What is Church?
Whenever I talk to people about their faith, nine times out of ten they tell me they believe in God but don’t go to Church. Shame peppers their words as they go on to say, “I know I really should go to church.” It saddens me to see that so many people equate knowing God intimately with going to man made “church”.
Now I am not saying that going to a man made “Church” is a bad thing. I believe that if people are gathering together and are learning about our Father that is a great thing. However, if they are being tricked into believing they are somehow better off for doing so, they are sadly mistaken.
It doesn’t matter if you think Sunday is the day of true worship, or if you believe it is Saturday. Just because you believe one day is greater than another that doesn’t make it so. Just because a person goes to church doesn’t make the person who seeks God privately any less important in God’s eyes. Believer and Unbeliever live their life unto God, fulfilling God’s purpose.
Romans 14:5-7
5 One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. 6 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. 7 For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself
Let’s talk about that word “Church” for a second. For those that don’t know let me give you the literal interpretation of what it means.
CHURCH = eÍkklhsiða – Transliterated the word “Church” is “Ekkelsia” and it literally means, “People who have been called out of their homes that gather coincidentallly, or an assembly called out and gathered by chance.”
The words “We’re going to Church today”, have long taken on the meaning that people must go to a designated place of “worship” to find God. But you can’t “go to Church”, because human beings ARE the “Church”. We are the ones that have been “called out” of our homes, as Abraham was.
Genesis 12:1
The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you
This is what it means to be “Called Out”. This is what it means to be the “Church”. It is letting go of your old ignorant nature and taking hold of your true life, which is Christ. It is leaving your old beliefs and traditions for the power and wisdom of God. The traditions, vain beliefs and religious teachings of carnal mankind will never free you. In fact we are warned again and again to stay away from such.
Colossians 2:8-9
8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. 9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
You cannot find the truth of God in buildings made by man’s corrupt hands, but by God’s hand (power/authority). We are the building, we are the Temple where God is found.
Habakkuk 2:20
But the LORD is in his holy temple:
And that HOLY TEMPLE is you!
1 Corinthians 3:17
If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are
What do you think the story of Jesus turning over the money tables is all about. It is about the truth of God within you clearing God’s House (you) of all the lies and nonsence you have believed.
The TRUTH of God is daily teaching in God’s Temple… YOU!
Mark 14
49I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and ye took me not: but the scriptures must be fulfilled.
Many believe things aren’t spiritually true because their religious leaders tell them so. I can’t tell you how many people will disagree with a spiritual truth because they have been taught differently by a religious leader. And the amount of danger that is in this is paramount. We cannot and should not turn to Mankind to know God, we must always turn to God. Of course this doesn’t mean we can’t go to others to learn, it simply means we must continue to go to God and ask God what the truth is and be bold enough to listen.
There are many false beliefs out there today and I firmly believe this is why so very few are free today to enjoy their lives and have hope.
The physical is always a symbol of the spiritual. But if you put your faith only in the physical you will never be free to touch things that are eternal. You will continue to put your faith in things built by man’s hands.
Mark 14:58
We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands.
For years mankind has been changing the truth of God into what they want it to mean. Many do this ignorantly, others do it for financial gain, and some do it to feel more important than others. In the end people who go to these religious leaders end up worshipping the religious leader unaware. Not all are like this of course, many are wonderful teachers, but some are wolves who have “crept in” changing the word of God into a lie that men and women ignorantly believe.
Romans 1:25
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
This is what the “Tower of Babel” is all about. Mankind wanted to be God, so they thought the best way to do this was to build a “tower” to the heavens, to basically dethrone God, so they could be God themselves.
Now the story of Babel’s Tower is a great allegory. The word TOWER in Hebrew, doesn’t mean a literal Tower. It means, “to become great or important, promote, make powerful, praise, magnify, do great things”. Isn’t that something?
What will really blow you away is when you see this next definition for “tower” from the Strongs. TOWER= “elevated stage, pulpit”
Hhhmn? Sounds a lot like the Tower mankind was building in Babel wass RELIGION. And in so doing, mankind magnified themselves, made themselves powerful, and with it they even seemed to do great things.
Mankind wasn’t trying to build a literal TOWER to reach heaven. They were building what many believe a “church” is today. They were building a religious system that makes Carnal religious leaders gods themselves. And it worked, many religious leaders sit in judgment over their “flocks”, many tell people what to eat, when to eat, what to wear, what not to wear, what people can say or do, the list goes on and on. The irony is the more controlling and judgmental these religious leaders are, the more corrupt they soon are exposed to be.
Let’s break down how the allegory of how MAN MADE RELIGION came to be.
Genesis 11 And they said, Go to, let US build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
Let us make ourselves a name? Isn’t that the goal of so many in the world today, to make a name for themselves?
But let us break down, what the CITY is that Mankind builds to become great.
Proverbs 10:15
The rich man’s wealth is his strong city: the destruction of the poor is their poverty.
The CITY man wanted to build, was their own wealth at the expense of the poor.
Proverbs 18:11
The rich man’s wealth IS his strong city, and as an high wall in his own CONCEIT.
