Why the teachings of men, part 11....'Church' institution

I have been toying with certain thoughts for a while now, all pertaining to my recent ongoing studies of what started out as the writings of men then changed into the teachings of men. Mainly there are two subjects that I have been wondering if I should go a bit deeper into.

I guess I'm going to jump off the deep end and dig deeper into one of those subjects. That subject is the 'church' and all that falls under that word.

I could never hope to cover it all in-depth. There's just too much there to cover so I'm not even going to try. What I want to cover is my own changing thoughts and opinions.

I have spoken against the 'church' system before and will probably speak against it many more times. I am not in favor of it. It is a false religious system that promotes as many, if not more, lies than it does Truth.

But...

Here's where my own thoughts and feelings have changed as I have delved deeper into the teachings of men.

Let me back up a bit and tell you the seed that sprouted into my new understanding of 'church'. One day my husband and I were walking in our yard when he told me he thinks he understands what purpose God has for the 'churches'. He then went on to tell me that with 'churches' so visible in America that even a child raised by Atheist parents can't help hearing about Jesus even if it's done when that child questions what that big building is on the street corner. Most answers to a question like that would speak of Jesus or at least of God. The explanation could be long or short but it's possible for it to plant a seed in an elect child whose parents are total nonbelievers.

Fast forward a couple of months from that conversation and I have found myself going through an ongoing and ever changing, ever deepening study on what started out as the writings of men. As this study has grown and changed, becoming more about the teachings of men and less about the writings of men, I have found myself looking at the 'church' through new eyes.

In my last post I wrote about a woman who claims some form of Calvinism but writes like her belief system is 'church' as the god instead of Christ as the God. At least from what little of her writings I read. In that post, titled 'Why the teachings of men, part 10", I made the statement that we would be best served if we could remove the word 'church' from Scripture all together.

I do believe we would be better off without 'church' in the Scriptures. We could replace it with ekklessia or even with 'the called out ones'. I know that if we could do that then we would have 'churches' claiming that either that version of the Bible was adulterated and was heresy or else they would simply switch to calling themselves the called out ones.

From my experience the 'church' people, as a whole, believe themselves to be what Scripture now defines as the 'church'. They are lost in their delusions and they have their preachers, teachers, and books that encourage and perpetuate the delusions.

Where did it all start?

I don't really know. I was telling my husband today that I thought it may have started when the Roman Catholic 'Church' controlled everything, when they killed people for doing anything they didn't approve of. My husband said it predates that because it was happening in the first centuries when Judaizers were trying to take over.

I don't know when it started or why. I can understand to a degree how it happened though. I used to live in a town where there is a very old Roman Catholic 'Church' building. The rumors around town, rumors that are handed down from the older generations, are that there is torture equipment in the basement in that 'church'.

I don't know how true that is. I've never been inside the front doors much less in the basement. I have tried several times to track down any kind of information on whether or not the rumors are true, all to no avail. It seems to me that in this day and age having torture equipment in the basement of a 'church' would be nothing more than sad historical value.

If there is truth to the stories that circulate in the town I used to live in than that truth is a closely guarded secret, kept from the media and internet. I was able to find plenty of information on the Roman Catholic 'Church' using torture. I was even able to find a very confusing article (https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/the-church-and-torture) that seemed to kind of take the long way around the question, and I will admit I only scanned over the article, reading bits and pieces here and there, but I could not seem to come to a point where I was understanding them to take a stand against all torture.

Regardless of the stance they actually take, and if anyone makes it through that entire article and comes away with a clear understanding of their stance on the issue, please leave me a comment with what you found out, they did at one time practice torture.

From what I was able to gather torture in the Roman Catholic 'Church' dates to the dark ages and the Spanish Inquisition but that all predates the 1800's which was when the Roman Catholic 'Church' formed in the town I used to live in.

That begs the question of whether or not the rumors about the torture equipment in that Roman Catholic 'Church' is really there, was ever really there, or is just made up stories. Here's a bit more information to that puzzle: I knew a woman, now deceased, that claimed to have been in the basement and saw the torture equipment. She had no picture, no proof, that the equipment is there but she also had no reason to lie about it.

