Real Bible Church?
IS YOUR CHURCH A REAL BIBLE CHURCH?
Look at the name of your Church, does it have any of the words; 'Baptist' , 'Bible', 'Apostolic', 'Christian', [church] of 'God' or 'Christ', in its name? If it does the assumption would be that your church believes the Bible. In fact your church should pattern itself after the New Testament, right?
The following questions should answer the question as to whether your church is a real Bible church or just kind-of-a-Bible church.
1. Is the Bible itself held to be the absolute authority in all things done and practiced in your church? Most people church people will answer this question with a yes. This is because they either don't know what the Bible actually says or don't know the position of their church on many issues of Biblical importance. Many Pastors and church leaders ignore or avoid issues that are contrary to the Bible but practiced in the church in order to 'keep peace' within the church. The next few questions will reveal whether your church is really a 'Bible' or 'New Testament' church of just a pseudo-bible church.
2. Is your church part of a Denomination, Association or Convention? If your answer is yes, your church has failed the test as true New Testament or Bible church. In order to be a part of a Denomination, Association, or Convention means that membership is involved. This means the you mustssubscribe to the beliefs, policies and practices of the organization. You must contribute to the organization with a portion of the tithes and offerings gathered by your church for the organizations cooperative programs (missions, youth rallies, conventions, etc.). The local church loses its autonomy and must conform to the organization or else loose its membership in the organization. This is contrary to the practice and example of the churches of the New Testament. Don't believe me search the Scriptures, and see if its so...
3. Does your church use mission boards? That's right, if you support and send missionaries through a board then the church is doing mission work contrary to the Scriptures, check out the Bible and see if you find a mission Board. There are many true BIBLE churches that send our their own missionaries with full support. These missionaries, sent under the authority of their home church, establish other New Testament churches with great success. Every dollar goes to the missionary, not a dime to a mission board to support it members. Now that’s BIBLE
4. Is your church incorporated? Most churches become incorporated without any idea why or what it actually is. The incorporation of a church makes that church a legal entity under the jurisdiction of the State in which it was created, thus subject to all the laws regarding incorporation by the State. The churches books are subject to inspection by the State and IRS, the membership role is subject to scrutiny by the Attorney's general and if the State deems the subject matter of the Pastor to by a “hate crime” he can be arrested and jailed under the State and Federal charges. If your church is incorporated it is not a BIBLE church (in reality it is a state created religious institution).
5. Does your church have trustee's and other officers not found in the Bible? Please show me a New Testament church with trustees? You might counter that it is required of a church to have trustees to own property. Really? Since when is the church in the real estate business? What New Testament church do we find owning a building? Now I'm not against buildings but there is a better way and it does not involve the incorporation of a body of believers to own property.
6. Do you have women as 'Pastors', worship leaders, on the board of directors, Sunday School superintendents, or in any positions of leadership over the men of the church? I know I get no extra points from the ladies on this one, but please show me the leadership role of women in the New Testament church? If a church has elevated a lady into a position of leadership over men, the church fails to be obedient to the New Testament pattern for a BIBLE church.
7. Does your church have a “worship team” and use music taken from and patterned after the world? Where in the Bible do we learn of worship teams? And why have the churches brought in worldly music? The churches have compromised truth and holiness for big crowds and notability. I am often told that this music is so we can reach the young people. WHAT? This is about as foolish as saying we have slot machine in our church so we can reach the gamblers. We have churches filled with religious people swinging to the beat of a drummer, who are lost in their sins and going to hell. My how crafty Satan is, and how blind the religious who are twice made a child of hell.
8. Does your Pastor preach from the King James Bible? Now your going to say I've gone too far. What does the translation of the Bible have to do with being a BIBLE church? To ask that question illustrates my point. The degradation of the old churches started about the time of the introduction of the “modern translations”. If Satan can appear as an angel of light and false teachers as apostles then why would we be disturbed to think that Satan would not introduce false Bibles among the people? What better way to destroy the “faith” once delivered to the Saints if the Saints are unable to recognize that “faith” between the pages of what is claimed to be the Book of God? People tell me that the old King James Bible is to hard to read. That a more modern translation is better.... I guess a fourth grade education isn’t what it used to be. That’s right, the Kings James Bible is about a fourth grade level reading book. And for the words you don’t understand, there is a dictionary (or maybe we don’t know how to use it either). Yes, there are some archaic terms, so what, you can’t learn anything new? What is even more disturbing is that these new “bibles” distort, change, and deny many of the great doctrines of the Scriptures and substitute a lie for the truth. Only takes a drop of poison to contaminate a well.(For more information about the Received Text of the KJV and the Nestles or Minority Text, please contact me...)
This is only a sampling questions that one might ask to determine if your church is a true New Testament church or if it is just a church that SAYS it’s a New Testament Church. You see there is more to it then just a “name”, there is more to it then “do they use the Bible”.
9. Is Christ the author and founder of your church? If your church is a Protestant church then Christ cannot be the author or founder of your church. All protestant churches have their origin out of the apostate Roman Catholic Church. Christ does not make any claim of kinship to any apostate churches nor can an apostate church claim kinship to Christ. All true churches of Christ can be identified by a faithful and loving obedience to all the commandments, ordinances, doctrine and offices found in the New Testament.
