Is Staying in a Bad Church Ever the Lesser of Two Evils?
Sadly from time to time I hear of someone who has left the institutional church and has given up on Christianity altogether, often due to them blaming God for all the folly of the abusive false teachers that they suffered under. But that's not God's fault. Contrary to the claims of such men, God never authorized them to act that way. They did that on their own.
Other times I hear of Christians who use the problems of the institutional church as an excuse to go home and do nothing. They use pastoral abuse and other serious problems in the commercial church system as some kind of justification to simply give up on the Church of Christ overall, and as an excuse to disconnect from God and from the Bible. They basically abandon virtually all church life and morality and forsake accountability to God and the brethren. Not surprisingly, many of these people end up falling into grievous sin.
So I think it is important that I point out that everything I write about leaving the institutional church is in the context of Christians going home and “doing church right” (pardon this rather inaccurate yet popular expression), more accurately - being the church right where they are, studying the Bible on their own, having their own informal assemblies with their families (and friends if available), singing praise and worship songs, having communion and fellowship, edifying one another (strengthening and building each other up) in love. This is the biblical purpose and function of the local assembly, contrary to the popular idea that the local church is a pastor's playground to further his own agenda and to do as he pleases with church members as his pawns. The local church is never to be a source of human resources available to some greedy pastor who is building a kingdom empire for himself. That kind of thing is a tradition of men, not a teaching or doctrine of God. It's a doctrine of demons.
The bottom line, and as sad as it is to say, is if someone is unwilling to continue in the Bible on their own, holding to the Bible as not only having spiritual authority and being inerrant, but also as being sufficient regarding all things that pertain to spiritual life and godliness as a Christian, then they may actually be “safer” in their current level of danger. If someone who is considering leaving an institutional church is not studying and growing in the written Word on their own, and assembling as the church at home at least fairly regularly, they actually might be better off staying right where they are. That is of course unless the church in question is blatantly heretical in their teachings regarding salvation in that they deny or alter key biblical doctrines. If so it's a total lost cause.
Professing Christians who walk away from a church only to fall into a worse situation typically have no plans to serve God anyway. They have no plans to disconnect from the will of a pastor and finally make themselves available to God directly and be His hands extended to a lost and dying world. So why shouldn't they stay? They are not going to be of any use to God outside that unholy mess anyway. So they might as well stay within it (which sadly also supports that system), if doing so at least motivates them to avoid more serious sins.
Overall, if these people have no desire to do anything for God and they believe that their presence at an institutional church somehow motivates them to stay away from serious sin, then I would say they should stay until things change within them, until they want to know truth, until they want to escape their present bondage, want to come out and be separate and walk with God. Otherwise they might as well walk according to the ways of churchmen. Why not? Things are not likely going to be any better off for them if they are out from that "prison" alone on their own, walking solely according to their own personal desires.
So yes, as crazy as this may sound, I actually think it would be better for such people to stay in their present professing Christian controlling cult under the iron crushing fist of an authoritarian church dictator. I think it would be better for them to be hoodwinked, taken advantage of and abused spiritually, emotionally, socially and financially rather than do something worse such as fall into adultery or into other grievous sexual sin and walk away from their families. Yes, in a situation like that, ruining one's family would clearly be the worse of the two evils. But of course both scenarios are very bad.
Think of it this way, if someone is bent on doing drugs and there is no way to talk them out of it or prevent them from going through with it, most people would agree that the person in question would be better off involved in marijuana rather than with heroin. But that doesn't make either right. Both are very dangerous. It's just happens to be that heroin is more dangerous. Using either mind altering drug is wrong and marijuana can be a gateway that eventually leads to heroin or worse. Of course I understand that medical marijuana is sometimes prescribed by doctors for serious illnesses and I am not saying that is wrong.
As bad as it is (and it is VERY bad), most people would probably agree (reluctantly) that is would be better for someone to be involved in a private fantasy world of viewing pornography than be involved in an actual real-life active adulterous situation with another live human being. But that doesn't make either right. Both are very wrong. It's just that one happens to be a slightly lesser of two evils. But both are still evil. And just like with recreational drugs, pornography and adultery of the heart can be a gateway that eventually leads to an actual adulterous relationship in real life.
So with all that said, if the commercial church is providing an illusion, even a deception that helps some people stay out of worse trouble, I guess “so be it” is all one can say. They would probably be better off staying in their current bondage of the lesser sins of following churchmen (instead of following God), sins of placing man's words above God's Word, sins of omission, apathy, etc. rather than falling into worse problems. Unfortunately, the presence of these people in such churches and their financial and volunteer support of questionable church leaders (and of others who are involved in such cults), helps promote the overall false church system, which is still clearly a sin, but that's another problem for another discussion.