CITY = WEALTH AND PRIDE — Our Religious leaders of the land have plenty of that. Sadly Money and Pride is what most people really put their faith in. Carnal (ignorant) mankind believes if they have enough money that they will be safe. More people put their faith in finances than God, and that is an understatement.
Isaiah 24:12
In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.
The CITY and TOWER they built was corrupt. It was MAN’S ATTEMPT to RULE AS GOD… And anytime that happens it is doomed to fail.
So God confounded their tongues, he pitted one religion against another. So not ONE RELIGION, would be able to rule the whole of the world. Now the differing religions of the world can’t understand each other. They all have different rules, and truly they all have different gods they worship. And of course every religious sect and denomination believes it is the only true religion. Sad but true.
The religious are the children of their CARNAL HEARTS, condemning ANYONE who believes differently. And with every DENOMINATION there are different rules, beliefs, and traditions.
Romans 1:28
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
And NO! This verse has nothing to do with Homosexuality, even though most of these bad religious Teachers claim it does. Romans 1 is all about how man has begun to worship the created instead of the Creator.
Now I shouldn’t have to tell you that there are many religious leaders who seem to have great power. This is nothing new, but true power isn’t found in grand shows of “so-called” miracle healing, or future telling, true power is found in humility, true power is found only in submission, true power is found in loving others and putting others before yourself.
9But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one: 10To whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. 11And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries.
For a long time, humanity has been bewitched by the sorceries of people who love to go about in long robes, make long prayers in their man made religious buildings, etc.
Today many religious leaders go so far as to reduce the “word of god” which is “Truth”, to money. The SEED we read about in scripture that is SOWN is NEVER MONEY. It is the WORD OF GOD.
Luke 8:11
This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God
The SEED you sow is TRUTH. I know there are many religious leaders who will say, if you send in your seed (which they want you to believe in your money) that God will multiply it. And so people don’t give their money for pure reasons, they give it like you would buying a lottery ticket. “You got to be in it to win it”, this is what many religious leaders are selling.
However, God isn’t concerned with your money. He is concerned with you heart. You can’t buy your way into heaven, and the SEED that must be sown is not money it is the Gospel of Truth.
People today have been tricked into thinking that to find God they must go to a religious building and hear from a religious leader. This is the same problem Israel had. They wanted Moses to tell them what God was saying. They made Moses to be god over them. When God always wanted Israel to go directly to him. But Israel was scared.
Ex 20: 18-21 When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.”
So Israel didn’t go to God, nor do the multitude today. Instead of turning within to hear God themselves they go to a Pastor, Evangelist, Priest, Rabbi, Guru, or any other Religious leader promising LIKE MOSES “If you FOLLOW Me, I will LEAD YOU into the PROMISE LAND (flowing with milk and honey).”
And for all you literalists out there… MILK AND HONEY are ALLEGORIES. Honey is a SYMBOL of being enlightened. MILK is simple doctrine and wisdom of God.
1 Samuel 14:29
Then said Jonathan, My father hath troubled the land: see, I pray you, how mine eyes have been ENLIGHTENED, because I tasted a little of this HONEY.
And MILK is a symbol of God’s teaching/ Doctrine – Not even deep doctrine, but God’s wisdom none the less.
1 Corinthians 3:2
I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
You see, the PROMISE LAND is not what many Religious teachers PROMISE. It’s not literal wealth, health, or a Kingdom far, far away where you can eat all day without getting sick or fat.
The PROMISE LAND is THE KINGDOM OF GOD revealed IN YOU.
Entering the PROMISE LAND is entering the KINGDOM OF GOD within you.
This is the land God has given us all to inherit. It is being Enlightened to the Truth and Wisdom of God (Christ In You The Hope Of Glory). And when we find this we say, as Paul said, “It is not longer I that live but Christ”
Psalm 143:10
Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.
A LAND OF UPRIGHTNESS: This the LAND we are promised to enter, TRUTH, HONOR, DIGNITY, COMPASSION, UPRIGHTNESS, LOVE, WISDOM.
To enter the Kingdom we don’t need to go to man or woman, we don’t need to go to any building, any temple, church, kingdom hall, or mosque. All we need to do is go within.
Matthew 6:6
But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you
Seeking God is a very personal thing. One must understand that they are no less important in God’s eyes than Jesus himself. We are all part of the same body, we are all one. Once we realize this we will stop going to others, we will asking others to teach us about God. We will go to God directly.
John 16
23 In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
You are the Church people, you are being called out of ignorance into the light of the truth. Leave from where you are and allow God to lead you where you are meant to go. I promise you won’t be disappointed.
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JACOB
http://www.jacobisrael.org
“The Truth Will Change You”
JACOB'S LADDER 
The word church, which isn’t in the Greek, nor is it related to the greek word ecclesia at all, it has its origin in the word Circe. The word kirk for church used in the UK still is the same word.
Circe is the daughter of the sun-god (baal, ra, etc) she is found in Homer’s Oddysee. She turns men into pigs with her cup of enchantments.
Rev 18:2 Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. 3“For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.”
