1. Welcome to Baptist Board, a friendly forum to discuss the Baptist Faith in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to all the features that our community has to offer.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!

Featured Can the local church become an idol

Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by Jacob_Elliott, Nov 24, 2013.

  1. Jacob_Elliott

    Jacob_Elliott New Member

    Joined:
    Nov 23, 2013
    Messages:
    257
    Likes Received:
    2
    I actually wasn't asking if "this is a bible believing church" as I said that was a question posed to me during Sunday school. I appreciate your post and you made a good point on attendance, plus you pretty much have my church summed up in your second point.
     
  2. sag38

    sag38 Active Member

    Joined:
    Jan 26, 2008
    Messages:
    4,395
    Likes Received:
    2
    Local Church an Idol = Sacred Cows: I have been the pastor of sacred cows. Couldn't do something new not because it was un-Biblical but because it broke with tradition. Tradition was a sacred cow. A small class wouldn't move from a large class room to a smaller one to make room for a growing children's ministry because they paid for the carpet in that room and it was named after a dear departed SS teacher. A room in the building was a sacred cow. Was even told in one church that they didn't know how I did things in Alabama but in South Carolina they didn't do things that way. When I asked for specifics all I got were shrugged shoulders. Sacred cows can be snobs about their small town church and distrusting of anyone from someplace else. Couldn't change the order of the service because the bulletin was already printed and a dear saint might get confused. Bulletins can become sacred cows. Controversy over changing the date of homecoming because that was the date followed for years even before I was born. Sacred dates are sacred cows. Didn't want the parking lot paved because that would take away from the country look of the church. Identity can be a sacred cow.
     
  3. Earth Wind and Fire

    Earth Wind and Fire Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Jun 5, 2010
    Messages:
    33,376
    Likes Received:
    1,568
    Faith:
    Baptist
    And these are Christians right? Simply amazing!
     
  4. sag38

    sag38 Active Member

    Joined:
    Jan 26, 2008
    Messages:
    4,395
    Likes Received:
    2
    Many of them were Christians but very comfortable in "their" church. They wanted things to stay the same and were afraid of change. Their hearts had grown cold. It takes great patience to pastor such churches and let's just say that my patience often ran thin.
     
  5. Jerome

    Jerome Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Aug 21, 2006
    Messages:
    9,788
    Likes Received:
    698
    Faith:
    Baptist
    "[They] make even the Word of God, itself, to become an idol to them through their resting in a mere creed, or in Bible reading—not pressing through it to spiritual hearty worship of God, Himself. Anything, however holy, which comes between us and the personal dealing of our soul with God, as He is revealed in Christ Jesus by faith and love and hope, becomes an idol to us!" —Charles Spurgeon, "Idols Abolished"

    "I may know all the Doctrines in the Bible, but unless I know Christ, there is not one of them that can save me! I may know Election, but if I cannot see myself as chosen in Christ Jesus, election will do me no good. I may know the Doctrine of the Final Perseverance of the Saints, but if I am not in Christ, I would only persevere in my sins—and such a final perseverance will be dreadful, indeed! It is one thing to know the Doctrine of Justification by Faith, but it is quite another thing to be justified by faith and to have peace with God! You may stand up for Imputed Righteousness and fight for it, and yet the righteousness of Christ may never be imputed to you! It is not knowing the creed, though that is well, that can save the soul—the knowledge that is needed is to know Him whom Paul believed!" —Charles Spurgeon, "Knowing and Believing"

    "They are sound in the faith—Orthodox, Evangelical and Calvinistic! They heartily detest any doctrine that is not Scriptural. I am glad to find that it is so with them—but let them not rest in this! To cover a wound with a royal garment is not to heal it and to conceal a sinful disposition beneath a sound creed is not salvation!" —Charles Spurgeon, "Healed or Deluded? Which?"
     
  6. Earth Wind and Fire

    Earth Wind and Fire Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Jun 5, 2010
    Messages:
    33,376
    Likes Received:
    1,568
    Faith:
    Baptist
    Well said Charles:thumbs:
     
  7. Yeshua1

    Yeshua1 Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Mar 19, 2012
    Messages:
    52,624
    Likes Received:
    2,742
    Faith:
    Baptist
    AND that he was a calvinist to boot!
    See, even we at times have some nuggets of truth!
     
  8. Jordan Kurecki

    Jordan Kurecki Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Apr 26, 2013
    Messages:
    1,925
    Likes Received:
    130
    Faith:
    Baptist
    Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
    Joh 1:2 The same was in the beginning with God.
    Joh 1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
     
  9. pinoybaptist

    pinoybaptist Active Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Mar 17, 2002
    Messages:
    8,136
    Likes Received:
    3
    Faith:
    Baptist
    yes, it can, and if we look at things closely, for many of us, mabe it already has.
    Not to say we don't have idols in other areas of our lives, we all do and I challenge anyone on this board to say he/she is squeaky clean when it comes to idolatry, because you ain't.
     
  10. saturneptune

    saturneptune New Member

    Joined:
    Jan 16, 2006
    Messages:
    13,977
    Likes Received:
    2
    Totally missed the point. Jesus is referred to as the Word in John 1. The nature of Jesus Christ has nothing to do with this thread. The thread has to do with a local church becoming an idol. An idol is anything put above God. Those who attend church to be with long time friends, to feel comfortable in their surroundings, to talk, to go out to eat afterwards, and never give a second thought to the Lord during worship service, have transformed the local church into a social club. To those who do, the local church is an idol.
     
    #30 saturneptune, Nov 28, 2013
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 28, 2013
  11. Yeshua1

    Yeshua1 Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Mar 19, 2012
    Messages:
    52,624
    Likes Received:
    2,742
    Faith:
    Baptist
    Idol worship of the bible would be as when some see the "word' there meaning the bible, not Jesus!

    A few do see a particular version as being the 'word" referencing there!
     
Loading...