New Testament, even if only in a small measure, there is nothing popular christendom can offer to satisfy me.

I know I must seem like a fanatic, but I am really just a young brother that struggles with fear, unbelief, raising my family in the Lord and many other things. I only testify that despite my own failings I have seen the Lord bring the New Testament to life in this day and age. I have seen the real and I have seen the fake. We don’t have to settle for a counterfeit Christian life and make excuses for it. We don’t have to settle for mixture and empty tradition. These are not things that Christ died for. In these last hours of time how wise would it be for us to forsake every sin, love of comfort, and empty tradition that hinders. We can live a normal New Testament Christian life by the grace of God.

In Christ Jesus,

-Jim

Visit Jim’s blog at Flee Babylon

Filed under: Written Testimonies Tagged: Babylon Church, Christianity, Church, Churchianity, Following Jesus, Harlot Church, Institutional Church, Leaving Church, Organized Religion

Called out of Deception

Loretta — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:43:35 +0000

By: LouAnn McClain

I spent 15 years in the “charismatic movement”. The things I could testify to would fill a book. From witnessing “false prophets” being brought in to give “a word” to individuals, who PAID check or cash for that word, unrepentant admitted homosexuals serving communion, to “false words” from a pastor who “heard” from God to go into debt to build a new church, after preaching prosperity, dominionism, false signs and wonders, i.e. gold dust and feathers. (of all things!) Not being led to go into detail. But to share God’s faithfulness, one of His awesome attributes.

He is calling us out. I wandered in the wilderness for 10 years. Alone. I lost all my so-called “brothers and sisters”. Accused of being a witch and causing division. All for speaking the Truth. But I am no greater than my Master. One day after being so miserable and confused, I cried out to the Lord. I prayed that He would put a heart into me to know His Truth and His Truth alone.

I began to throw out everything I ever knew. I went back to the foundation. Jesus Christ come in the flesh, crucified, dead and buried for three days and rising again victorious, as our Savior and Lord. As the Apostle Paul said, “I know nothing but Him crucified.”

I was clinging to the Truth I KNEW was His and He began to teach me. Jesus led me to a place called Apostasy Watch. There I learned about the lies and deception of the wolves in sheep clothing, according to the Word of God. Then after a few years He revealed spiritual truth to me through others who have been called out.

Now I pray that I will be counted worthy. It is not about me, my and mine any more. I pray for the remnant and the multitude. Mostly though I pray for the Lord’s Will to be done and that all of us will heed His voice in direction, instruction and faith.

As I watch the things of this world and the agenda of the enemy coming to pass prophetically, I praise the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for His judgements are righteous, and His righteousness is just. He is Sovereign. My ears hear the Voice of my Shepherd, and I follow Him where ever He goes.

May God Bless us all with His Truth,
LouAnn

Jer 33:3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.
Eze 36:24 For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.
Eze 36:25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
Eze 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
Eze 36:27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
Eze 36:28 And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.

Filed under: Written Testimonies Tagged: Babylon Church, Christianity, Church, Churchianity, Following Jesus, Harlot Church, Institutional Church, Leaving Church, Organized Religion

Getting Babylon Out of You

Loretta — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 19:09:17 +0000

E Book: By Chip Brogden. “But most people who leave the religious system eventually (hopefully) discover two supremely important truths: 1) The religious spirit is still alive and well in people long after they stop attending church, and, 2) Getting Babylon out of you is a lot harder than getting you out of Babylon.” Download the free E-Book by Chip Brogden here at The School of Christ.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Babylon Church, Christianity, Church, Churchianity, Following Jesus, Harlot Church, Institutional Church, Kicked out of Church, Leaving Church, Organized Religion

Back to your First Love

Loretta — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 00:12:21 +0000

VIDEO: Here is a video by sister “Set Free Indeed”, in which she warns of the hazard of getting caught up in all the false movements and doctrines that are lurking outside The Apostate System. She calls us back to our First Love, to rest in Him. She also exhorts us to help others by leading the others who are also recently out of the Institutional System, by encouraging them to go back to their First Love.