4I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues; 5for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. 6“Pay her back even as she has paid, and give back to her double according to her deeds; in the cup which she has mixed, mix twice as much for her.
Rev 18:23 and the light of a lamp will not shine in you any longer; and the voice of the bridegroom and bride will not be heard in you any longer; for your merchants were the great men of the earth, BECAUSE ALL THE NATIONS WERE DECEIVED BY YOUR SORCERY. (caps mine)
compare the description of the whore of babylon with God’s whoring bride in Eze 16, the adornments, and especially the pavilions on every corner. You get a pretty clear picture of what babylon is.
Great stuff Jacob.
you bless me Jacob! I love the simple way you explain a word like “honey”. I gain understanding of scripture the very same way you do. Thanks so much for sharing. I am smiling X
So glad you enjoy these Christa! Thank you so much for the comment, have the best week ever!
Let’s not forget God is in control of man made religion as well and it is serving its purpose for all of mankind. Each and every person who has been called out was in some form of man made religion at some point. That is why we are called out because we were in before. The lie comes before the truth. The truth is the light that reveals the dark. The dark can never reveal the truth. No one can bring themselves out of their babylon. That is God’s work and His alone. That is why people who are still very much in babylone become so appalled and even furious when you share simple spiritual truths with them. It is our ego that tells us we need to bring show them the truth and the errors of their way all the while we are still be deceived as well. The bottom line is everything is going exactly according to God’s will because there is only His will and everything is perfect. It is our egos that always tell us otherwise and tell us we need to change and fix things or set others straight. It is a very hard lesson to learn because it is our natural instinct to share what we think we know with others who we believe don’t know what we do. But that is the ego at play. Only God can repent (change our minds). God is the saviour of all men. No where in scripture does it say man is a savior. It is God and only God. Man made religion will thrive until it has fulfilled the purpose God raised it up to fulfill. I know it is hard and even frustrating at times to see how blind some people are and how they are being led astray and we want to grab them and pull them out of their dark prison cell. But we cannot do this because we are also still in our prision cell, the only difference is God has made us aware of it while many are still very unaware. Being aware of something and actually being the something you are aware of are very, very different. As long as we are experiencing this reality, all of us are still in our prison cell because this reality is our prison and none of us will get out until it has fulfilled God’s purpose for us. God is teaching us to not deem anything as bad or corrupt. It is God running the show, not man. No man or man-made system of anykind is subject to anything other than God. Yes, the carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, but it is certainly subject to God. It is God who worketh in man to will an doeth of His good pleasure. It is God who holds the heart of the king and turneth it anyway He pleases. None of us experiencing this reality we foolishly call life are in control of anything. We are being led by the same force and that is God. It matters not if we are aware of the truth of this world or not, we are all being led by God and are all exactly where we need to be all the time. We learn that when we look down on another or a system for any reason, we are looking down on ourselves. We work to reveal the lie but the fact that we work so hard should be our first clue. God’s truth requires no work to be revealed, only rest. One day we will be given the realization that everything we have ever done in this reality has been by the sweat of our brow. We will realize that God’s truth doesn’t require any work to bring about, only rest. We will realize that it is when we quit trying to change others and ourselves for whatever reason, and there are literally millions of reasons we try to change others and ourselves, that God’s truth begins to come forth. For example, when a person has finally had enough of man made religion for whatever reason and leave it, they are no longer working for their salvation, it is then that the truth of God begins to rise up within them. It is when we get fed up and stop participating in the rituals and ceremonies and practices and disciplines that all require great amounts of work and rest from it that the truth of God begins to rise up within us. So if it is God’s will for you, rest from your works and judgments and criticisms of others and live and let live and you will finally feel freer than you ever have.
Amen to that friend, everything is indeed going according to plan. Going to church was part of the plan for me, so was leaving it. Just as there was a time for me to be in the system there also came a time to leave it, and that was hard at first. It wasn’t until I knew that I wasn’t “upsetting God” that I began to find freedom in this. Thanks for the comment! Peace Jacob
hmmmm…Amen and amen! The veil is gradually fallen off…When we go to man-made churches(buildings)we dont go there to fellowship,we simply go there to please a man(pastos,rabbis,imams,etc…). Fellowship is obtained when we are called out,as the eklasia…I av always enjoyd dat xperience,and I wanna be able to acknowlegde and appreciate it ceaselessly! Thank u,Jacob
Right on Samsenses!
I Love what I heard from Gary Sigler who was Pastoring a Church @ 1 time …..He said if you are still here in 3 years,,, and not have matured into a Healthy Son/Daughter of the Living God ,Then He Gary Sigler wasn’t doing his job…..
The design of a Contemporary church today is to keep you in the same pew/seat for the next 30 years ……fleecing you and making sure you pay your tithes…..all the while giving you stale manna that has little value in the Present Age and Move of God ………again not all churches are in this trap,,,,,,,just many……GGGGreat Essay Jacob
Hey Thanks Patrick!
I wish the design of more churches would not be focused on keeping people where they are, but sharing only the truth and expecting nothing in return. I believe the churches that do this are blessed indeed.