My study of the Bible has been a combination both of systematically going through an individual book as well as getting lost on rabbit trails that have taken me threading my way gingerly through the brambles of Biblical Greek and Hebrew on topics that have either piqued my interest or which I felt must be addressed for a deeper and clearer understanding of the Scriptures. As somewhat of a skeptic—not about God’s message to us, as told through the Old & New Testaments (or Covenants), concerning the coming, not once but twice, of a Messiah Who would save His people from a life of sin, leading to death to a life of righteousness through faith in Him, leading to eternal life together with Him in a new heaven and earth—but about the myriad tenets/doctrines of this or that denomination or hue of Christianity, which, if not accepted, will somehow affect my salvation, with my confession being questioned. The overwhelming number of expectations that encumber us in an organized ‘church’—whether an independent one or one belonging to a particular denomination—directly contradicts Jesus’ invitation: “Come unto Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30) The ‘church,’ in my opinion, has stagnated as it has become bloated to the point of saturation with an overabundance (hyperbole intended!) of programs, which are ostensibly for the spiritual welfare of the congregation, when, in fact, the raison d’etre smacks: 1) of maintaining tight control over its people; and, 2) of creating positions in order to provide employment for the glut of graduates from Bible colleges, seminaries, or otherwise, who desire to engage in ‘fulltime ministry’ within the ‘church.’ The Assembly of Called-out Ones (εκκλησια) is a multigenerational, multiethnic and multidimensional amalgam of souls, all of whom—having been called to faith in Christ alone—are in need of one thing above all else for personal growth and maturity in faith, and unity within the Body—God’s Word as exegeted from the pulpit for the exhortation of a particular assembled congregation. The avant-garde movement within ‘churches,’ pushed by a ‘worship arts’ staff, to highlight and extend the music portion of the worship service to attract young people, ipso facto, is stealing time—in the name of ‘worship’—from what should be the central focus of worship, the preaching of God’s Word. As a result of its current-day status quo mindset, the ‘church’-at-large, which includes music arts avant-gardism, continues to promote its characteristic as an organization, by which the world-at-large, as well as a majority of ‘church’-goers, know it, over its original calling to be a living organism, which must be given the freedom and independence to move and act apart from the internal dictates of a power-hungry organization that never should have been allowed to accrue to itself such authority in the first place!

These are not the musings of a crotchety septuagenarian who has had a falling out with the ‘church’ and is making mountains out of theological molehills. Indeed, I love the universal, visible manifestation of the Congregation of Believers in Christ Jesus and am grateful for the witness of those who preceded us and who constitute the invisible portion of that Congregation. I trust that the reader will search the Scriptures together with me to come to their own conclusions regarding the issues that will be addressed. It is my deep desire to communicate clearly and correctly my stance where the ‘Church’ has gone astray, having appropriated, assimilated, propagated, and perpetuated an intentionally erroneous position or ‘false narrative,’ in order to push an agenda that benefits holding to an in Perpetuum apocryphal, extra-Scriptural and heretical (which is actually synonymous with, and therefore redundant) ecclesiastical calendar, with evangelical pastors having unabashedly followed suit by acquiescing and thus consenting to these false narratives. Just as Jacob did with Christ in an Old Testament epiphany, so the Christian, even if sincerely believing and espousing a position to be true, must not shirk or shrink from the responsibility to prove the veracity of that position by personally grappling with the Scriptures, even to the point of wrestling with the Holy Spirit, who authored them as He guided the writers’ hearts, minds, and pens.

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To God be the glory!