Brother Ray:
Hope this finds you feeling better and well on you’re way to complete wellness, caused by the healing power of the Lord.
I recall reading a reply, by you, to an email. The reply was that you did not attend an institutionalized church.
Would you please explain, what you consider an institutionalized Church? Please feel free to give specific details. I meet with a small group of about 130 Christians. We attend worship services every Sunday, and other days and times, throughout the week. We have Elders and Deacons, as well as, a Preacher. We take-up a collection each week to take care of our expenditures, in the promotion of God’s Word. I do not consider us to be institutionalized.
Love you Ray, May God's blessings be with you!
Frank
Dear Frank: This will have to be short as I am hopelessly behind in answering my emails.
"Institution" means something that is usually highly developed with laws and customs approved of by larger segments of a culture or society. Or any smaller such
institute which follows the teachings and practices of a larger institution.
There are tens of thousands of small and very small congregations of "Christians" around the world. Most all of them, however, follow the pattern and customs of the
larger well established Churches. If your church follows and practices such laws, customs, and teaching, then you are an institutionalize church of men.
In Christendom, there is not one teaching or doctrine that is completely Scriptural. Virtually all churches believing in and teach the following unscriptural doctrines:
Tithing is Biblical for the New Testament Church.
Sunday is the "Lord's Day" of worship.
Man has an immortal soul.
Death is LIFE at a different location.
Judgment takes place instantly at death, hence all dead people go immediately to heaven or hell at death.
The wicked and unbelieving will suffer eternal torment (in a Christian hell).
Jesus will not save the world even though that is what His Father commissioned Him to do (I John 4:14).
Resurrection is a useless doctrine, seeing that people supposedly go to heaven at death without first being resurrected.
Christmas and Easter are Biblically sanctioned holy days.
God is a Trinity of three different persons.
Prayer changes God's mind.
What Christians are "saved" from is an eternal hell of torture.
Salvation means going to heaven.
God gave mankind "free will/free choice/free moral agency."
Anyone can repent and come to Jesus anytime he chooses.
Speaking in tongues is the sign that one is a truly converted Christian.
It is a virtue to become a soldier and kill our nation's enemies.
The King James Bible is inerrant.
The Apostle's Creed is a true outline of Scriptural truth.
Jesus was wrong when He called His followers a LITTLE flock, seeing that Christianity is the LARGEST flock in the world, and the "many called but few chosen"
is now the "many chosen" seeing that there are now two billion Christians in the world.
There are many things that God desires, but will never realize, even though the Scriptures tell us that God will fulfill ALL his pleasure and desires.
According to Genesis chapter one, the heavens and earth are only about 6000 years old.
Noah's flood killed every living thing on earth except those thins in the ark.
Etc., etc., etc.
If your group teaches and believes the above unscriptural heresies, then they are an "Institutionalized Church" of men.
Let me know how your teachings stack up against what I have presented to you.
God be with you,
Ray