I never did find out whether or not that torture equipment is really there or ever was there but just the rumors that circulate about it are enough to make one look at that 'church' with new eyes and no small amount of fear.

Do they still use that torture equipment?

On who?

What kind of torture do they do?

In our world today, at least in America, torture is illegal. If anyone ever tortured another all the victim would need to do is go to the authorities and file a complaint. In the case of a 'church' torturing people, one would think that many complaints would be filed and the 'church' investigated and found out. But then again we hear of cults, by the old definition not today's modern definition, that torture people and get away with it so who knows?

I'm not implying this 'church' tortures people today. I am just saying they could, or could have in the past. And really, most people are so enamored of their 'church' that they tend to take whatever is taught in the 'church' at face value and accept anything as 'God's' doing through 'His' chosen leaders.

The 'church' leaders are the kings...rulers...gods...in their own kingdoms and the congregation are the uneducated followers that accept what the leaders say because those leaders 'know' best.

There's only one word for that:

Hogwash.

Unless there are two words:

Hogwash and brainwashed.

Honestly, I would have to say that regardless of any physical torture that may or may not take place, or have ever taken place, in a 'church', the brainwashing is so in effect that torture happens in every single one of them. Most of the poor people submit to the torture without ever being aware that it's happening because it is a torturing of their minds and lacks the physical pain of bodily torture.

Still, I can see how the 'church' gained the upper hand. People have a deep need to believe in something. They have an emptiness inside them that must be filled with something. They often seek out things and ways to fill that need, whether they realize it's Christ they need or not, and go to what they understand to be those that can show them the way to fulfillment.

For those that see 'church' as the middleman, so to speak, for 'leading' them to Christ, they go into these buildings with their guards down and their hearts open. They go like small children assuming the adults in charge are looking out for their best interests and that they know best.

Even today I can see the poor sheep, not Christ's sheep, but lost sheep, flowing into the only thing they know to be the 'church' and sitting through sermons and Bible studies 'learning' God's word. They struggle to understand the Bible in their own studies and believe that these people that have gone to seminary or other higher studies can somehow understand what they can't and they allow themselves to be led by the hand through the Bible so that they can understand what it says.

They turn to bought Bible studies for their home studies and teachers and preachers for their 'church' studies because they can't grasp the Scriptures if they sit down with their Bibles. It just doesn't make sense to them. They need someone to show them what they cannot see.

And that very teaching perpetuates the idea that they can't actually understand Scripture because if they do actually read it on their own and if they happen to see something in its pages that the 'church' doesn't teach or that opposes what the 'church' teaches more often than not they will go to 'preacher' or 'teacher' and ask about that verse. Then they are again taken by the hand and led through 'Scripture' given the 'church' version of whatever it is they are questioning.

And so they follow blindly, starting with the very idea that 'church' has everything to do with Christ, and then they simply fall into place becoming 'good little christians' doing what 'preacher' tells them to do.

Now 'preacher' may mean well. He may truly be trying to 'save souls' but more often than not he is just as brainwashed as the 'flock' he 'leads'. He went to seminary where he was taught what the Scriptures say and took such classes as The Art of Preaching.

Now that he has graduated and worked himself into a job he has to do his best to pull the people in, showing his success through 'saved souls' and 'tithes' and whatever else marks him as a successful preacher.

Part of what he does to accomplish that is to entertain those that step within his doors. To get them inside they have things like vacation Bible school, potluck suppers, movie nights, singles classes, even free babysitting. They take trips. Go to camps. In short they become the entertainment venue for all, trying to provide entertainment that pulls the people in and keeps them coming back.

And because 'Christians' are supposed to love one another, care for widows and orphans, and help each other they have such things as food pantry's and back pack drives.

'Church' isn't all bad. In the town where the Roman Catholic 'Church' with the supposed torture equipment is, there is another 'church', one I've never been to, only heard of, that fills back packs with food every week and takes them to the local public schools. Those backpacks are then sent home with poverty stricken kids. There is enough food in each backpack to feed that child and their siblings, parents too probably, for the entire weekend. The goal is to feed kids that might otherwise go hungry between free meals at school.

It's a good program and as far as I know that 'church' is the only one doing it in that entire town. 'Churches' aren't all bad. They have their good points.

