Hi Mike,

Just a quick question concerning church. I have been speaking with some friends lately about church and what God expects from us. I am in the process of going through some of the truths the scriptures bear out concerning these ideas. I have some understanding of Joh 4:23, concerning the place/ type of worship, and Heb 10:25 regarding man not to forsake the epi- synagogue (the higher meeting). But I am stumbling with the fact that scripture states in Luk 4:16 that it was a custom for Jesus to attend the synagogue on the sabbath day.

My friends tell me that we are supposed to be like christ, which makes sense, but what doesn’t is that we must attend a church every week.

I have read half of your article on The Law of Moses Versus The Law of The Spirit, which gives me some understanding of the sabbath day.

I don’t know what I am missing. Is it the fact that we are supposed to be like Christ as he is now, and not mimic who he was?

Thanks,

J____

Hi J____,

Thank you for your question. Christ went to the synagogue on the sabbath because that is when the people were there. They were not there on Sunday or Friday. Christ never taught sabbath observance and actually “broke the sabbath” and “profaned” the sabbath:

Joh 5:18 Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.
Mat 12:1 At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat.
Mat 12:2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day.
Mat 12:3 But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him;
Mat 12:4 How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests?
Mat 12:5 Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?
Mat 12:6 But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.
Mat 12:7 But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.
Mat 12:8 For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.
Mat 12:9 And when he was departed thence [ After “profaning” the sabbath], he went into their synagogue:

Christ spent a literal “twelve hundred and sixty days” witnessing against “the great city… where also our Lord was crucified”. As His ‘witnesses,’ we all will symbolically do the same if we are ‘in Him.’ The number ‘two’ is simply the symbol for witnessing and the book of “the revelation of Jesus Christ” is a book we must all experience and “keep” now! It is not a book about the past or the future, so much as it is a book about “the time is at hand” generation by generation since Christ.

Deu 17:6 At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; [ but] at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.

The book of Revelation begins and ends telling us that we are to “keep those things which are written therein for the time is at hand”

Rev 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
Rev 22:7 Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

With these words in mind, let us examine the prophecy concerning God’s “the time is at hand” ‘two witnesses:’

Rev 11:3 And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.

It took persecution at the hands of Saul of Tarsus, before the elect finally ‘came out of Babylon…the great city where also our Lord was crucified’; before those very elect began to really spread God’s good news to the world outside Babylon:

Act 8:1 And Saul was consenting unto his [ Stephen’s] death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.
Act 11:19 Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only.

This period symbolizes the period we all spend witnessing in Babylon of our new- found truths.

At the end of this symbolic ‘forty and two months’ we will all symbolically, generation by generation from Christ to the end of this age, be cast out as dead men to lie in the streets of the great city:

Rev 11:8 And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt,where also our Lord was crucified.

Whenever a chosen vessel of God, one of His witnesses, is ‘cast out of their synagogues’, Babylon rejoices:

Rev 11:10 And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth [ The ‘beast that comes up out of the earth,’ is religious ‘Babylon.’ This ‘beast,’ has “two horns like a lamb,” but it “speaks like a dragon.”When you follow this beast you end up worshiping the first beast which was once killed by a “deadly wound… with a sword”]

Now here is the scripture to which you refer:

Heb 10:24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
Heb 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.
Heb 10:26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,

Do you see the words ‘one another,’ ‘ourselves’ and ‘the Truth?” Well, not one of those phrases has anything to do with those who make up today’s churches. “Ourselves” is a word referring to those who have “received a knowledge of the Truth.” Point out to me one truth taught by the churches of orthodox Christianity?

We should meet with people of like mind. For me to attend a weekly church service in an orthodox Christian church would be no different than attending a mosque. I have very little in common with their doctrines. Paul even says that they preach “another gospel.”

Gal 1:6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
Gal 1:7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
Gal 1:8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
Gal 1:9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

The gospel that Paul preached is not the gospel of immortal souls burning in eternal hell taught in today’s churches. That isn’t even ‘gospel’ of any kind. Gospel means ‘good news.” There is nothing good about such a message.

I hope this helps to set your mind at ease about the fact that you may come to realize how little you have in common with orthodox Christian teaching as you continue to study your Bible for your self.

Mike