Filed under: Video Testimonies Tagged: Christianity, Church, Churchianity, Following Jesus, Institutional Church, Leaving Church

Finally Free! (to follow Jesus)

Loretta — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 03:26:59 +0000

By: David Yeubanks

I left behind the traditional church thing in 2001, not long after the passing of my father. I’ll never forget sitting by my dad’s bedside in the hospital when he grabbed my arm and looked straight in my eyes and said, “Son, beware of men who seek to set themselves up as fathers in your life.” He continued, saying, “I raised you to be a son of your Father in heaven. Follow only Him.” What was so profound about those words is that dad really didn’t know much of what had been going on in the church I attended at the time. Dad lived in Seattle, 240 miles from me, and I never really shared with him about the heavy “fathering” and “covering” doctrine that had swept into our church. All these pastors were imposing themselves on me as “spiritual fathers” and, for a time, I was buying into it… until the Holy Spirit made me ill about it and begun to show me what was really going on.

When my dad spoke those words, it was the Spirit of God speaking right through him to me. It was incredible! It was just what was needed to begin to pierce through the deception that was trying to overtake me.

I wish my dad was alive today so I could share this freedom I now have with him… But I know he knows because he is now with the Lord and I will rejoice again with him one day.

Like you, I left good friends behind – several who couldn’t understand my decision to leave. The truth is though, I didn’t really leave them behind intentionally. I tried to keep in touch with many of them, but when they couldn’t qualify me by a visible attendance to the program, some of them acted as though I had deserted Christ. It was a painful experience, but in time I would come to see it as just another opportunity to pray for others and forgive those who sometimes misunderstand me and pre-judge without knowledge. Though I later would find out that there were indeed several people who had opinions about me (opinions which turned into rumors), I know many simply didn’t understand and felt sorrow that they weren’t seeing me around anymore. In all honesty, I wasn’t “bitter” or “hurt” and I didn’t leave because I was “backsliding”… When I left, I was in good standing with pretty much everyone. I was friends with all the pastors, I was part of the church worship team, I had even helped with two church plants working right alongside the head pastor. I never hid things from anyone. I was always honest about my feelings and my impressions about how I felt the Lord was guiding me. But when the Lord started pulling me away, it was hard. I struggled for months over the issue before I left. I knew (with a deep kind of knowing and conviction in the depths of my being) the Holy Spirit was leading me, but my mind still battled the whole thing because this decision was so opposite everything I had always thought I was supposed to do as a Christian (I grew up in church… spent 30 years of my life there).

I also knew that people would misunderstand and judge me and I knew that would be difficult, painful and frustrating. But how could I deny the conviction of truth that I knew the Holy Spirit had put in my heart? The last few weeks at the church I attended usually ended with me leaving early. I would often feel sickened in the service. Suddenly everything looked like plastic to me; lifeless, droning, and artificial. I now know this was because my spiritual eyes were beginning to open, but at the time I wasn’t sure what was going on.

As I drove home I would sometimes break into tears and I remember crying out to God, “What’s wrong with me Lord? Why can’t I just enjoy church like I used to? What’s wrong with me?”

I remember sharing this anguish with another close friend from church… Do you know what his response was? He said, “Maybe you have a demon Dave…” Well, if that was true, it seemed I was delivered the day I finally got out for good!

A sister wrote on her blog: “I am aware that some of you out there are of the opinion that I am in a bad place, that I am struggling. Well, let me put those rumours to sleep, let me nip this misconception in the bud. I am not struggling, I am not in a bad place. I AM FINALLY FREE!” That was my heart too and eight years later it is still my heart! I am still free and have no regrets (other than the fact that I wish more of my brothers and sisters in Christ understood).

When I left, I was warned by various persons in leadership that, because I was leaving the covering, God would turn me over to deception, error, bondage, strife financial ruin, and all manner of trouble. The truth is, none of those threats have come to pass. In fact, I have experienced more joy, blessing and spiritual growth in my life these last eight years than in the 30 years prior. I have come to discover Christ as my sure Rock and Foundation, my strength, my hope, my joy, and my motivation to continue walking closer to Him each day.

That’s not to say the road hasn’t had its challenges, but they are simply par for the course. I know this is already too long, but I feel like sharing a bit more… Perhaps this will encourage some of your readers or help some of them understand the mindset of a person, like myself, who decides to follow the Lord outside of the traditional church environment.

