What Does The Bible Say About Membership In A Local Church?

Most, if not all of professing Christians proudly and loudly quote the verse – “All Scripture is inspired of God and is also profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, instruction, etc.”


We all say that Scripture is our only rule for faith and practice.

We claim that the New Testament documents provide God-inspired direction for the New Covenant people of God, just as the Old Testament Scriptures structured life for Israel.

But where do these writings ever reveal the notion of placing your membership in a local congregation? Where is “local church membership” emphasized?

If “placing your membership in a local church” cannot be found in the Bible, how in the world do all the churches end up with one, and why do we get our feathers so ruffled when it is questioned?

Why do we elevate that which has no foundation in Scripture?

The sad fact of the matter is that nobody really submits himself/herself to the Scripture.

But all of us, to one degree or another, submit ourselves quite well to the traditions of men.

But even our so-called church traditions are not above constructive and corrective criticism. Are they? Should this concern us? The idea of changing cherished traditions takes us out of our comfort zone and leaves us with the stark reality that we have been deceived and misled. Who likes to discover that their belief systems are wrong?


These are vital questions that need to be addressed.

While many “church leaders” will often pay lip service to the idea that the members should examine what is being taught in light of the scriptures, church members are rarely given the freedom to actually do so without serious repercussions. That is, unless the member’s conclusions are the same as the leaders. The question is not "is my teaching elder right or wrong"; rather it is "do you have the right to study the Bible for yourself and do you really have the freedom to come to your own conclusions?"

What Does The Bible Say About Membership In A Local Church?

Are God's people "church members?”

During the New Testament and the times of the Apostles, believers did not, (at least in the sense we today use the phrase “become members of the church”), become members of anything! They did not have to “become a member” of what they were automatically a part of by conversion to Christ.


The events of church history: i.e. – the incorporation of confessions, and creeds, and catechisms, and other traditions of men, have changed that situation.

Two thousand years of corruption has changed everything.

To read the remainder of this article in full, click the link below:

www.wickedshepherds.com/churchmembership.html

Remember, God does indeed have a membership, but that membership is UNTO HIM, not to a place where you go once a week to attend a so-called “worship service!”


http://www.wickedshepherds.com/

There's No Place Like Home:

How the Institutional Church destroys families

God oftentimes uses many signs and illustrations in the Scriptures in driving home a point on an issue that He wants to emphasize. One such use is His relationship to the nation of Israel. God uses this as an allegory to show His love and mercy for his unfaithful wife, Israel. 

There are a few examples of this particular allegory. One example of God's unconditional love is in the Old Testament book of Hosea.

Hosea was one of the minor prophets, sent by God to preach to Israel. Hosea married Gomer, and they had numerous children. Gomer, being allured and seduced, turned to others gods. She then turns her back on her husband and abandons Hosea to go live in the sin of whoredom and adultery. Hosea was devastated, for he loved Gomer; but she was a whore.

At the end of the book of Hosea, after Gomer had lived a life of sin, Hosea finds her being sold at a slave market. Hosea buys Gomer back, thus expressing his unconditional love and forgiveness.

This whole incident is a reminder of the evil dichotomy currently existing between “church rulers” and the God-instituted rule in the family. How?

It’s a sad story but nevertheless, all too true….and even perhaps going on right now as we speak in many marriages.

How can a faithful spouse (wife) turn into an unfaithful spouse (wife)?...

"....But sadly, she became an unfaithful wife...slowly being beguiled by the church and its leaders, she began to forsake her husband in her heart.....She was ever so lured by their seductive charm; their incessant and never ending call to sit under THEIR teaching and to submit to THEIR headship and to listen to and follow THEIR counsel;

...Through the passing of time, many of her "friends" entered into the scene and now, along with the "elders", encouraged her more and more in the departure from her husband and from the Truth...."

...She in turn was fully and finally seduced by the church and its leaders; seduced by her "friends" and she now became an adulteress, prostituting herself with the "eldership"

...She began to completely forsake her husband and trampled on the marriage covenant by constantly being in rebellion to his direction and leadership. She now no longer saw her husband as her God-given head but had replaced him, not in heart only but in actuality, with her new lover and head, her church leaders.

...She had become indeed a whore; whoring after the “eldership”. She had committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord and his Word; she has sought out and found other counselors and made them her idols; for the evil spirit of whoredom's has made her to err as they seek out more whores to commandeer and control.”

…In spite of this, her husband was patient with her; suffering in silence; enduring her cruel mocking's and slander; laying down his life daily for her; and gave her numerous opportunities to repent and return to him, her true husband and lover.”

.....Though the story doesn't end there.....he has not given up on his unfaithful wife.......

...By the mercy of the Lord, he at last, rescued her from their poisonous fangs, and she returned to him and truly submitted to him and to his God-given headship in everything.

...She lived with him once again, as he lovingly soothed her wounds that she encountered from her abusers........anointing them with oil......she was eventually brought back to her senses;

...She was faithful to him; and gradually her heart was won over by his love and mercy, to truly become his wife; and this was now her care all the days of her life; never to desert him again."

See also: A Word To The Wives
 
Wicked Shepherds and http://www.wickedshepherds.com/ is exposing these men and their dastardly deeds which have corrupted, contaminated, and disfigured the church; turning it into an enslaving institutional system, which was not founded by Jesus Christ, but by men who love to feed upon and control other human beings.