ChristiansFree.com
Sadly from time to time I hear of someone who has left the institutional church and has given up on Christianity altogether, often due to them blaming God for all the folly of the abusive false teachers that they suffered under. But that's not God's fault. Contrary to the claims of such men, God never authorized them to act that way. They did that on their own.
Other times I hear of Christians who use the problems of the institutional church as an excuse to go home and do nothing. They use pastoral abuse and other serious problems in the commercial church system as some kind of justification to simply give up on the Church of Christ overall, and as an excuse to disconnect from God and from the Bible. They basically abandon virtually all church life and morality and forsake accountability to God and the brethren. Not surprisingly, many of these people end up falling into grievous sin.
So I think it is important that I point out that everything I write about leaving the institutional church is in the context of Christians going home and “doing church right” (pardon this rather inaccurate yet popular expression), more accurately - being the church right where they are, studying the Bible on their own, having their own informal assemblies with their families (and friends if available), singing praise and worship songs, having communion and fellowship, edifying one another (strengthening and building each other up) in love. This is the biblical purpose and function of the local assembly, contrary to the popular idea that the local church is a pastor's playground to further his own agenda and to do as he pleases with church members as his pawns. The local church is never to be a source of human resources available to some greedy pastor who is building a kingdom empire for himself. That kind of thing is a tradition of men, not a teaching or doctrine of God. It's a doctrine of demons.
The bottom line, and as sad as it is to say, is if someone is unwilling to continue in the Bible on their own, holding to the Bible as not only having spiritual authority and being inerrant, but also as being sufficient regarding all things that pertain to spiritual life and godliness as a Christian, then they may actually be “safer” in their current level of danger. If someone who is considering leaving an institutional church is not studying and growing in the written Word on their own, and assembling as the church at home at least fairly regularly, they actually might be better off staying right where they are. That is of course unless the church in question is blatantly heretical in their teachings regarding salvation in that they deny or alter key biblical doctrines. If so it's a total lost cause.
Professing Christians who walk away from a church only to fall into a worse situation typically have no plans to serve God anyway. They have no plans to disconnect from the will of a pastor and finally make themselves available to God directly and be His hands extended to a lost and dying world. So why shouldn't they stay? They are not going to be of any use to God outside that unholy mess anyway. So they might as well stay within it (which sadly also supports that system), if doing so at least motivates them to avoid more serious sins.
Overall, if these people have no desire to do anything for God and they believe that their presence at an institutional church somehow motivates them to stay away from serious sin, then I would say they should stay until things change within them, until they want to know truth, until they want to escape their present bondage, want to come out and be separate and walk with God. Otherwise they might as well walk according to the ways of churchmen. Why not? Things are not likely going to be any better off for them if they are out from that "prison" alone on their own, walking solely according to their own personal desires.
So yes, as crazy as this may sound, I actually think it would be better for such people to stay in their present professing Christian controlling cult under the iron crushing fist of an authoritarian church dictator. I think it would be better for them to be hoodwinked, taken advantage of and abused spiritually, emotionally, socially and financially rather than do something worse such as fall into adultery or into other grievous sexual sin and walk away from their families. Yes, in a situation like that, ruining one's family would clearly be the worse of the two evils. But of course both scenarios are very bad.
Think of it this way, if someone is bent on doing drugs and there is no way to talk them out of it or prevent them from going through with it, most people would agree that the person in question would be better off involved in marijuana rather than with heroin. But that doesn't make either right. Both are very dangerous. It's just happens to be that heroin is more dangerous. Using either mind altering drug is wrong and marijuana can be a gateway that eventually leads to heroin or worse. Of course I understand that medical marijuana is sometimes prescribed by doctors for serious illnesses and I am not saying that is wrong.
As bad as it is (and it is VERY bad), most people would probably agree (reluctantly) that is would be better for someone to be involved in a private fantasy world of viewing pornography than be involved in an actual real-life active adulterous situation with another live human being. But that doesn't make either right. Both are very wrong. It's just that one happens to be a slightly lesser of two evils. But both are still evil. And just like with recreational drugs, pornography and adultery of the heart can be a gateway that eventually leads to an actual adulterous relationship in real life.
So with all that said, if the commercial church is providing an illusion, even a deception that helps some people stay out of worse trouble, I guess “so be it” is all one can say. They would probably be better off staying in their current bondage of the lesser sins of following churchmen (instead of following God), sins of placing man's words above God's Word, sins of omission, apathy, etc. rather than falling into worse problems. Unfortunately, the presence of these people in such churches and their financial and volunteer support of questionable church leaders (and of others who are involved in such cults), helps promote the overall false church system, which is still clearly a sin, but that's another problem for another discussion.
ChristiansFree.com