After a couple of years had passed following my stepping out of the church routine, some friends of mine that had moved out of the country while I was still in church came back to America to visit me. We all went camping. This particular brother in Christ used to be my old roommate. We (he, his wife and myself) had a great week camping in the mountains, but near the end of the trip the issue of church finally came up. They were both very concerned that I had decided to leave behind church world… My friend’s wife was literally crying in frustration and raising her voice; trying to express her frustration and confusion… I knew that in both of their minds, they basically believed I was deceived and stumbling in some way. The whole event put a total damper on the great week of camping that had just passed. My friend’s wife said something interesting to me… She said, “I’m sorry… I can’t understand this Dave. You seem like the same guy I’ve always known. You seem to be in love with Jesus. I hear you pray and it’s so sincere and I feel the Spirit of God as we are hanging out together… but I don’t understand how this can be possible when you are not in fellowship and not in church.” That was my opportunity to say, “Listen sis, your answer is right in front of you… The church and true fellowship is not four walls and a Sunday service. It’s what we’ve been enjoying all week. The fellowship we have is because we are in fellowship with Christ. That is not dependent upon any religious meeting or meeting place. The church is who we are in Jesus and wherever two or three are gathered, He is in our midst. I’m the same guy, but yet I’m not the same at all, because now I understand that my life is only in Christ and I am free in Him. I can enjoy fellowship with any member of His body any time and any place and there need be no division between us because of a denominational difference or whatever. Christ in us is the glue that pulls us together! You guys are my family in Christ! We are both part of His Church… no building required.”

She seemed like she began to understand but I could tell it was hard to process. Here my friends were acknowledging that they were witness to genuine spiritual fruit in my life and that we had all been enjoying real fellowship in the Lord throughout the week WITHOUT CHURCH, yet there was so much anxiety that four walls and a religious program were left out of the mix. What blows my mind is that Scripture very clearly illustrates the existence of fellowship among believers WITHOUT the existence of physical church buildings and institutions. Jesus said when as few as two or three of you come together He would be there. Believers often gathered together in their homes to share meals and pray together. Sometimes (Scripture records) they met in other places like by the riverside, or public places like Solomon’s Porch, or the synagogues (at least until they were thrown out of these places (like Jesus also prophesied would happen). Meeting “places” never dictated fellowship. Fellowship existed regardless of meeting places because they understood they were all part of the same body of Christ and so the gathering place made itself apparent wherever believers found themselves opportunity to meet. In other words, the place itself was utterly irrelevant.

Why is it thought to be so important today? Can’t believers see how silly and insignificant our over-emphasis on institutions and programs are? Jesus never once mentioned such a thing or stated that His followers needed to belong to religious organizations. This is not to say that it is wrong for people to participate in organizations if they so choose, but why do Christians allow this to divide them? Why does it have anything at all to do with how we qualify fellowship and validity as a believer/follower of Jesus?

Ok, I know I’m preaching to the Choir here … But maybe someone else reading this will stop to think about it. It breaks my heart to see how too much concern over religious organizations, institutions and meeting places divides sincere believers in Christ, as it did with my friends that I just shared about. That was several years ago. Sadly, I don’t talk to either of them very much anymore, but we do connect now and then and there is love so I trust, in time, God will work it out.

Going back a bit before that last story… It was about 10 months after I stopped attending church, I got a very discouraging letter from one of the elders. This was a man who had absolutely no personal involvement in my life other than to see me at church once a week for a couple of hours in the service. Now, many months have passed… I have not talked to this person even once or seen them in person, yet I was now receiving a letter of rebuke. There was no love in the letter at all, just presumption, accusation and anger. He told me I was obviously out of God’s will. He also told me that I was deceived and being influenced by the devil. Then he tried to appeal to me and tell me how that he had been in the same place as me before in his younger years, burned out on church, but eventually wised up to the truth. Sigh… The fact is, I wasn’t simply burned out on church… There was so much more to the story than what this man so arrogantly presumed, but I guess this was to be expected. I knew he didn’t really have a clue what was going on in me. The letter so upset me that I went out for a walk to pray. In fact, the tears just started to flow as I cried out in frustration to the Lord. For 10 months I had not received a phone call, a letter, a visit, an email or anything from a single person in that church (the people whom I always thought were supposed to be my family and friends) and now the first contact I get was harsh rebuke.

I said, “God, what the hell is wrong with these people? (pardon my blunt, yet honest, reaction) Where is their love? Where is their understanding of the truth? Why do they judge and act through presumption? Why do they lash out instead of reach out? They are so stinking religious Lord!!!” Over the next few days, I received two more letters… the next more venomous than the last. As I was praying and telling the Lord my frustrations, it was like Jesus calmed me and then let me see my own religiosity and how judgmental and religious I had actually been to different people over the years. My heart broke. Suddenly, instead of hating this guy, I felt God’s love and compassion for him. I wrote a response, amazingly without anger… After a couple of days, he wrote back and apologized for his presumption and extended me the opportunity to get together. I don’t know if it was the Holy Spirit cautioning me or just my own apprehension after that ordeal, but I did not accept the invite. I had been around the leadership manipulation thing too long to fall for it now. I sent a friendly response and left it at that.