I recently saw a comment by a man I would consider to be a brother in Christ. This man said that 'churches' are full of demons. I can't agree with him on that. I believe they are filled with the unregenerate. I believe there are probably a good number of reprobates in the 'churches'. I would even go so far as to say that where Christ is not, in the unregenerate or reprobate heart, that demons are given free reign. If one does not belong to Christ then they belong to Satan and as such are subject to demons. What I can't agree with is the fact that 'churches' are what amounts to the homes, or gathering places, of demons.

Demons abound anywhere the non-elect are, so yes, there are probably some inside 'churches', but to say every 'church' is filled with demons is something I simply can't agree with.

Again, I am not promoting 'churches' in any way. I no longer attend one at all. I used to visit one for the sole purpose of seeing old friends. I no longer do even that. I simply find I cannot sit through the sermons.

That said, I would go to one and sit in a sermon if there was enough reason to do so. I'm just not sure what reason that would be.

And so here I am, in the midst of this long, ongoing study on the writings/teachings of men and find myself coming to a point where I cannot separate the teachings of men from 'church'. It seems as though it is a self perpetuating system. It feeds on itself.

I can no longer even separate the 'church' of today from the 'church' of old, at least not where they involve the teachings of men. I look at the systems in place today, remember the almost scariness of driving by that Roman Catholic 'Church' and thinking of the torture equipment in the basement, whether it was really there or not.

A couple of years ago I did some in depth studying on the history of the Bible. I watched a couple of videos that I would love to find again. I recall an eerie kind of scaredness deep in me as I watched the Jessuits hunt down the "Christians". I recall the hurt I felt for them and my own thoughts of what I would do in the same situation.

Today, in America, we don't have any real persecution for being a 'Christian', at least not yet. That day is probably coming though at the way the country is headed these days. So far American persecution of Christians has more to do with words than actions. It's still illegal to assault someone no matter your reasoning and for the moment, persecution in America is under the Lord's staying hand.

But I watched those documentaries and saw the reinacting of such horrific persecution. I felt the fear of an observer watching it. And I know what I still feel to this day when I drive by that old Roman Catholic 'Church' that supposedly has torture equipment in the basement.

There is a certain human fear at the very idea of such treatment even though I do not actually fear that 'church' or the people doing the persecuting in those documentaries. But my lack of fear does not keep the wary feelings, the pain for those that suffered, at bay when I watch it on television or drive by a place where it may have happened.

I can, however, look at that 'church', imagine the torture equipment that may be in the basement, and see how just the thought of it was a way to keep people in line. Much the way the gun on a policeman's hip keeps some in line. It's a restraint on them.

I did a quick search on the history of the 'church' just out of my own curiosity. I'm not going to go too far in breaking down that history because it truly doesn't matter. Scripture shows us that even while Paul and the other Apostles were giving the gospel, were in fact giving the Scriptures, there were others rising up in their midst.

These others were bringing different gospels than what the Apostles were giving. They were trying to draw people into their brand of religion and those religions were starting to take hold. The history of the church that I saw showed that Roman Catholicism was rising during the same time that Paul and the Apostles were giving the true Gospel.

Peter is credited as being the first Pope. Let me just say here that I do not know the history of the Roman Catholic 'church' and I'm not inclined to study it too indepth. I just wanted a basic understanding of how organized 'church' grew and changed.

What I came up with is that even while the Gospel was being spread in its earliest infancy there were those that were hacking it up, taking what they wanted from it, making it work for them as opposed to accepting it as it was and begging to be included in the Lord's people.

Somewhere in there the first Roman Catholic 'Church' sprouted up and before too long it gained the upper hand. So much so that it eventually ruled all. It wasn't just the ruling 'church' but it had it's fingers in the government of nations and was therefore able to control all through government laws and punishments.

People were literally controlled through the 'church'. Most of them probably did not have Bibles even once Bibles were available. I read somewhere once that it took a priest a years wages to buy a Bible. How could the average person, living in the restraint of a 'church' system that did not want people having their own Bible, manage to buy one for personal use? And even if they did accomplish such a feat most of them were unable to read it because it was not printed in their language at that time.

