Do you consider me a Good Christian? I read the Bible, I pray daily, before bed, in the morning, before dinner and in between, I also have good faith and trust in God, I spread the gospel, I do good works and I’m kind. I’m not here to brag, I just want help. I don’t go to church though. Do you think I am a True Christian? I definitely know there is more to improve.
You cannot possibly be a good Christian.
There never has been such a thing. Only bad, failed people who were forgiven by God without having deserved any such thing, just purely out of the love and suffering of Jesus. They believed in Him and what He did, they asked for His redeeming death to be accounted to them, it was thus applied to their hearts according to the promise and their names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, in the space already reserved for them before the first second counted on any clock, including the physical and biological “clocks” beloved of scientists.
If that’s you, and you are saved, then you are a Christian in the truest sense of the word, the Biblical one. If not, then you are also a Christian, but by a different definition of the word, a cultural Christian. So is Richard Dawkins, by his own statement, and yet he doesn’t believe in God (which even Satan does) and has written many profitable books turning millions away from God and from salvation.
Now Dawkins himself might end up believing and being saved the way he is going, but he will always have such a shame to endure that he turned over to hell’s dominion, with a wave of his pen, so many millions of people. Maybe that’s the only thing stopping him from coming at this point, seeing how many of his prominent atheist friends are already on the Lord’s side. One example is Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a big disappointment to the prominent atheist club who causes much rejoicing in heaven.
It’s down to what you believe, and this is something God alone knows, apart from you yourself. You can have doubts, but take your doubts to God and let Him resolve them.
On to your later and perhaps most telling point about “going to church”. I don’t know what “going to church” is. You are the Church, if you are believer, and I trust that you are not disembodied, so that you need to “go” to yourself at certain times. You do need in fact to go to a special place – but only for using the lavatory or if you have a boss or college that doesn’t want you working from home all the time. For things other than the lavatory or for working at your job or course, if you have one, no particular built structures are necessary. Even the lavatorial process can be performed in the woods, but do try to avoid the tracks where people are walking, and ensure you have tissues in your pocket.
As far as gathering with other believers is concerned, doing this, rather than being a hermit, is God’s model. Even John the Baptist, having practised hermitage for a long time, was surrounded by his own disciples by the time Jesus’ ministry began. Jesus Himself took time apart, various Old Testament prophets did also, but it is clearly not the long-term model and at some point we need to return to gathering and not forsake it. This is actually commanded, and so meeting other Christian is a matter of simple obedience. Blessings are usually withheld to Christians who practice disobedience.
There are various reasons why this is harder for some than for others. Some have logistical difficulties and cannot make it. Maybe they are sick or disabled or there is no Church free of doctrinal error and they have tried in vain to correct them and are not welcome there. They should ask the others who believe from the nearest sound gathering to help and maybe come to them. If those others ignore the call, the disobedience is on them.
Another reason why some of us avoid gatherings is that we are not very outgoing. We are what Jung would describe as introverted. But Jung also came to the conclusion that the two sorts of people are necessary for each other, as they charge each other’s batteries. An introvert charges when alone, and gives out when surrounded by other people, and for extroverts the situation is reversed. None of the extroverts go around thanking introverts for performing this service for them, they probably just dismiss them as shy folk who need to be coaxed out of their shells so they can have a good time. Nevertheless, for an introvert to go to a gathering is a service to the extroverts there and we should indeed be willing to serve each other. We wash an extrovert’s feet just by having a chat with them. This is why, quite apart form structured worship and the sacraments, and listening to God’s Word preached (this can be done over the intranet but being in the room is better for sure, you can’t be distracted and you encourage the pastor) the social time after and maybe before worship is also part and parcel of the gathering together which we are told not to forsake.
I don’t think someone can in fact be obedient to the command not to forsake gathering if they scurry away after the close of the service and don’t try to meet people. We should attempt to have some kind of interaction with every single person we see there. We should take an interest in them, know some things about them, starting with their names, and be sure to pray for them and have them pray for us. This whole fellowship aspect is symbolised by the “sign of peace” in some services, but very often, if there is no real interaction and we don’t even know people’s names after weeks of seeing them, this peace sign is just a travesty and people should seek to examine themselves and see if something can be done by them about it.
Beyond this any congregation being worth its being called salt, and light, should be evangelising together.
So what are you doing with the time you save by not being with the others? More sole evangelism? More solitary study?
Or do you use the time to meet up with the enemies of God and go along with them for a good laugh? Or just watch TV shows full of prurience and vanity?
So please be obedient. The consequences of disobedience is not “not being a good Christian” but significant loss of reward. God has blessings reserved for you, both here and in eternity. You will not have them released to you though without showing obedience and bearing fruit.
Start today. Those who came last to the vineyard got the same reward. Stop with your hermitage and start building your everlasting heritage.
Cosmos Confidential: Bill & Neil’s Excellent Bromance
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