You have to understand too that I had spent the last 10 years in this place, walking close to church leaders… I got to see them behind the scenes. Some of these men were fantastic preachers; skilled in orating the Scriptures and expounding upon the Greek and Hebrew texts of the Bible. They were also generally likable people. But they also had their dark sides… Some of them very dark. One of the sister churches had a pastor who was an amazing preacher, but he was also secretly sleeping with one of the frequent visiting female ministers… and he eventually left his family and the church for another woman. One of my friends on the worship team was a gifted musician and looked so sincere an worshipful as he led songs, yet the pastors knew of his repeated problems in fornicating with a woman who was another man’s girlfriend. The leadership continued to cover it up. Other people on the worship team, I also found out, were let go because they were not faithful tithers… So, apparently, sleeping with another man’s woman (not to mention out of wedlock) is okay, but failing to tithe faithfully is an unforgiveable sin? This only scratches the surface. Being close to leadership I was witness to a number of false teachings, bad behavior and frustrating mindsets… and not just among pastors in my church, but I noticed the same among pastors of other denominations in the area (because I had friends who were in leadership in those places too). The garbage that goes on in church organizations today is truly disgusting beyond belief, yet most average church folks don’t have any idea and wouldn’t believe it if you told them. Trust me, I know! So, the few of us that witness some of these things first hand or follow a sincere unction of the Lord to remove ourselves for whatever purpose God sees fit, have to still endure the religious accusations of others who just think we are folks with a chip on our shoulders or rebellious or deceived or bitter or you fill in the blank.

Getting back to the story about this elder who rebuked me and how the Lord actually used this experience to soften my heart and teach me to forgive… One thing I did do after the Lord touched my heart over this circumstance, I began to call people on the phone that the Lord showed me I had hurt with my own religious pride and ignorance. I asked a number of people to forgive me and I shared with them that the Lord had begun a new work in my life. Most were responsive, but some I could tell the wounds were deeper than I imagined. It was something else to discover that the religiosity I was now coming to hate so much, had been equally a part of my life and caused damage and pain to others. For this reason I still have compassion for church folks, because I know many of them don’t know what they are doing.

Over the months I struggled with various things, like whether or not I should find another church or even start one of my own (I never really wanted to do that, though some friends had prodded me to do so… I kept my heart open to whatever God wanted, but I never felt any release to do anything like that). The Holy Spirit seemed to keep His thumb on me and so I waited… and waited… and waited.

Sometimes I’d go try a church…. and I felt the same “sickness” there… It was almost overwhelming for me to realize that this church thing was really done for me. In other words, I couldn’t imagine ever being content there again.

To some of the people I knew from church (that knew I was no longer attending), I know they saw this as me being idle and having an isolationist attitude. I would sometimes hear the rumors going around about “poor Dave, who isn’t in church anymore…” “Yeah, I guess Dave has a real problem with leadership…” “Did you hear that Dave doesn’t tithe… what a shame that he is so deceived… Just look what it’s led to…” There were many times it was very frustrating because I had been so accustomed to “hearing from God” by way of a pastor, or a book, or something like that, that I discovered I didn’t really have a clue how to hear the Lord.

It made me more desperate to hear Him. This is why now, when I get letters from people who have left church and are struggling, I tend to think… AWESOME – STRUGGLE ON!!!

It’s hard sometimes, but it was the best thing for me. It made me desperate for God and more dependent on Him than ever before. And as I begun to sense His voice speaking to me, I grew more confident in Him. Now, I wouldn’t trade my relationship with the Lord for all the church attendance in the world!