And so the system...the 'church'...controlled all. If you wished to learn of God or Christ you had to go to the 'church' to do so. If you wanted to know what was expected of you as a 'christian' you had to go to the 'church' and the appointed leaders.

Rules were made and enforced because the ignorance of the people, not stupidity but genuine ignorance, and ignorance perpetuated by the 'church', meant there was no one to question the rule of the 'church'. It was assumed that whatever the 'church' taught was in the Bible and therefore it was binding on the people.

And the 'church' exploited this, using public humiliation and punishment, even execution to keep the lower classes in line.

I can't help thinking of the days when slavery was legal in America. I have read many accounts of slavery and slave owners and have seen that many feared an uprising among the slaves. It doesn't take much to imagine that most slave owners were weaker than their slaves. The men and women in bondage often did hard physical labor while the owner benefited from their work but did little work themselves. And if their physical strength was a match for the slaves then the sheer number of slaves that most people kept made it likely that should the slaves ever rise against their owner, the owner would most likely lose.

Laws were in place to help keep this from happening but most of the time the only laws that mattered were those of the slave owner. If the slave owner could subdue and control the slaves there was no need for state or government laws to be brought into anything.

I can't help seeing the history of the 'church' in much the same way. A public flogging or burning at the stake would deter most from attempting to buck the system in any way. Add in the fact that these people were taught that this was God's ruling system and they would have the added fear that they could not even hide their deeds behind closed doors because God sees all and his 'leaders' would eventually find out.

I am speculating there but I don't think it's that far fetched from what many would have thought and believed.

Public punishments and executions fell by the wayside many years ago but what of the whispers of 'what ifs' and the stories that trickle through? Rumors of torture equipment in the basement or punishments in the middle of the night.

I have heard of at least two modern day 'churches' in places that I lived that there are whispered stories of beatings that take place in the dark of night when members step out of line. Stories of children taken from their parents and placed with upstanding members when their parents did not follow 'church' rules.

These may be extreme cases...or not.

My husband attended a 'Reformed church' where the preacher said all children of single parents should be removed from their parents and placed in the homes of married couples. So far as I know that was only talk but how does one truly know and even if it is only talk...how long before talk crosses the line into action?

Amish 'churches' control their members by shunning them. As I understand it there is no small worry or even fear at the idea of being shunned.

I recall an experience I had in a Baptist 'church' where they were sending out tithing envelopes with peoples names on them. I had little to no money at the time and was struggling to make ends meet and feed my children. I had a child with medical problems requiring many doctors appointments and medications. I couldn't even get to the point of wondering whether or not I 'should' tithe because I was that the point that I could not do it. To give so much as a dollar in tithes was to take food out of my children's mouths or much needed medicine from them. I simply could not do it.

I was questioned several times about why our tithing envelope never showed up in the offering plate or in the business office and each time I gave the same answer. We can't afford to do it. They knew of our medical issues and the struggles we were facing. It wasn't news to them. They had kept us on the prayer list for many months. Their response was to tell me we needed to be tithing anyway. Needless to say that did not happen and things went from bad to worse.

My family was essentially shunned in the midst of that 'church'.

In an already tough time we were made to feel as if we were some of kind of contagious disease among those that had once been friends. It was almost like a pack of dogs or hungry sharks turning on you with little to no warning. Friendly one day, vicious the next.

And it was obvious that there had been talk among the preacher and leaders and others in the 'church' because it was all but a unanimous near shunning in a good sized congregation.

There was no physical torture involved but there was a great pressure to conform and a 'punishment' handed out. We were not kicked out of the 'church' but we were no longer welcomed either.

We essentially shook the dirt off our sandals and moved on. Rather than step into compliance and get back in their good graces we just stopped going but what if we had felt that 'church' attendance equaled salvation or if we had felt that God was somehow upset with us because the 'church' was upset with us.

Times may have changed and violence may have fallen by the wayside in the control tactics within the 'church' system but there is little difference, as far as I can see, between the controlling power of the 'church' of old and the controlling power of the 'churches' of today.

