Should You Attend Church?
Many, perhaps even you, have become disillusioned with churches
and religious leaders. They wonder what they should do and where they
should turn. What does God say?
Scandals revealing the bad moral examples of church leaders have made
many wary. If that weren't enough, many people are confused about which
doctrines and practices are truly biblical. They are also uncertain about
which, if any, church organizations are truly of God. Many are turned
off by the lack of spiritual nourishment-or even outright disbelief in
the Bible-they encounter in some denominations.
Consequently, a growing number of people are becoming disillusioned with
their church but don't know where to turn. Others simply try to worship
God by themselves, apart from any group affiliation or fellowship.
What would God have us do? Should we stay where we know things are not
right, or take the path of spiritual isolation, or have con- fidence that
there is a better alternative? Could there be dangers-possibly even unrecognized
-in some of the courses of action we might choose? How does the Bible
answer these important questions?
The first question we need answered is, what does the word church actually
mean? Throughout the Scriptures church and congregation refer to people,
never to a building. God's Church is made up of people called to follow
Jesus Christ. It is composed of disciples or students of Jesus Christ
who convene to receive God's instruction.
Both Jesus Christ and His apostles, however, repeatedly warned us not
to be deceived by a false Christianity-a religious deception that was
well under way even in the first century (Matthew 24:5,11,24; 2Corinthians 11:3-4,13-15; Galatians 1:6-9). God's true Church is composed of those
who have been called out of this satanically influenced world (2Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2; 1Peter 2:9) to become a spiritually converted group
dedicated to following God's ways as taught in the Bible. The Bible is
the standard by which all religious bodies are to be measured.
