God set us free thirty years ago.
When Buddy and I left the Christian Church, we knew that God was calling us out. Of course, our well-meaning Christian friends thought we were backsliding and quoted the words of Paul, “forsake not the assembling of yourselves together.”
As we walked on, we couldn’t have been more at peace. We were two disciples of Christ fully vested to do the will of the Father, and our religious friends were blind to the fact that we were actually obeying God.
Those friends sadly fell away not long afterward and vanished. They were loved ones that had been at our wedding and had witnessed the miracle of God bringing us together.
Obviously, there was something lacking because we certainly did not meet the criteria that Christ taught, “and all men shall know that you are my disciples, if you have love one to another.” (John 13:35)
So, Buddy and I continued on our journey alone finding solace in the words of Christ, “if two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20)
That was us, a very small congregation without rituals or regimens. We would share with each other when God showed us things, but mostly, we were doing the hard part, learning how to truly love.
It wasn’t until years later that God would show me what Christ meant when he used the word church.
Before I discuss the interaction of Christ and Peter, recorded in Matthew, I want to define the word church to give meaning to the passage.
A church is generally thought to be a building where believers congregate. However, Christ was not talking about a place or building. He was talking about the actions of a group of people.
The word, church, is a legal term in Aramaic, which is the original language that Christ spoke. Interestingly, church has the same meaning in the Greek.
It is defined as witnesses who are called to testify that something is true or real.
In Mathew 16:13, Christ was alone with his disciples and he asked them, “who do men say that I am?
And, the disciples replied, “some say that you are John the Baptist, some say Elias, and others say Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
Then Christ asked, “but who do you say that I am?”
And, Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.”
And, Jesus answered and said, “blessed are you, Simon, for flesh and blood has not revealed that to you, but my Father which is in heaven.”
Christ was commending Peter for hearing from God. Jesus proceeded to boldly prophesy. “It is upon this rock that I will build my church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.
The rock that Christ is talking about is the ability to hear the voice of God. Those who hear are able to demonstrate a solid testimony to the world that God is real by doing what God says to do. That, is when the miracles happen! Those are the individuals who comprise the true church.
Without real substance, no one is going to believe that God is real, especially today.
If you are cocooned in your church culture, you probably don’t realize that non-Christians literally cringe when they hear the name of Jesus, because they have been violated by the spirit of religion.
Interestingly, the world doesn’t know that Christ preached against religion. They have not been shown that he was the most amazing man that ever graced this planet. They don’t know that he was non-judgmental, humble, peaceful, wise, compassionate, a healer—why?
Because the world has only seen the actions of hypocrites who say they know Christ, when they really don’t.
The true church is not the 2.3 billion believers on our planet who have said the “sinner’s prayer,” but rather, the true church is comprised of a few that hear the voice of God and do the will of the Father.
My prayer is that people will hear what the spirit is saying to the church and escape the grip that religion has upon them, but I am not banking upon it.
In the seventh chapter of Revelation, we see a vision of a future event. Before the seventh seal is broken, a great multitude which no man could number of all nations, and kindred, and people and tongues is standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palms in their hands.
An elder tests John to see if he knows who they are, and John has no idea. The elder proceeds to tell John that these are the ones who came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.
God showed me that these are Christians who will have to go through great tribulation before they will finally give up their love for the spirit of religion.
Their robes will be washed clean when they accept the truth about the Blood of Christ.
It was never a sacrifice offered up by God. The Messiah’s precious blood was spilled by men who loved their blood sacrificial religion more than the spirit of God. The Christian religion merely picked up their torch and kept going.