top of page

What is a church?

What is a church?

Defining "the church" who are the body of Christ world wide, and "a church" who are a local assembly, is very important, and Protestants are as likely to disagree with the correct definition as Catholics, and the Eastern Orthodox.

PROTESTANTS

The word "heretic" and "heresy" in modern Evangelical churches is given a sophisticated twist. It is interpreted by many as "a divisive person" and their psychological twist on this is, that if divisive false teachings like adultery by remarriage enter into the churches, it is not the false pastors preaching error that are divisive it is those making a stand against such serious errors. In my opinion this is linked to the sin of Diotrophese, where false pastors simply will not be proven wrong, and expel anyone from churches as division causers who contradict them. Their churches are then turned into cults, with the underpinning justification any changes must be made very slowly, by increments, over many years, and heretics are those who confront the issues and want changes to occur more quickly. This was a difficult battle for those preaching the true Faith, as false pastors would often hold their cards close to their chests and not even answer questions. The advent of the internet has made these division causing pastors and elders much easier to expose as deceivers. On the other hand as very many people go to church as a kind of social club, they will necessarily always want the social club intact, and not want holiness to enter the scene. The primary causes of division are always the false teachers. If it was not so Jesus would be rendered an heretic in Matthew 23, The end result is that any city I was to preach in in the entire world, would have Evangelical pastors calling me an heretic, to them a division causer, because frankly I have the teaching that if your pastor will not stop teaching serious error, then after a reasonable time elapses - put him out of your church and appoint another, as it is him who has caused that division to be necessary not you. 

5) Secret doctrine pastors.

1) The Gospel.

To start with a church must get the one and only "gospel by which we are saved" correct, or the so called church becomes anathema (Gal 1:6-9) that is how serious this is. The creeds all have the flaw of failing to define the gospel of salvation, and thus the real church. This led to the heresy of sacramentalism combined with salvation by works, combined with Christ. Catholics and the Orthodox are very very different  however in their doctrine of what Jesus himself contributes in this "synergy of salvation" or "process of salvation" as the Catholics certainly do not say Jesus achieved freeing man from ancestral sin, as they deny the concept, so quite how the Orthodox and Catholics ever preached the same definition of salvation is unexplained, unless an historian pinpoints the date the division in doctrine occurred.

3) Half baked churches .

One of the most unrecognized heresies is to have half baked churches that are more like religious social clubs that collect money, These are essentially of 3 types

 

1) Churches where those in the ministry do not deal with basic truths to keep the church right with God, Joel Osteen might be a prime example, whose half baked ministry turns their meetings into a kind of giant dating agency, 

2)  Cults masquerading as a church, and hiding their heresy deliberately to keep the donations of a wider audience. An example might be a Hebrew Roots false pastor who fails to mention he is a Sabellianist (an antichrist in other words)

3)

1) The word church in Greek means the assembly, the people themselves are "the church of Christ" it does not mean a purpose built building

bottom of page