House churches need the perfect governance system that the Bible describes

Update: I have become increasingly convinced that Christ and the Father want the absence of hierarchy among the disciples, especially based on Christ's words in Matthew 23 and John 21.

____________

House churches are a sound way to organise Christian life, as long as the other governance structures that the Bible describes are also applied: properly qualified elders/overseers [1] who are rewarded according to performance [2], and evangelists whose responsibilities include refuting false teaching [3]. 

References

[1] "It is necessary, therefore, the overseer* be blameless, husband of one wife, sober, sensible, well-ordered, kind to strangers, apt to teach, not tarrying at wine, not a striker, instead reasonable, not battling, not a lover of money, leading his own household well, having children in obedience with all reverence (yet if someone does not see to lead his own household, how will he manage God's ecclesia*?), not a neophyte, so that he not, having been deluded, fall into the Devil's judgement. Yet it is necessary to have a good testimony from them outside, so that he not fall into reproach and the Devil's snare." (1 Timothy 3:2-7, CFB)

"For this grace I left you behind on Crete: so that the remaining things you would set up rightly and appoint by city elders, as I ordered you, if someone is blameless, husband of one wife, having faithful children not under accusation of wastefulness or unruliness. It is necessary, indeed, for the overseer to be blameless as God's house-manager, not self-willed, not inclined to wrath, not tarrying at wine, not seeking shameful gain, instead kind to strangers, loving what is good, sensible, just, holy, controlled, holding before himself the word of faith according to the teaching, so that he be able both to appeal by the instruction that is sound and to refute them speaking against it." (Titus 1:5-9, CFB)

[2] "The elders who are leading well must be deemed worthy of double honour, especially they who are working with the word and teaching. For the Scripture says, "An ox treading you shall not muzzle", and, "Worthy is the worker of his wage." (1 Timothy 5:17-18)

[3] "Trustworthy is the word, and I want you to be thoroughly established regarding these things, so that they be minded to stand over good works, they who have been trusting God. These things are good and profitable for all human beings." (Titus 3:8, CFB)

Mission: Victory over the Devil

Are you confused about why God created the Universe, and why He created you, and what God wants from you?

Well there's good news. Christ gives a pretty clear answer, repeated several times at the end of the Holy Bible.

The point of this place is that you either overcome the Devil, and can be trusted by God, or the Devil overcomes you.

See "God's Wonderful Announcement" for a brief explanation.

How Almighty God's Word strengthens marriage

"And it was said, 'Whoever would untie from the wife of his, he must grant her divorce!' Yet I say to you that anyone who is untying from the wife of his except on account of fornication causes adultery to be committed against her, and whoever would marry a woman who has been untied, commits adultery." (Matthew 5:31-32, Christ Family Bible)

"Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from [her] husband committeth adultery." (Luke 16:18, AKJV)

Comments:

Notice that one cannot free oneself from an unhappy marriage by driving one's spouse to leave. That strategy both causes the leaving spouse to commit adultery by leaving and makes re-marriage an act of adultery for the new spouse (and logically for the remarrying spouse too).

Both spouses have tremendous reason to make their marriage work. If you don't make your marriage work, your spouse might give up: by that action, your spouse commits adultery (a carnal work that leads to Hell), and you cannot remarry at all without committing adultery, even if your spouse has committed fornication.

The precise words of Christ as recorded in Greek are important also because of the terms used:
1. "Untie" (apolúo), not "divorce", is the key term that describes the abandonment of a marriage. Consider that for much of history, spouses could not hope for a legal document in their country, that would legally end their marriage. So what the abandoning spouse has in mind is abandoning, untying, leaving permanently.
2. The word "divorce" describes the legal document: apostásion.
3. Christ's words and terms direct our focus away from pieces of paper from a court, to look at the reality as Almighty God decides: only death and fornication (a carnal work that leads to Hell) can actually end a marriage, though Paul rather inexplicably adds his own rule that if an unbelieving spouse asks a Christ-believing spouse for divorce, the Christ-believing spouse is then "free", implying potentially free to remarry.

What happens when God's people stray?

The condition of the churches today is so bad, that it is difficult even to have any hope for missions to unreached ethnic groups: what will happen when a church that doesn't keep the New Covenant, brings its false message and even badly mistranslated Bibles to a new society?

