'Does The Church I Attend Matter?'

'Church won't take you to heaven.' 'In heaven, God will not ask you which church you attended'. 'Be spiritual, not religious, your church doesn't matter, what matters is your heart, after all there are good people in every religion'.

Does that sound similar to what you ve said before? Perhaps you had to say that to someone who finds fault with your church, or who advise that you change your faith. You are not the only one with that opinion. Many who believe it favor non-denominational churches or ministries. They inter-faith with others of different faith. However, what does the Bible say? Does church matter?

At Matt 7:13,14, Jesus spoke about two roads. One leading to life and the other leading to death. Some may posit that the two roads and two gates refer to two types of humans - righteous and unrighteous people - That the bad people are much more than the righteous. But how can that be, if the broad road refers to bad people, how can bad people also go in through it? It's like in Maths, you say let X represent water pipe, and let Y represent water. Then we still come and say water will go in through Y. Is that logical? You can only say Y will go in through X.

Therefore, we can say that the two roads represent true and false religion. Many are in through the false religion, while few are FINDING the true religion. Ok, but that should refer to false religions like Islam, Traditional religions, Hinduism etc. Well, Jesus words continuous, after speaking of false prophets and the good and bad tree, in verses 21-23, he continued.

He said:

"Not everyone saying to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but only the one doing the will of my father who is in the heavens will. 22. Many will say to me in that day: 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many powerful works in your name? 23 And then I will declare to them: 'i never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness!'.

From the above words of Jesus, we can agree that he was even specifically talking about Christian religion (The good and bad trees). He was contextually positing that false Christian churches will abound, many will flow into it.

Someone will say, 'this refers to those who do the work of God, but they don't live by Bible principles. God can use a pastor, even though the pastor is into sin'. But did we notice what Jesus said above? He said he NEVER knew them. Meaning that God has not been using them all along. 'But' someone may inquire, 'my pastor doesn't use charms, nor any talisman, but he performs many miracles by God's name'.

Yes, Jesus says such people will exist, they will perform powerful works by Jesus name. But Jesus doesn't use them.

But can't I be in such a church and still follow my Bible?

Can we consider that next..

source http://www.nairaland.com/5824192/does-church-attend-matter