QUESTIONS AND STATEMENTS ON THE CHURCH

From the Evidence Bible, Compiled by Ray Comfort

(Comments by Harold M. Lind)

Below are a number of questions, statements, and objections. Some of them are from non-believers that pose questions to prove in their mind that the Bible is not true. They think that by “stumping” a Christian, they somehow have disproved the Bible. What they don’t understand is that the Bible stands by itself. It doesn’t need to be proved true. It is the inspired Word of God. If someone chooses to not believe in it, he will find out later, when it is probably too late, that it is true. And God will have to judge his sins because he hasn’t been washed clean in the blood of Jesus. There are other questions about what the Bible says, and other topics such as how to tell others about Jesus Christ, why we can’t just lead a “good” life to go to heaven, and why God must judge sin.

Why are there so many denominations?

In the early 1500’s, a German monk named Martin Luther was so conscious of his sins that he spent up to six hours in the confessional. Through study of the Scriptures he found that salvation didn’t come through anything he did, but simply through trusting in the finished work of the cross of Jesus Christ. He listed the contradictions between what the Scriptures said and what his church taught, and nailed his “95 Theses” to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany.

Martin Luther became the first to “protest” against the Roman church, and thus he became the father of the Protestant church. Since that split, there have been many disagreements about how much water one should baptize with, how to sing what and why, who should govern who, etc., causing thousands of splinter groups. Many of these groups are convinced that they alone are right. These have become known as Protestant “denominations.” Despite the confusion, these churches subscribe to certain foundational beliefs such as the deity, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Bible says, “The foundation if God stands sure, having this seal, The Lord knows them that are his” (2 Timothy 2:19).

Thomas Jefferson once wrote of a preacher, Richard Mote, who “exclaimed aloud to his congregation that he did not believe there was a Quaker, Presbyterian, Methodist, or Baptist in heaven, having paused to give his hearers time to stare and to wonder. He added that, in heaven, God knew no distinctions.

Didn’t the Church persecute Galileo?

Skeptics often try to demean Scripture by saying that the Christian Church persecuted Galileo when he maintained that the earth circled the sun. As a professor of astronomy at the University of Pisa, Galileo was required to teach the accepted theory of his time that the sun and all the planets revolved around the Earth. Later at the University of Padua he was exposed to a new theory, proposed by Nicolaus Copernicus, that the Earth and all the other planets revolved around the sun. Galileo’s observations with his new telescope convinced him of the truth of Copernicus’s sun-centered or heliocentric theory. Galileo’s support for the heliocentric theory got him in trouble with the Roman Catholic church. In 1633 during the Inquisition he was convicted of heresy and ordered to recant (publicly withdraw) his support for Copernicus. The Roman Catholic church sentenced him to life imprisonment, but because of his advanced age allowed him to serve his term under house arrest at his villa outside of Florence, Italy. The Christian Church therefore should not be blamed for his imprisonment. It was the Roman Catholic church that persecuted Galileo.

“Under the sentence of imprisonment Galileo remained till his death in 1642. It is, however, untrue to speak of him as in any proper sense a ‘prisoner.’ As his Protestant biographer, von Gebler, tells us, ‘One glance at the truest historical source for the famous trial would convince anyone that Galileo spent altogether twenty-two days in the buildings of the Holy Office (during the Inquisition), and even then not in a prison cell with barred windows, but in the handsome and commodious apartment of an official of the Inquisition.’” (Catholic Encyclopedia)

The church is full of hypocrites

Hypocrites may show up at a church building every Sunday, but there are no hypocrites in the Church (Christ’s body). Hypocrite comes from the Greek word for “actor,” or pretender. Hypocrisy is “the practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold.” The Church is made up of true believers; hypocrites are “pretenders” who sit among God’s people. God knows those who love Him, and the Bible warns that He will sort out the true converts from the false on the Day of Judgment. All hypocrites will end up in hell (Matthew 24:51).

What church should I go to?

Pray about where you should fellowship. Make sure your church home calls sin what it is: sin. Do they believe the promises of God? Are they loving? Does the pastor treat his wife with respect? Is he a man of the Word? Does he have a humble heart and a gentle spirit? Listen closely to his teaching. It should glorify God, magnify Jesus, and edify the believer.

One evidence that you have been truly saved is that you will have a love for other Christians (1 John 3:14). You will want to fellowship with them. The old saying that birds of a feather flock together is true of Christians. You gather together for the breaking if bread (communion), for teaching from the Word, and for fellowship. You share the same inspirations, illuminations, inclinations, temptations, aspirations, motivations, and perspirations you are working together for the same thing: for the furtherance of the kingdom of God on earth. This is why you attend church not because you have to, but because you want to.

Don’t become a spiritual butterfly. If you are flitting from church to church, how will you pater know what type of food you are digesting? The Bible says that your shepherd is accountable to God for you (Hebrews 13:17), so make yourself known to your paster. Pray for him regularly. Pray also for his wife, his family, and the elders. Being a pastor is no easy task. Most people don’t realize how long it takes to prepare a fresh sermon each week. They don’t appreciate the time spent in prayer and in study of the Word. If the pastor repeats a joke or a story, remember, you don’t like something he has said, pray about it, then leave the issue with God. If that doesn’t satisfy you, leave the church, rather than divide it through murmuring and complaining. God hates those who cause division among the brethren (Proverbs 6:16-19).