The condition of many churches (but hopefully not all churches) is to the point of their being incompetent. Now, the Holy Bible addresses this type of condition:

- The Lord Christ Jesus describes moral degradation to the point where "...many will be entrapped [into sin] and will hand each other over and hate each other. And there will be many false prophets and they will deceive many. And due to the increasing of the lawlessness, the love of many will be made cold." (Matthew 24:10-12, CFB)

- Similarly, the prophet Ezekiel is sent with this message to God's people of that time: "...‘You are a land that is not cleansed or rained on in the day of indignation.’ The conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured people; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in her midst. Her priests have violated My law and profaned My holy things; they have not distinguished between the holy and unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey, to shed blood, to destroy people, and to get dishonest gain. Her prophets plastered them with untempered mortar, seeing false visions, and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ when the Lord had not spoken. The people of the land have used oppressions, committed robbery, and mistreated the poor and needy; and they wrongfully oppress the stranger." (Ezekiel 22:24-29, NKJV)

One of the key messages here is that when God's people have fallen into immorality, God sends catastrophes: to judge, to chastise, to purify a remnant, and to show that there is an ultimate judge to respect, Almighty God.

- "Because of this, among you are many weak and sickly and a considerable number sleep. Now, if were judging ourselves, we would not judge! Being judged, however, by the Lord, we are chastised, so that we not be condemned with the world." (1 Corinthians 11:30-32, CFB)

- "....the children of her I will kill with death, and all the churches will know that I am the searcher of kidneys* and of hearts, and I will give to you each according to the works of yours." (Revelation 2:23, CFB)

- "All flesh shall see that I, the Lord, have kindled it...." (Ezekiel 20:48, NKJV)

- "You shall defile yourself in the sight of the nations: then you shall know that I am the Lord." (Ezekiel 22:16, NKJV)

These catastrophes can never come through the actions of Christians, of course: Christians are commanded to love all people, to hate no one, and to put away all anger (Matthew 5:22, 43-48; Ephesians 4:31; Colossians 3:8).



Notes:
* Valuable discussions of what "kidneys" could signify (e.g. metaphorically) are provided by Brown Driver Briggs, Thayer's Greek Lexicon, and Liddell Scott Jones.

CFB: Scripture quoted from the Christ Family Bible. Copyright © 2019 by J.J. Thomas. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

NKJV: Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

If Christ's disciples moved "off grid" and cared for Nature...

...they could cause people to give glory to the Father in Heaven, by doing good deeds of great importance:

First: Farming, producing food in ways that help Nature and Humanity rather than harm them

Second: Caring for Nature directly, by protecting Life's species

Third: Innovating more ways to meet basic human needs for energy, medicine, shelter, etc., so that Humanity benefits from a wider selection of solutions whenever changes are needed (e.g. in the face of major changes in weather patterns like long-term drought)

Is your pastor feeding you to demons and Hell?

Update: I believe that I ought to have written more clearly here that Christ insists people must keep His commandments and other words for salvation, which quite certainly refers to the words attributed to Christ and not the other words in the Bible. There is great value in learning the other words of the Bible, I believe, but all the while keeping a distinction between the authority of Christ and the authority of all other words in the Bible.

I also wish to clarify that I no longer believe that Christ permits human hierarchies in churches, given the commandments in Matthew 23 and John 21.

_________________

The first step to safety: Heed Almighty God's Word.

"Amen amen I say to you that the one listening to the Word of Mine and trusting the One who sent Me has eternal life and does not come into judgement but has passed over from the death into the life." (John 5:24, CFB)

If you are heeding God's Word, then a pastor will have a tough time misleading you into sins that invite demons and end in hellfire.

Consider:

Knowing God's Word properly is how Jesus withstood Satan (Luke 4).

Not heeding God's Word is how Eve and Adam fell into slavery to sin, death and the Devil, dragging their family down too (Genesis 3-6).

How can you properly heed God's Word?

Don't make the mistake of confusing the Old Covenants with the New Covenant.

Focus on keeping Christ's words and commandments.

The New Testament is the covenant that Almighty God offers to people who repent from sin. So you need to heed that above all: what the New Testament says about the New Covenant.

The Old Testament is necessary too, but it needs to be interpreted spiritually, not physically:

The necessary circumcision is spiritual not physical (Colossians 2:11)

Human beings need to overcome spiritual dark powers not other people (Ephesians 6:12)

If you are heeding Christ's words and commandments, you will be strongly immune to really bad Bible mistranslations too.

So when a mistranslation tells you that adultery is looking at a person with lust (and therefore almost all people are adulterers), you will be skeptical, because you know that adulterers do not inherit the Kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

Many of the most damaging mistranslations are highlighted in A Guide to Misleading Bible Quotes.