Every single 'church' I've ever been to operated in much the same way. There may have been little differences but the overall experience was pretty much the same. Just as I can go to three different grocery stores to get groceries and have a different experience in each one, find a few items in one that isn't in another, I can also expect certain things to be the same. There will be a different department for meat, milk, produce, and bakery items in each one. I will be given access to a shopping cart to push around the store to place the items I wish to buy as I shop. I must go to a check out, where I will be bombarded with drinks and candy in the stores hope that my stomach will overrule my good sense. I will pay for my items and be given a receipt for proof of payment.

It's a system that is lived out in every grocery store, and most other kinds of stores, every day in every city in America. And the general 'church' experience is a system that is lived out every day in every 'church' in every city in just about every country on earth.

It is a controlling power...a government...that controls the people into being and doing what is expected of 'christians'. And to perpetuate the system Scripture is given in just the right amounts and just the right verses, with just the right slant added to them, to make sure everyone understands that 'church' is God's house. It is holy ground and one should not buck the system.

That's the bad of 'church'.

It's what it is. There is no getting around it. It is a control tactic complete with 'preachers' taking classes in schools meant to train them and they are trained. Somewhere in that training they learn how to control the masses that voluntarily file into their kingdoms.

And while they have their loyal subjects under their control they teach them that 'church' is mandatory for salvation, that they 'must' join with other believers in a 'church' to be a 'christian'. They teach them that God commands them to pay a tithe to the 'church'. They teach them...a lot.

And most of that teaching is not Scriptural. It simply can't be found in the Bible.

It's.

Not.

There.

And why isn't it there? Because 'church' is a man made system used by men to exploit others and to control them.

Worse than the 'churches' of the professing believers are the 'churches' of the 'preachers' that should know better. If they John Macarthur's and the R.C. Sproul's know enough to preach predestination and the elect then they should know enough to see that Scripture clearly says men are to work with their hands and not be greedy for gain.

If the Paul Washer's can see that Scripture does not teach that a prayer saves and to admonish crowds when they cheer for his hard words than he knows enough to see that the Apostle Paul did not make his living off of Christ.

If the James White's know enough to debate people and to use Scripture to do it than they know enough to see that Paul kept his ministry close to hand, that he did not beg donations off others to afford to travel to give the gospel and he should know enough to know better than to do it himself.

If Charles Spurgeon knew enough to leave us such a wonderful legacy of writings filled with Truth than he should have known enough to see that Scripture said anyone giving the gospel should follow Paul's example, to be like Paul. He should have known enough to know better than to make a living off 'preaching'.

If A.W. Pink could write books with so much Truth they make one want to cry and feed the soul while making it cry out for more of Scripture than He should have known enough to see the the 'churches' he tried so hard to gain employment in were not Scriptural and he should have dug deeper into the teachings of Christ and the Apostles until he had modeled his own teachings after them to the point that we could not tell a difference in his teachings and theirs.

The professing believers at least have the excuse of being blinded to truth. What of men like the ones I listed above that can teach so much Truth but seem to almost intentionally miss the instruction to work with their hands and provide for themselves and their families?

The 'church' system is alive and well even for those that are presumably the elect. It is a system, an institution, an indoctrination, that they either can't set aside or won't set aside because their very living, their entire lives, are built on that system.

They say prisoners that stay in prison long enough are given social security when they are released because they are considered disabled due to being institutionalized.

In other words their minds no longer function as they should because they have been twisted to learn to work within a system that was their very survival.

'Church' is an institution.

Public school systems are institutions. They depend on the kids falling in line with the rules, doing what they are told, not bucking the system. You do homework because teacher says. You don't talk in class because teacher says. You arrive on time and stay until we release you because the school says and teacher enforces.

And they depend on children falling into compliance with all the rules and regulations because if said child does not it creates a wrinkle in their well arranged system. One child. One single child that dares to rise up can mess everything up. If only one child refuses to do homework, or stay in their seat, or whatever, then the other kids might do the same thing and how can a single teacher control multiple kids unless kids comply with the system.

Hospitals depend on patients complying with the system. Want to see attitudes crop up real fast? Tell a doctor or nurse no. Here is where I want to write, go ahead, I dare you. The response you get 99% of the time is well worth putting it to the test. You don't even have to be in the hospital. Try it at the doctors office or the dentists office.

