Is church Christianity? I went to a debate in Portland, Oregon in 1992. The people of Oregon were voting on a measure concerning the public schools. Should the children be encouraged to be homosexuals, or should they not. I was shocked to see the spokesman for the homosexual position was a church leader.
The rural people of Oregon voted from one end of Oregon to the other against teaching children the homosexual lifestyle, but the people of Portland voted 70% in favor of the homosexual position, and so for the last 22 years, the public schools of Oregon have been homosexual recruitment centers. Many church leaders embraced the homosexual position. Billy Graham held a revival in Portland right before the election. Doctor Graham refused to take a position. How sad. Why do so many church people refuse to take a stand for righteousness?
The Japanese conquered Korea and demanded each Christian church to place a sun god shrine in the church. The victorious Japanese gathered the students and faculty of eleven Christian schools together and demanded each to bow to the sun god. Everyone bowed except one woman. Most churches of Germany during World War 2 sang songs of praise and worship to their father Adolf Hitler. The communists conquered Romania after the war. Almost all church leaders gave praise to the three great prophets: Marx, Lenin, and Stalin. Why does history prove most churchgoers are a bunch of cowards in the time of trouble? The answer is church is not Christianity, and most churchgoers are not Christians.
The devil's children have always been religious. Cain made a beautiful altar for God, but one day after church, Cain killed his brother Able. Pashur was a priest and the governor of the great temple in Jerusalem. Pashur heard the words of Jeremiah and had Jeremiah beaten and placed in the stocks.
Jesus asked the religious leaders if there was any prophet their fathers had not killed. And of course we all know it was good church people who killed Jesus. They came to Pilot asking for the death sentence for Jesus, but they could not come into the judgment hall lest they be defiled. They could not let killing the Son of God interfere with their church service (see John 18:28).
Christianity is a relationship with Jesus Christ. Christianity is a new life in Christ. Christianity is you following Jesus on a narrow road with only enough room for you and Jesus. This religious mess called church is full of compromise, worldliness, and false teachings, and has always and will always fail when faced with persecution.
If your relationship with God is based on a relationship with church and churchgoers, you will be at the fire getting warm when Jesus is being judged. You will be in the stands watching when the Christians are fighting lions. You will be gathering firewood when the Christians go to the stake to be burned.
The church message is the Three B's: “Be here. Be good. Be sure to pay your tithes.” The Christian message is, “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life.” Which message do you follow?