Not long ago, I heard about a church building in our neighborhood that was for sale. For years Grace Fellowship Church searched for a building to be ours, so we thought we’d take a look at it; it had been a flourishing congregation. Faithful Christians contributed sacrificially to the construction of this building; they dedicated him to the Lord and worshiped him for many years; however, this building was now abandoned, decaying, and for sale.
How did this church go from prosperous to sick?How did you go from health to disease and death?I think I know how. I think Paul tells us in his second letter to Timothy, the letter he wrote a few days or weeks before his death. In this chapter, in chapter 4, look to the future, see a destroyed church, and tell us how it happened. . It’s as simple as 4 simple steps.
- Before going through the four stages.
- We must pay attention to a critical detail: this church is being destroyed.
- The church is not closed due to government persecution; he is unaffected by cultural pressure and does not succumb to attacks from another religion.
- This church is eroded from within.
- From the middle of the congregation.
- This church is destroyed by people who claim to act in the name of Jesus.
Here are the four simple steps that lead to the self-destruction of a church.
Paul warns Timothy that they “will refuse to listen to the truth. “The first step in destroying a church is to move away from what is true, to lose interest in truth as God reveals it, and to tire of what God says is True and loving. What was once the love of truth now becomes the aversion and disgust of truth; what used to be the hatred of error, now becomes interest and fascination with error. Hearts begin to harden.
When they defever from the truth, they necessarily turn against those who tell the truth. So Paul warns Timothy that this day will come: “they will not endure sound doctrine. “It’s not that people don’t know what’s true, but that they’re no longer going to endure what’s true. Because they have come to hate the truth, they will now hate those who tell the truth. The same teachers who once attracted you will now push you away.
The church has rejected the truth and those who teach the truth. So what? It is obvious and inevitable: they will embrace false teachers. “They will surround themselves with teachers according to their own lusts, such as itching in their ears. “As these people harden with sin, as they grow into rebellion, they will want to be guided by people who tell them what they want to hear, Paulo uses a beautiful image to describe it: itching in the ears, these ears yearn for novelty, something that will somehow be accepted by society and acceptable to the world without God. You will easily find the kind of teacher who will justify your deviation from the truth and validate your rebellion.
Once they have rejected the truth and anyone tells the truth and once they have found teachers who like their ears, they “will go to the fables. “Now they will embrace error, total heresy. They will be so hardened in their sins that they will believe that the error is good and true; they will be so deceived and rebellious that they will celebrate what God hates and will do in the name of God; wandering like crazy sheep moving away from the good shepherd. The narrow path of salvation leaves no room for wandering, but the wide path of destruction has all the space they need to roam back and forth.
And they’ll die. In the end, those who claim to act in the name of Christ will be exposed unlike Christ. This church, this congregation, will die.
What happened to that church you once loved in this building we visited and wanted to buy?People have developed itching in their ears, no longer supported sound doctrine, and accumulated teachers who corresponded to their own passions, distanced themselves from the truth, and wandered into myths and fables.
The evidence of these myths was clear. His hymn book contained songs like “Mother and God,” which reads, “Mother and God, we sing to you: your belly is full, your wing is warm. “His website contained a video of a pastor in the process of gender change with His literature explicitly denies that Christ is the only way to God by saying that “God works in our world through a mysterious Spirit who does not recognize distinctions at the entrance of Christian chapels; Buddhists; Hindus; o Sikh Temples; Aboriginal hut, Islamic mosque or Jewish synagogue ?.
We don’t have this building. The building was sold and, as I understand it, will collapse soon. In the end, the denominational heads responsible for the sale did not want the gospel in this building, they wanted to withdraw the money from this building. to help two of his other congregations that will inevitably end as well.
Two thousand years ago, Paul wrote to young Timothy and told him exactly how this church and many others like it would die; He also gave Timothy a duty that would prevent his own church from suffering similar destruction and wavering with keen ears. I’m going to save this for another day.
By: Tim Challies. © Challies. Website: challies. com. Translated with permission. Source: Destroy a church in 4 easy steps.
Original: Destroy a church in 4 steps. © Reforma21. All rights reserved. Translation: Kimberly Anastacio.