Most doctors of any kind are not used to being told no. They aren't used to patients refusing a test or a treatment. They aren't used to them refusing a prescription.

The doctor, and by extension the nurses, are god in their own system. It's an institution that depends on patients complying with that system or their house of cards comes tumbling down.

What if patient realized that they don't need that prescription? Then doctor doesn't get money from the drug company. What if that new mother realizes she was prescribed synthetic heroin for pain? (It was prescribed to me after the birth of my second and third children.) Would she take it? Would she accept the line the nurses and doctors give her that this pain medicine is perfectly safe?

I'm not saying doctors and hospitals don't have their place, they do. They save lives daily, or rather I should say the Lord uses them to save lives daily, but there is much to the medical system that depends on the total subjection of the patient to the doctor. Patient must learn that doctor knows best and they must fall in line or the medical system does not work as they want it to.

Prisons work the same way.

Prisoners must comply with the rules of the prison. They must fall in line or the handful of guards and wardens cannot control the large population inside the prison walls. Each person in there must become institutionalized, learning their place within the system or the system will fail to work as intended.

What if the prisoners uprise?

What if the slaves uprise?

What if the children uprise?

What if the patients uprise?

What if the churchgoers uprise?

Then the house of cards tumbles. The system only works so long as the underlings stay in their place. They must be taught what that place is and kept there. 'Church' is just as much an institution as the public school, the hospital, or the prison.

I might even be inclined to liken it to the state mental hospital.

There is not small amount of brainwashing going on inside the walls of the 'church' no matter what the denomination is.

One could say it is an institution of demons. I see where the connection comes in although I still can't personally say I agree with the statement.

The trouble is we must also look at the whole system, the whole 'church' rule, through the other side of the scope too.

What if we knew nothing...absolutely nothing...but Scripture? And what if we viewed all of life through Scripture. Not Scripture as we have been taught but Scripture as the Lord wrote it out.

We tend to think we do that but that thinking is what gets us into lots of trouble all too often. I once thought I understood Scripture, or at least some of it, but what I understood was what the 'church' had taught me.

I had to unlearn all of that and test everything against Scripture each time it came up. I grew up going to 'church' off and on. My grandmother is the daughter of a baptist preacher. I was 'churchinized' from birth.

I learned 'Jesus loves you' probably before I could talk. I went to vacation bible school just about every Sunday. I remember singing songs like 'He's got the whole world in His hands' and 'Jesus loves me'. I remember Bible stories and salvation prayers.

And then I grew up.

And I began to question if all that was really what salvation was about. I did not feel saved but I was assured by 'christians' that I was. I said 'the prayer' so many times in hopes that if once wasn't enough then a hundred times might be.

I knew nothing else.

It was so deeply ingrained in me I didn't know where to go with my doubts or my questions. Everyone I knew put their entire faith in 'the prayer' and then went on about life.

In time. In a great deal of time. I learned that there was more to it. I actually first began to understand there was more to it when I read a Mennonite book (I don't recommend it but if you wish to know the title of the book was 'The Kingdom that Turned the World Upside Down). From there things just happened. I read more of Scripture and less of men's teachings. I read more of Scripture and spent less time in 'church'.

I read more of Scripture.

And more...

And more...

and...

Here I am today. And where I am today I can look back on my life and see this 'church' institution for what it is, what it isn't, and the role the Lord gave it in my life. I can also see how the visible 'church' makes 'Jesus' visible so that very near everyone in any country knows who God is and usually 'Jesus' too.

Franklin Graham runs a program called Operation Christmas Child. I am not giving an opinion on the program here, simply using it as an example of what the 'church' does. This program lets Americans feel like they are doing a good thing by filling shoeboxes with toys, clothes, hygiene items, and candy and sending them to kids in impoverished countries.

I heard a testimony by a woman once. She grew up in an orphanage overseas and was the recipient of a shoe box gift. She was amazed that anyone cared enough about her to send her such a gift. She also was overwhelmed with the rainbow of colors inside the box. She spoke of how her world was gray. Completely gray. Clothes were gray. Walls were gray. Beds and bedding were gray. And then she opened up that box and there was so much color.

Who wouldn't want to give that kind of gift to a hurting child somewhere in the world?