10. Does the government of your church follow the pattern given in the New Testament? If we closely examine the New Testament church from the Scriptures we learn how the church is to govern herself. Does the church you go to have a "Board" (mission, Deacon, Sunday School, etc),"Trustees", "Superintendents" or any office not taught in the New Testament? Is your Pastor the member of any Ecclesiastical Association? Is there any governing body or Headquarters over your church? If so your church is not a real BIBLE church. In a true New Testament church there is no higher authority then the Lord himself and his law which he has given and this law of Christ includes the church's self-government. If in the church's self government it fails to follow the commands of Christ, Christ himself may disown it as his own as he did to Israel in their disobedience. But a true church of Christ belongs to Christ and follows his law, obeys his commandments and fellowships in his ordinances.
11. Does the church you attend accept into its membership only true disciples of Christ (believers). It is appalling today that so many churches exist and few examine their membership to see if those that are accepted in that membership are truly believers, disciples of Christ. There are many that have a false profession of faith and no true repentance. The wicked and unconverted have found a home in the midst of our churches and nobody is crying foul. These things ought not to be so. We accept people into our membership who have "asked Jesus into their hearts" but have not repented of their sins, why is that? Where in the Bible do we find anybody "asking Jesus into their hearts"? I will tell you what you will find, men and women repenting of sin and confessing Christ. Without faith and repentance there is no true salvation.
12. Does the church you attend conform to the world in its music, preaching, ministry and methods? This is an important question. In the world of business there is an accepted and wise way to conduct business. It involves contracts, lines of authority, incorporation, commerce, marketing and a host of other variables depending on the type of business or trade the company is in. Unfortunately most churches are doing business as a corporation instead of a spiritual body. We often look at the education and resume of a prospective pastor instead of the Biblical and spiritual qualifications of the prospective Pastor. We run our churches with 'articles of incorporation', which most of the time follow no Biblical precepts or examples, instead of by the law of Christ and the teachings of the New Testament. We deal with the problems of the church as a corporation does employees rather then as a people under the prophetic, priestly and kingly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ
As to music, we are instructed to teach and admonish one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. All things in the Lords churches are to be to the edification of the Saints. It is marked by peace and righteousness. How is it that the rock mantra of the world is at all edifying to the church? If the gifts given by the Spirit could be used in a disorderly way in the Corinthian church so as to cause men to sin what of those things that belong to the world and the devil? Why do we bring them into our churches unless we as a church are disorderly and worldly? We are suppose to put off the old man and the lust thereof and put on the new man which is created in holiness and true righteousness.
Where in the Scriptures do we find 'worship teams'? This is not the path to godliness or of the true worship of Christ. Worship teams do not lead in worship, worship is from the heart and it is done in spirit and in truth. I find from my own experience (twenty years in the gospel ministry) that worship teams are, generally speaking, a means of division and strife among the membership rather then the edification of the Saints and the exhalation of our Lord Jesus. Worship teams are in direct opposition of New Testament principles of true worship. Singing in the New Testament church was congregational and gave no opportunity for the flesh to boast of its talents and abilities. If a church feels it needs a worship team it only evidences that the church has compromised and become weak in faith conforming to the world for the sake of numbers, popularity and the deceiving of the membership into believing they are experiencing worship.
May God deliver his true Saints from these so-called houses of worship. Another weakness of most churches is found in their pulpits. Preachers who are nothing more then wolves in sheep's clothing, deceiving and being deceived. One of the worse forms of deception is self-deception. The Bible says there will be many who proclaim that they are servants of Christ, preaching, healing and doing good in the name of Christ but they are self-deceived and Christ will proclaim in the judgment, "Then will I profess unto them, I never know you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity". Many preachers are the product of the "Colleges or Schools" they have attended. Let me ask at this point, where in the Bible are we instructed to send our preacher boys to a "Bible" school? Why do we not follow are much better and more Biblical way, "And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also," II Tim. 2:2. Does it tell us to do this in the Bible School, no! Paul tells Timothy that this is to be done in the church. If our churches don't have Pastors who are "apt to teach" and so educate those of their own church then that are not called to Pastor.
Now let us consider the methods employed by modern churches. Where do we find in the Bible: Sunday Schools, VBS, Bus ministries, child evangelism and any host of extra-biblical para-church organizations? It seems for nearly two thousand years the churches of the Lord Jesus did quite fine without them and they were a holy and spiritual body. We now employ these extra-biblical methods and find our churches filled with unrighteousness and a people that merely profess a faith but know not the power of that faith. In other words the worlds methods and means make the church worldly and unprofitable. I am not against "ministries" that belong to a church and who's people operate and maintain that ministry. But I would caution and have personally seen where "ministries" have caused sinful behaviour within the church.
I am of the personal belief that any such "ministries" that cause division, jealousy, anger, pride, etc. should be discontinued in the church or, perhaps even better, never started. I totally reject any para-church organization or extra-biblical organizational ministries Churches are, in this post-modern age, measured as successful and spiritual by the number of people who attend and the kinds of programs she offers to her congregation. This is by no means the Biblical litmus test of a true church of Christ, in fact from what I find in the Scriptures I would be inclined to think of these kinds of churches are false and dangerous to the true faith of Christ. Mega churches are such because they have successfully appealed to the flesh and worldliness their membership and those smaller churches that follow the methods of these mega-churches will suffer the wrath of an offended God for their unbiblical and worldly practices.