Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire The Church is imploding

Absolutely.

When I refer to ‘the Church’, I’m not referring to a building. I’m referring to the body of believers ~ “those who are God’s”. I’m referring to Jesus’ ekklesia. And it is ‘that’ body of believers that studies by entities like the Pew Research Center have shown, that is declining. People are disassociating themselves from the faith of Christianity itself.

But brick and mortar churches, and the people who go to brick and mortar churches, and especially the leadership of brick and mortar churches…the ‘organized’ part of the faith of Christianity…they certainly play a role in these matters that we’re discussing.

Narrow is the gate.........what's going on in today's world should come as no surprise.

Good morning my friend. I feel ya’, and I can tell ya’ this:
My church is high in the mountains, and other wild country. And it doesn’t have a ceiling. I go all the time.

Good morning good folks.

Too often, a wayward minister has too much power in his church. Some can become literal tyrants. They're there to teach God's word, not to run people's lives. Some denominations have control of the ministers at the top level and they control it all. The local congregation has no say in what's taught. Other denominations have the control at the local level. They can have a lot of control to keep the teaching within God's word IF they will do it.

That he did, hung on the cross by organized religion of that time.

The Romans were goaded into the ghastly deed by the religious establishment.

So, we need to discern the difference between “religion” and true faith. There can be a difference, our job to discern that difference.

The spirit of religion is alive and well. Do not be deceived. Know who and whose you are.

DF

The actual 'Church' is the sum total of followers of Christ. A building houses a religion with sub denominations. The Church is the spiritual power of the Holy Spirit in each individual combined.

Jesus is a historical figure, his story is well known, pretty much every person on the planet knows who he is. The bible does not just reside in specific buildings. Anyone can hear of Jesus, read the bible, or not read the bible, recognize the Holy Spirit inside themselves, have a personal relationship with Christ... without ever having stepped in a church building. Participation with other people isn't necessary.

If going to a church building strengthens your personal relationship with Christ that's cool... so is being a monk on a mountain top, standing in a river with a fishing pole, listening to an elk bugle, sitting in your recliner, reading threads on the internet.

It's all good... no one path is better or mandatory.

Kent

I'm going to venture out on a limb here and say Big Boom, Thanks!

Never confuse "church" with "the church.". "The church" is invisible to man. Only God can see it in whole.

Christ said, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.” Luke 17:20-21

What exactly is God's word that should be taught? Therein is the entire problem my friend, and I suspect the reason why anyone would disassociate themselves from the classification of Christian.

Personally, I attended "Church" regularly for over 20 years. I worked for the church for more than 5 and have been a licensed minister a good portion of that time. I don't attend a church today and likely never will again. I do not believe it is possible to teach the Gospel to anyone who has been brain washed by traditional Christianity as taught in this country since its founding.

Is this what you mean.....from Wikipedia.

Organized religion, also known as institutional religion, is religion in which belief systems and rituals are systematically arranged and formally established. Organized religion is typically characterized by an official doctrine (or dogma), a hierarchical or bureaucratic leadership structure, and a codification of rules and practices.

The Abrahamic religions are all largely considered organized (including Mainstream Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and the Baháʼí Faith), as well as some schools of thought within Indian religions (for example, Sikhism and Buddhism).

Religions that are not considered organized religions, or only loosely so, include many indigenous and folk religions, such as traditional African religions, Native American religions and prehistoric religions, as well as Modern paganism, early Christianity and Hinduism.

In the United States, organized religion contributes $1.2 trillion USD to the economy annually, as of 2016.

Organized religion in America is heavily associated with community, with research demonstrating a causal "link between religion and civic activism".

If I may?
Love , Grace , Redemption.

Not a bad answer, but it's the redemption part that gets tricky.

How many church services focus of what you need to do to attain that redemption? Therein is my main criticism.

How many church services teach anything from the viewpoint that you have already attained, through grace and love, that redemption?

The only problem with the teaching that fishing or watching TV is equal to corporate worship is one that I can't and don't want to get past: The Bible. The Bible instructs us as "the church" to attend corporate worship. Corporate worship with the end goal of glorifying God is mandatory and it is better than being alone in nature or at home. Being alone in nature or at home may bless me for a season. Being with people of a kindred spirit and like, precious faith is priceless.

Jesus said He would build His church. If He is my Savior, I've been added to the church. Refusing to worship corporately is not only counterproductive, it's counterintuitive. Jesus said He who doesn't gather with Him scatters abroad. We can't gather apart from the Body of Christ. To teach a salvation that removes a command to worship isn't salvation at all.

If The Bible isn't our guide, then any teaching is OK. But not every teaching will lead to eternal life.

Something I bear in mind: He died for me. His is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory. His is the plan that matters. When I stand before Him, it won't be your word or my word that He uses as basis for judgment. It will be His. Corporate worship is the norm in both the OT and NT.

But you have to ask and repent to be forgiven.

When you mix the two most closed minded peoples ( Christians and Liberals) you are really asking for a train wreck .

And I think Revival is near.

I do believe that God sent His son into the world and when He did that He extended something to us that now we are responsible for extending to others. And that thing we’ve been called to extend to others is simply grace.

Grace when it comes to relationships and grace when it comes to us is like the oil in the machine. You know how machines work or you know enough about how machines work to know that oil is important. When you think about your car engine, the different parts in the engine of your car were designed specifically to work together but they are so specifically designed to work together that without oil they build up friction and then they destroy each other. And grace is like the oil in a relationship, and grace is like the oil in a family, and grace is like the oil in society. Grace enables folks who are different from each other to work together without destroying each other. Grace allows people who aren’t like each other, to like each other. Grace allows people who aren’t alike to get along in such a way that they’re able to accomplish amazing things even though they have differences. God initiated this. Jesus modeled this.

God extended grace to us when He sent Jesus into the world to us and for us. And we are most like our Heavenly Father when we extend grace to other people. I do believe that extending grace to other people is the greatest opportunity that we’ll ever have, relationally, while we’re on this earth.

A curious statement there, for sure. I fail to see much mixing of those two groups.

Lieberals lie when their mouth is moving. Several folks I consider to be Christians have posted on this thread. I don't consider them liars and I don't see them forcing illegal taxes, gun control, speech control, forced masking or jabs, school child grooming,acceptance of homosexuality or acceptance of Pedophilia or acceptance of govt sponsored illegal open borders or drug use on others.

JMHO.