Does is it really matter where you go to church?
Are they not more alike than different? Does it not come down to preferences like personalities, if the wife and the children are happy, or if you can profess to be a member of a church?
One area that radically matters when choosing the right church to attend is the teaching. So permit the author to repair to some biblical texts for clarity and illustration.
In Isaiah Chapter 5, God delivers a powerful indictment to his people.
“So now let Me tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard: I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed; I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground. Isaiah 5:5
Well, the vine is Israel, and it was trampled by the armies of Babylon.
But not just because of idolatry.
“Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge; And their honorable men are famished, And their multitude is parched with thirst.” Isaiah 5:13
In other words, Israel failed because their teachers failed. The people were spiritually starved and thirsty. Therefore, teachers matter because of judgment and eternity matter.
Another parallel is in the prophet Malachi.
Malachi tells us that the tribe of Levi has been corrupted (see also Amos 2:11-12). The prophet reminds them of their very own patriarch in an attempt to secure repentance. The strategic importance of this tribe is that they were instructors in the right way. They pointed to the cultus, maintained by the family of Aaron, that has its end-time fulfillment in Jesus Christ. It is noteworthy that in Malachi it is teachers from within the covenant community that are causing the people to stumble. Notice Malachi’s words to them:
“True instruction was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found on his lips; he walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he turned many back from iniquity. For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. But as for you, you have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to stumble by the instruction; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi, says the Lord of hosts.” Malachi 2:6-8
So Levi “turned many.” Conversely, there is a turning of another sort! The word “stumble” is instructive (cf. Proverbs 4:16). It is noteworthy that the LXX reads to be weak or feeble. In other words, the teachers in the days of Malachi have enfeebled the people with corrupt instruction.
A New Testament parallel to this is 1 Corinthians Chapter 3.
Contextually, Paul is stressing the importance of qualified builders because he knows of coming judgment. He refers to himself in verse three as a wise master builder who knows that others will build upon his work.
Then, he warns these builders. “Let each man be careful how he builds upon it” (3:10).
The metaphor of the building is the end-time temple. Teachers who build upon it use raw materials: some use gold, silver, and precious stones while others use wood, hay, and straw. The reference to gold, silver, and precious stones are items used in the building of the Old Testament temple as specified by Moses. The metaphor is qualified teachers, teaching the word of God.
The wood, hay, and straw are building materials used for common everyday buildings. In other words, the qualified builder is building upon the temple. The unqualified is trying to build upon it but with worldly materials. When the judgment comes, and it will, the students of the teachers qualified or not will be tested. One remains. The other does not.
The temple is not literal and neither are the building materials. They are references to people and church growth. And when unqualified teachers add unregenerate and worldly converts to the church, they will be destroyed. In the case of one unqualified teacher, although a Christian, his product cannot withstand the judgment either. In other words, his converts perish in the judgment too.
Notice what Paul says: “If any man’s work which he has built upon it remains, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire.” (1 Corinthians 3:14-15)
Again, this teacher is a Christian. I am sure he has pure motives and is sincere and compassionate; yet, he is unqualified as a teacher of the word of God. His “converts” are taken in judgment.
Teachers matter because of the effect on their students. The warning is to teachers and their followers.
Hear it:
“Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)
This is what prompted the well-known Anglican Bishop J.C. Ryle (1816-1900) to write in his book, Holiness:
“It is vain to shut our eyes to the fact that there is a vast quantity of so-called Christianity nowadays which you cannot declare positively unsound, but which, nevertheless, is not full measure, good weight, and sixteen ounces to the pound. It is a Christianity in which there is undeniably ‘something about Christ, and something about grace, and something about faith, and something about repentance, and something about holiness’; but it is not the real ‘thing as it is’ in the Bible. Things are out of place, and out of proportion. As old Latimer would have said, it is a kind of ‘mingle-mangle,’ and does no good. It neither exercises influence on daily conduct, nor comforts in life, nor gives peace in death; and those who hold it, often awake too late to find that they have got nothing solid under their feet.”
Again, Bishop Ryle was lamenting the nominalism of his day. I might add a nominalism caused by unqualified teachers.
A contemporary scholar is David Wells. He too acknowledges that sinister forces are at work in the church. He writes in, The Courage to be Protestant:
“When the (post) modern self becomes religious, it may become liberal, emergent, or loosely evangelical. But when it becomes (post)modern in these ways, it will no longer be historically Protestant. It will not be biblical. It will not be apostolic. It will be Christian in name but not in thought.”
The difference between Ryle and Wells is not merely temporal. In 19th Century England, the church, according to Ryle, was filled with nominal Christians, but at least the dogma was orthodox. The issue of nominalism is with us today; however, if Wells is correct, we are unorthodox. It is a sad illustration that doctrinal shifts are never static but keep lurching further and further from the truth. It is deception by the installment plan! Wells extrapolates: “In due course, the children of these evangelicals will become full-blown liberals.”
Jesus warns his disciples about the coming destruction of the temple. And what is Jesus doing if not warning his disciples not to get caught up in deception.
“See to it that no one misleads you. . . . And at that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many. And because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end, it is he who shall be saved.” Matthew 24:4, 10-13.
It is the same with the apostle Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2. The context is one of deception. Paul writes to steady his charges regarding subterfuge within the church:
“So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us.” 2 Thessalonians 2:15
In other words, it does matter. It matters because truth matters, theology matters, and teachers and their churches matter because eternity matters.
A benchmark for a true church is given to us in Acts. It is instructive what the church is given to there. And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Acts 2:42
Some statistics from Acts are helpful to amplify this emphasis. The phrase word of God and analogous phrases like ministry or preaching the word and word of salvation, grace, and gospel are used some twenty-six times. See Acts 6:7, 12:24, and 19:20. The word teaching is used some fifteen times in Acts. See Acts 28:31
It is incontestable that God is sending forth his word to affect his eternal purposes in creating a people, in contrast to Israel, who are given to his word. It is just as evident that God’s agents use this word to call and equip God’s people. See Isaiah 45:22-23 and 55:11.
This is evident that the church in Acts is not following the corruption of the teachers in Old Testament Israel. I think that it is evident that many modern teachers and their churches are!
A specific instance in Acts is noteworthy. Paul is in Miletus, and he calls for the Ephesian elders.
“Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears.” Acts 20:26-31
This is more than just a benchmark or example of what approximates true ministry. It is true ministry. It is that Paul has received his calling from the Lord, and he is preserving the content in passing it on to successive generations. See 2 Timothy 2:2
I believe that many churches today have lost their confidence in the word of God. It vainly adopts a youth culture to keep young people and their parents. This is evident in the use of music and programs. This tragedy is played out when the children move away from home; namely, they move away from the church as well.
There is also a decline in preaching evident in short moral homilies at the expense of the redemptive purposes of God found in Scripture. The danger here is that moralizing in the church makes us no different than every other religion in the world. This is played out in a marked decline in church attendance because if the church looks like the world, it has nothing to attract and hold us.
Our commitment at Grace Bible Church is to biblical exposition because God has ordained his word to call and equip his people.
