Why do Christians go to Church?

[CptainCrunch]

So ZigZag made a great post in another topic on going to Church. To bring anyone up to speed who is reading this, this is the post:

There is so many, I dont know what to choose for a church.. but as for the bible, doesnt it say something like worship God in his temple, and isn't your body God's temple so to speak.. so I think as long as you study the bible, and your soul.. that one doesnt really need to goto man's churches. I believe studying someone elses interpretation can be misleading, best to get your meaning out of the bible, and study for yourself..

Now ZigZag is correct that our bodies are God's temple. It states that in 1 Corinthians 3:16. It says; "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple."

ZigZag was also correct in studying for yourself for it says in Acts17:11; "Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so." These things being the Scriptures that were being taught.

So, ZigZag is right, we are God's Temple. We are to keep the temple holy. How do we destroy the temple? We make it un-holy. How do we make it un-oly? By practicing sin. How do we know what sin is? By studying the laws of God. How do we know what the laws of God are? By studying the Scripture. How do we know we are being told the truth? By examining the Scriptures DAILY to see if it is the truth.

Now I know your thinking, "OK, so ZigZag is right and you proved that Crunch, but why do Christians go to Church?"

Hebrews 10:23-26 says; "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assemblying together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near. For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there is no longer remains a sacrifice for sins."

These four verses clearly state we are not to forsake our assemblying. We are meant to gather together. Why? To encourage and help each other grow as Christians and to help us hold fast to our hope without wavering. We are to gather to help one another to perform good deeds and love. How do we help one another? By studying and learning the Bible together as well as bear each others burdens.

Mathew 13:19 says, "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road." How can you always understand what you have never heard before? As growing Christians, we are always learning something new. The point of Bible study is to go over the verses and ask questions together and see what others think about a verse as well as why someone thinks that way. There are many verses in the Bible that support each other and being new in Christ, you won't know them all. By gathering together you bring Christians that are in different levels of their faith with different trials in their lives and experiences together. We can then learn from each other why something is the way it is or how to handle a situation we may never have seen before.

Galations 6:2 says; "Bear one another's burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ."
Romans 8:2 says; "For the law of the Spirit of life, in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death."

So the law of Christ freed us from the law of sin and death. According to Galatians, we must help one another with our burdens to fulfill the law of Christ. How can we, as Christians, bear one anothers burdens if we are not together? Galations does not name a specific burden, but instead says burdenS. If we do not help each other, we are not fulfilling the law of Christ.

Acts 20:7 says; "On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread,...

Here it is shown that Christians are to come together on the first day of the week and break bread.

1 Corinthians 14:26 says; "What then brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a toungue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up."

1 Corinthians 14:26-40 is all about how a Church gathering should be handled. It talks about who is to do what. Also notice in the above passage it says WHEN you come together, not IF. It is expected for the Church to come together. Also, once again, the togetherness is to be done for building up each other.

So, as you can see directly from the Bible that we are to gather together as one Church and learn and study and build up from each other. The buildings we go to are called Churches because it is the assembling place, but the true temple of God is in us. A church is just another building that was designed to help and aid in worship and study. The building is not important, what is important is learning Gods law and helping in fulfilling that. There is one thing ZigZag did get wrong in saying on the above quote. When he said best to get your meaning out of the bible, and study for yourself.., its not YOUR meaning you are to get out of the Bible, but Gods. He has put specific commandments and instructions in place for all Christians and they are designed to help lead us and others to salvation.

I hope to hear some good comments on this. Please be sure to post Book, chapter, and verses if you are going to reference the Bible on anything. If you are unsure of where the verse is, please try to be as detailed as possible so that we can maybe find the verse.

Crunch

[zigzag]

Nice information, but what worries me about today's churches, is that they teach you what they interpret the bible as.. and to them, that is the only 'correct' interpretation. And each church you goto can have different interpretation's ..

1 Timothy 6 -
 3) If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, 4-he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions 5-and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.

I feel a lot of churches need to read that, for when I go to some churches, they constantly ask for money, even in their sermons ..

