Accurate?

A friend posted this short article on facebook:

Why Go To Church?
A Churchgoer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. "I've gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the preachers are wasting theirs by giving all those sermons as well."
This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher: "I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals but I do know this. They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!"
When you are DOWN to nothing.... God is UP to something! Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible! Thank God for our physical AND our spiritual nourishment!

First of all, I would like to say that this article is quite a dangerous article; simply because it can be interpreted differently depending on how you see it. If a non-believer or even a believer is convinced that this is how church works, then, God have mercy upon them, because they only got the smallest part of how church works. This article only shows a small portion of how church works, and it will be misleading if people simply just take it as the major role of a church.

In the first paragraph, there is this guy that goes to church for 30+ years already, and has listened to 3000++ sermons, and yet he did not remembered any one of it. This clearly shows that this person is NOT a Christian at all. A born-again Christian has been given the Holy Spirit as guide and mentor, and the Holy Spirit WILL teach the person on every sermons he hears. And with the discipline of God, the spiritual lessons learnt will be integrated into the life and character of the person.

So, if the person did not get anything from the 3000++ sermons after 30+ years, he does not have the Holy Spirit. If he does not have the Holy Spirit, he is not a born-again Christian. If he is not a born-again Christian, he is NOT a Christian at all. Having "Christian" written as your religion does NOT mean you are a Christian. For further readings, please study the book of Hebrews. It's just a short book, but contains very heart-piercing words.

However, if we are to assume that the person is not a Christian, then it's totally fine. A churchgoer do not necessary mean a Christian, simply because any non-believers are welcomed to attend church anytime, as frequent as they want. But,
1 Corinthians 2:14  The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Thus, non-believers who attends church will find it very hard to understand the sermons. Thus, this supports that the person mentioned earlier is NOT a Christian.


 Next, let's examine this statement from the 2nd paragraph:
 "if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!"
That is not true. Going to church is NOT the ONLY way for nourishment and it is not even the best way. The best way to keep yourself in-tune with God is have a consistent heart that seeks Him; consistent in a way that you continue to long for God and to seek Him EVERY MOMENT of your life. And by seeking Him, we will be nourished.

The purpose of going to church is not for ourselves, but for body of Christ as a whole, for corporate worship, and to uphold one another. So, if our purpose is for nourishment, we do not need to go to church for that. We can do it anywhere, anytime, because God is omnipresent; He is everywhere at everytime. So, practically, if you do not go to church, you will NOT necessary decay spiritually. No doubt that it is true you will get nourishment if you go to church. But church is just one day of a week; not even one day; just half a day. What matters more is how you live your life the rest of the week. Do you continue to seek God, longing for Him consistently?

So, in conclusion, the article above is misleading and can be very dangerous if we do not understand the truth of the Scripture and what God wants of us.

And I am NOT against attending church. I'm just trying to rectify and complete the meaning of the article.

Soli Deo Gloria!
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