So now, some of us decide to move on from typical churchianity, yet we still have to deal with that question people ask… “What church do you go to?” For a long time, I kept trying to think of something clever… Something that would answer the question without opening a big can of worms (cause I hated having to get into it every time). For a while I just used the “I’m not going anywhere right now…” (which left the impression that I was “in-between” churches and so they left me alone) but it felt kind of dishonest to put it that way… Eventually I just answered the question, “I don’t attend church,” and let the pieces fall where they may. Sometimes I would say, “Hopefully, the same One you do.” (because anyone who belongs to Him is truly part of His body; His Church)

God has been good and doors have opened to share in positive ways. I guess I don’t worry about it too much anymore, but part of the reason why is because most folks who know me from church days know I don’t attend anymore. But now and then it comes up and I just try to follow the Lord’s lead. When I was still into the church thing, I remember feeling like that was my “second family”. I really thought these people cared about me and were really tuned into God. Some of them I think did, but I was surprised to find how few remained my friends after leaving. One brother and I used to be quite close. In fact, he was an elder in the church. We used to get together often, eat out, and I would sometimes watch his house when he’d go away on mission trips. We talked about everything and prayed together… If I missed a Sunday, he called me during the week or even would drop by to see how I was doing. When I left, he was the first one I told. There were tears in his eyes. That was the last I saw of him. I would try to call and make arrangements to get together, but he was always busy or would nervously cut the conversation short. Now we never talk. The guy I thought was my brother, just vanished. Others I thought were friends, turned to gossip about me. I’d see people in the store and they would do that thing where they acted like they didn’t see you by looking away real fast and then walk away. It really hurt. One thing I remember that really frosted me was, just before I left church for good, I remember going back on occasion to visit. Someone would walk up (someone I didn’t really know very well) and tell me how they had missed me. I remember thinking, “Missed me? Why didn’t you call me to tell me that? Why didn’t you come over or at least write me a note?” I’ve come to discover that the facade of “family” that most institutional churches put on, is just that, a religious facade. Most of the people have no idea they’re doing it. Many are sincere but sincerely ignorant. I still love them. I miss them too. But there’s nothing for me inside those four walls anymore. I don’t need to get all gussied up on Sunday morning just to hear a sermon (that I’ve really already heard many times before). I can’t see the point of hanging out with a bunch of folks who are squinting their eyes, weeping and singing worship songs about “take my life and use me Lord”, “Lord let your love flow through me”, when the minute you walk out the door it’s like they just turned off a switch. And those songs about “come into this Temple” and the greetings that say “welcome to the House of the Lord” just don’t gel with me anymore (or Scripture) because those four walls are NOT His Temple and that is NOT the House of God.

I know, I’m preaching to the choir… I used to love being involved with street outreach… Some of the best days of my life have been spent on the streets, hanging with the undesirables of society. But I remember when I and a couple of close friends tried to get community outreaches scheduled, there was a mile of religious red tape. The elders had to “pray about it” for six months and then nothing would happen. My buddy Mike tried, week after week, to get permission to schedule a block party at the church. Our church sat right in one of the most impoverished sections of town, yet we had absolutely NO influence on the community. Mike even told the leaders that he would provide for everything and oversee the entire event… The elders continued to sit on this for months… Finally, they approved an event. It was a massive success and so much fun. We fed the neighborhood, helped them with yard work, and had a huge barbeque in the church parking lot. It was really a blast. Of course, everyone thanked the pastors for having this event and I watched them smiling in approval as though it was their idea all along. Well, you’ve seen all this same stuff too so I don’t need to go on. I’m very happy to be free from it.

But of course, while I may be free from religion, I remain a happy slave of my Lord and friend Jesus Christ (that’s the way Paul put it in Scripture). I am truly blessed to be His child and every day is another opportunity to grow closer and live freer. God is soooo amazing and so wonderful! I pray that my church friends who don’t understand me, one day I hope they will understand for themselves. What they think of me isn’t important. I pray that Jesus will break through for them so they can know the same freedom that you and I are now experiencing!!!

Hang in there! You are right on track! Follow in His way no matter what the world around you thinks about it! The truth is shining!!! God bless ya bigtime!!!! Sorry for the novel (hehehe), but I hope it encourages you and others all the more! Keep following Him!

In His grip,

Dave

Visit Dave’s website and blog at Truth For Free.com

Filed under: Written Testimonies Tagged: Christianity, Church, Churchianity, Following Jesus, Harlot Church, Institutional Church, Leaving Church, Organized Religion

Go to Jesus not “Church”

Loretta — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 20:02:03 +0000

VIDEO: Go to Jesus not “Church” by: Michael Moses

Filed under: Video Testimonies Tagged: Christianity, Church, Churchianity, Following Jesus, Harlot Church, Institutional Church, Leaving Church, Organized Religion