1 Timothy 4 -
 1-The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 2-Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.

How do we know who is deceiving us?

Ephesians 4-
14-Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.


Malachi 2-
 7 "For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, and from his mouth men should seek instruction—because he is the messenger of the LORD Almighty. 8 But you have turned from the way and by your teaching have caused many to stumble; you have violated the covenant with Levi," says the LORD Almighty.

2 Peter 2 -
 1But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 3In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.

I'm sorry to any Mormons out there, but I believe they need to read 2 Peter 2 ..
But that all makes me worry about following mans instruction, especially in todays times, i believe there is alot of misleading and/or greedy churches out there.. I worry about which to follow/learn from.

-Zig

[CptainCrunch]

Hey ZigZag,

Thank you for the reply. I am going to be honest with you, many churches are like that.

I did not grow up in any particular faith. My grandmother was Baptist, my parents were/are not practicing, I went to Penticostal church for a number of years as well as non-denominational services. The churches that I went to did not ask for money nonstop and support the scriptures for what they believed, however, I felt they had problems and so I searched for myself in the Bible and through teachings. Where they way off? No. Are people going to be forever damned to Hell for the teachings Ive seen? I dont think so. The Penticostal church made these drastic changes all of a sudden under a new preacher and I did not agree with the teachings and so I left. It wasnt an easy decision.

I feel you are on the right path in finding a church. The only way you will know which one may be for you is to go to one. There is no other way. Word of mouth is usually very wrong. You can go into a church a few times and they usually have literature explaining their beliefs and you check it with the Bible.

You already show you have the knowledge of some of the things to look for. You know you need to watch yourself and be ready to defend the true faith. Its not easy. Being a Christian is one of the hardest things you can chose to do.

Now as for churches asking for money, you do have an obligation to give offering to help the church grow and be able to help others and the community. Each week a church should collect offerings. Now if a church is just asking for money every single week in sermons and pamphlets and bible study, then something is very wrong. 

The bottom line is that you have to go to the churches and when you hear what they are teaching you need to be sure it is scripturely sound. Also, a mistake people make is they find a church that has their beliefs and not the truth of God or His laws.

Also, its not just todays churches, its been that way throughout the Bible and history. There are many good churches out there but you will have to find them.

Now if you meant something else about how you can tell scripturally, and I didnt answer you question at all, let me know.

Crunch

[Sir-diealot]

Zigzag this is one of the reasons I suggested the kind of church I did in the other thread. I had been to many many churches before the Independent Fundamental KJV Bible teaching church I believe to be the best. One of the things that impressed me the most was when my Pastor looked at me and said "Well don't take my word for it, look it up" And then went on to say "If I am teaching something that is not in the Bible you have the obligation to call me on it in front of the whole church" I have never forgotten that and have seen it from many preachers from the same denomination. Understand we are not your normal Baptist church we are independent, we don't have some yogurt sucking guru in L.A. in some head conglomerate head church office telling our preachers what to preach every Sunday like many of the other churches do as well as some of the other liberal Baptist churches/denominations do, our preacher gets on his knees and prays and asks God and the Holy Spirit to give him Gods words not his owns to preach. One of the best way to tell if it is a good church or not is to see if the church it's self has a lot of money. If it does be suspicious fast as Preachers that preach the TRUE word of God tend to drive people away and not have a lot of money because of it. I would be absolutely confident in saying that most churches with LOTS of money are nothing more than social clubs. This is not always the case but is most of the time.  Oh I almost forgot, the Bible says on Hebrews 10:25: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
Meaning that we should gather together to praise the name of God not only for the glory of God but for our own good. Think of it this way, If you wanted to learn to work on cars not only would you read books (For this example we will call it thew Bible) on the subject,you would go hang out with thise that know about that stuff. mechanics (for this we will see them as Christians) because they know what it is that you need to learn and can show you how to do it without blowing yourself up(Going to Hell) So you will need to read your Bible, hang out with others of like faith Christians and seek out a teacher to teach you what you need to know i.e. a good Pastor and the only way to get all those things in one place is to go to take your car(you) tothe shop (Church)