It's a feel good story that let's most people think they make a difference to someone. And who knows? Maybe they do. But the story doesn't stop there. Along with every shoebox handed out there is a story book handed out too. A storybook that teaches the recipient child about 'Jesus'.

I have never held one of those books in my hand but I assume it is the 'Jesus loves you' kind of story followed by 'the prayer' to 'ask Jesus into your heart'. That's just what 'church' is.

I can't say I promote this shoe box ministry but I can't say I am against it either. I can't even say I will never fill another shoe box (I have filled them in years past) because the ministry does get these gifts to children that I could never help on my own.

I'm not saying I feel the need to help them in this way and I'm not saying that I completely agree that these kinds of programs really do help these children. People in other countries have their own ways and I am not convinced that our 'do good' mentality is always a good thing.

What I am saying is that for every one of those shoe boxes that gets passed out, Jesus' name gets spread to a new soul. A seed may be planted. We just don't know.

The backpack that a poverty stricken child carries home from school and eats from over the weekend may be the tool that puts the name of Jesus into their heart or home. We just don't know.

It may also be the tool that keeps their younger brother or sister from starving to death since they are too young for school and the free meal program. Again, we just don't know.

God is sovereign. He controls all. He has 'churches' here for a reason and He uses them to His purposes. He has allowed them to grow and prosper on earth.

Scripture tells us that false believers will rise up among 'you'. They have risen up. They are here. They dominate 'christianity' to the point that false 'christianity' is the only form of 'Christianity' known or understood today.

People attend 'church' by the millions. They file into the buildings every Sunday. They learn snippets of Scripture. They hear the Lord's name. Kids grow up hearing 'Jesus loves you'. For some of those kids 'Jesus' and the people in the 'church' may be the only people in their lives that do love them.

For others 'church' is a cover up. I know of at least one man that used to attend 'church' because he felt like if the police were watching him it made him look good to be going to 'church'. While he was there he (and his wife and kids) heard the Lord's name.

Some play 'church' like young kids play dress up. It's a social club. A chance to get out the good duds and dress up. It's the chance to go and visit with others, to show off their new car, to talk of their new furniture. To brag on their child's accomplishments. It's an illusion of love and friendship that sometimes becomes true love and friendship.

Many a marriage is made from the attendance of church.

Despite all that, or maybe in the midst of all that, is the pressure to conform, to be the 'good christian'. Bob can't be seen at the bar because word might get back to the 'church' and people would think less of him. Teenage Julie can't sneak out at night to meet the boy down the street because his friend lives next door to the preacher and talks to the preachers daughter. Amy's husband restrains his anger and the beating he wants to unleash on her because bruises aren't so easy to hide and he doesn't want people at the 'church' to see them.

People try to conform to the system and to the social pressure that comes with it. There is a restraint placed on people through the 'church', people that might otherwise be unleashed on society in ways we could not know and would not want.

What if Bob went to the bar, because there was no 'church' for him to try to impress, and got drunk then drove home, hitting a car on his way and killing everyone in it?

What if that car carried your family?

Aren't you glad 'church' restrained him from going to the bar?

What if teenage Julie snuck out her bedroom window to meet up with the boy down the street, a meeting that would result in drugs, drinking, and sex, and your daughter joined them in their fun all because Julie convinced her to go.

Aren't you glad Julie was restrained by the 'preacher' living next door to one of the boys that was going to be there?

What if Amy was your daughter and her husband never hit her because he feared what would happen if the 'church' found out?

Wouldn't you be glad 'church' restrained him?

The point is that the Lord uses the 'church' in ways we simply cannot see or understand. It is a system of lies and brainwashing. They preach a gospel contrary to what Paul preached and therefore are acursed.

There's no denying that. No getting around it.

But there also is no getting around the fact that 'church' is here by God's sovereign will and He uses it for His purposes, be it to spread His word, or to restrain the unregenerate.

For all we know it might even be here as a cover up to protect the elect.

What if 'church' is the front, the visible system, that makes 'christianity' accepted at this time in this country in order to protect the elect that would otherwise stick out like neon signs on a mountain top and may well be subject to all sorts of persecution that the Lord does not wish to unleash on us.

We just don't know.