Dissenters of Christianity Due to its Religiosity were Right – Religiosity is a False Hope

When carefully compared alongside what the Bible clearly teaches about the life of Christ working in and through His people, we conclude that, for most of the last twenty centuries, mainstream Christianity has been all smoke and mirrors. For that very reason millions of Dissenters have blazed their own trail in search of “the way of God more accurately” (Acts 18:26). I am one of millions upon millions around the globe today who are not ashamed to be counted among them. 

Yet, in the midst of its various religious forms, there have always been true followers of Jesus Christ, and our Lord Himself has accompanied His people there. The Psalmist wrote: “… If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there” (Psalm 139:8). So, despite our spiritual wanderings, we can be sure He has been with, in, and among us even in the unhallowed halls of organized Christian religion. 

And to be clear, religiosity in Christianity isn’t limited to the ornately decorated belfry towers down the street. Its tentacles reach all sectors of Church culture in one way or another. 

The great problem is that we have all grown so accustomed to and comfortable with one fashion or the other of our many forms that most among us will not so much as entertain even the slightest thought that maybe, just maybe, we’re missing the mark in our own backyard. 

In the midst of trying to delve into such a broad topic as this, let me make a couple of foundational points:  

First, we enter into the life of Christ when He enters into us. That’s when we begin to identify as “Christian,” all because we are in Christ and He is in us.  

Next, we should seek to grow up into His image so that we are worthy to be identified as “Christian,” all because we are intentional about becoming more like Christ. 

Now, about becoming more like Christ… God has provided various ways and means for doing that, but the most essential way He’s provided is to enter into regular fellowship with other Christians. This regular fellowship we know as “church.”  

It is from that regular fellowship as a local church that we can best learn what it means to be like Christ, and how to become like Christ. 

God designed the local church for the Christian to be what the womb is to a developing baby. The baby grows in that safe environment from an embryo until completely developed and ready for delivery into its new environment outside the womb. We too are to grow up into His image continually, until we arrive to that moment when we also are “delivered” from this earthly bondage into the glorious liberty of Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:21). 

The Apostle Paul uses the baby-in-the-womb analogy exactly when writing to the churches of the region of Galatia, teaching that Christ is being formed in the believer (Gal. 4:19). He also teaches that we are being transformed from our fleshly will and way into His heavenly will and way, en route to becoming a “heavenly man” when we see Him as He is (Rom. 8:29; 12:2; II Cor. 3:18; I Cor. 15:48-49). As Christians, our whole life is in a “forming” and “transformation” process until we see Jesus and become just like Him; and the primary tool God designed to help us do just that is the local church. 

This is why it is, and always has been, critically important that the local church gets it right.  

I’ve listed here just a few things, and only a few Bible references, about the local church, which you may want to consider. 

1. The local church meeting was designed by God to lead our spiritual growth into a truly relational experience between the members for the benefit of each one – not just a regular meeting time and place for hearing and discussing things about God (John 17:20-23). Our Western culture is not as relational outside our immediate families as cultures in the Middle East and parts of Asia. Outside of our earthly family, we are generally very independent, private, possessive, and, oftentimes, even stiff. We should retain our independence, and privacy, and even our possessions to a point. Every family, for example, was designed by God to be autonomous, and likewise, every local church; but there is some kinship between our earthly family relationships and our heavenly family relationships that we don’t practice, or even know that we should. The Western-church mindset makes a truly Biblical local-church mindset difficult to follow. We repulse against it. Hence, we miss the fruit that such a relationship was designed to produce for us and through us for others. In and out of “church” we go, usually with only passing relationships (not really relational at all) unless and until a crisis occurs, at which time we generally let our guard down long enough to show authentic brotherly love. Think about it. Is that not so? 
2. The local church meeting was designed by God to be the place where particular needs may be shared and oftentimes met by other members of the same body. Sometimes those needs are spiritual, sometimes physical or practical, and sometimes both (Romans 12:1-8;Galatians 6:2). Regarding helping others with practical needs, the older women should teach the younger (that’ll be the day), and the older men the same. None of this can happen when the Western-culture mindset of independence remains supreme in the local church. And today, as has been the case for the last seventy years (generally speaking), Christians build up fat bank accounts that they’ll never be able to spend, and many have accounts so large their children could never spend either; but just a few seats away there are our brothers and sisters in Christ fighting to keep afloat. But we go in and out of “church” every Sunday, and so it is. 
3. The local church meeting was designed by God as a place where any member could share from his or her gift as the Holy Spirit leads (subject to the witness of the Holy Spirit’s appointed local leaders) for the benefit of all, not just a place for all to sit in rows, stare forward, and listen to a homily/lecture from an indoctrinated, trained, paid clergyman (I Corinthians 12-14). Here again, most believers haven’t a clue how to minister to others according to their gifts, or even what their gifts are. The Baptist and Presbyterians are scared to death of such a notion, and the Charismatics and Pentecostals have sorely misused, abused, and confused it all. I say this not to put down or discourage any believer, but rather to point out all that we are missing, and that of our own choosing. So, we suffer for it. His name suffers for it. The provision and edification He has made available to us lies dormant. But we go in and out of “church” every Sunday, all the same. 
4. The local church meeting was designed by God as the primary place where each member would learn and grow in the knowledge and likeness of the Lord (Ephesians 3:18-21). Do we typically really give thought to whether we are growing spiritually or not? How would we measure ourselves if we did do that? But in and out of “church” we go, Sunday after Sunday; and not necessarily the better for it. 
5. If you realize your local church experience does not fit the few examples I’ve given here, please pray about seeking out a local church that’s more compatible to the Biblical pattern. I admit they’re very rare, and they may possibly be found only in a small group setting such as a house church. 

The importance of meeting together by God’s design cannot be overstated.