You don't have to look far to see that in person church attendance is significantly lower.
So where have the numbers shifted?
The plandemic played a role in reducing the amount of people that attend in person church services. More pastors are forced to live stream their services because people have chosen to remain at home or they don't "tune in" at all.
Is it a sin?
"Zoom" has been a blessing and a curse to in person church attendance.
People are staying home. They believe that it's advantageous because you don't have to travel. If a church provides live streaming, what do you think is a much better option for the attendee? You don't have to give much effort or money as much either. After the service, you could just turn it off and go about your merry way.
Houses of worship struggle to balance their budgets and pay for the basic necessities of the local church and pastors have to be flexible to somehow survive.
Is live streaming against the Scriptures?
Well, look at the many satellite and cabel networks that provide taped services for people to view when they post the schedule. Millions of dollars are spent so that you could view their teachings at your leisure.
The Internet is now the new way where the world gathers to view content much like your regular channels.
In fact. YouTube and other sources, such as social media platforms have become the place where more content by different parties are provided when you don't trust the regular programming.
The Lord said "Go into all the world and preach the gospel. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved. He that believes not shall be damned."
The Internet and social media is part of the world where there's more opportunities to preach the gospel but we must ever forget that in person witnessing and preaching the gospel is still the preferred method.
I was watching a man that claims to be a preacher rant for over two minutes about people attending home churches and that they should attend church in person. He also said that home church is unScriptural.
But if you look carefully in the Scriptures, you'll see that many churches started in people's houses.
Romans 16:3-5 (NKJV) "Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. Likewise greet the church that is in their house."
1 Corinthians 16:19-20 (NKJV) "The churches of Asia greet you. Aquila and Priscilla greet you heartily in the Lord, with the church that is in their house."
Their house wasn't the only house because all across Asia minor, many believers gathered together in their homes to fellowship with one another and the way that the apostles communicated with them was by letter.
The letters would be written and then the messengers would carry the letters to the believers so that they would be taught the Scriptures and they would be given admonitions regarding the sound teaching of the faith that's in Christ so that they would grow in the Lord.
They would travel great distances to make sure that they do not lose what was gained through evangelism.
Colossians 4:16 (NKJV)
"Now when this epistle is read among you, see that it is read also in the church of the Laodiceans, and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea."
Many have reasoned that this "pastor" was upset about it because people have decided to attend smaller groups that meet at home and this definitely cuts into the income that's responsible for a decease in the income of the local church.
When people leave, money leaves with them. When the economy tanked, people departed to other states where there's a good chance to survive. Which means that local churches closed their doors.
He made this video in 2022 after the plandemic so no wonder he was very upset about the fact that people, for whatever reason, stopped attending his church.
Even after the apostles of the Lamb had passed away, the Lord made sure to instruct them to write down the prophetic Scriptures and insured that later on, their writings would become what we have now as the New Testament.
In God's infinite wisdom, He would gather 44 scholars to give us the Old and New Testament. 66 Books altogether. 39 OT (Old Testament) books, 27 NT (New Testament) books.
Over the centuries, a few of the church fathers would send letters to encourage and build up the believers in the faith of Christ and many of their letters didn't make the canonical cut or were lost over time.
However, what they've written were consistent teachings that affirmed many of the teachings of Christ in the 4 gospels, Luke, Paul, Peter, and John.
In reading the book of the Hebrews, we see that many believers were persecuted for having faith in Christ alone and were instructed to persevere and not become apostates because of the persecution they received.
The persecution was so fierce that many of them were sternly warned that if you intentionally defect from the Lord, the Lord doesn't even want you back.
Apostasy is serious business.
Hebrews 10:23-25 (NKJV) "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching."
Many preachers and teachers incorrectly and manipulatively use these Scriptures to compel people in the faith of Christ that you're out of order if you don't attend church in person while no widespread persecution was going on.
We give exceptions because what if a person is on their sick or death bed? What if they're being persecuted and are forced to meet in homes and houses? Or they decide that the persecution is so great that they decide to go underground? What if they're financially strapped and they have to work on the day that people regularly meet for service?
Police don't stop policing on Sunday. We buy food on Sunday. We get gas for the car on Sunday but the workers don't close. After service, we go out to eat. The servers, cooks, and waiters and waitresses don't stop. We forget that the world still functions.
With Israel, it's a different thing.
Everything stops on the Sabbath and when they can't go to Jerusalem, they go to the Jewish synagogues arpund the world.
Is a church building the only way to have worship, teaching of the Scriptures, and to exhort, encourage, and strengthen the believers in the faith of Christ?
John 4:21-24 (NKJV) "Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Evidently not. To impose an absolute rule on in person church building attendance is stretching it.
Both live streaming and in person attendance can be done. They both serve a vital role in giving believers options to be stregthened in the faith of Christ. These alternative methods are by divine design.
We must also remember that there's prisoners in jail that come to faith in Christ after repentance.
Years ago, a group of us went to Angola, a prison in Louisiana built upon a slave plantation of 18,000 acres. There's three church building on this prison site. So since prisoners can't attend in person service on the outside of the prison because they're incarcerated, the warden built 3 church buildings.
Ingenious.
But what about death row inmates? What if they've repented of sin and murder, and came to faith in Christ? Where do they "worship?" As we toured death row in Angola, there were TV's and some of them had Bibles for the death row inmates.
What do true believers do in their cars when they're on the road?
When we need additional teaching on certain subjects that we don't receive from one person?
We use alternative methods that's readily available.
The debate will continue but like Paul, no one should be looking to have dominion over people's faith. We must remember that the sheep belong to the Lord (see John 10).
To impose ironclad rules and act as despots reminds us of the "Shepherding Movement" back in the early 80's where in California, certain pastors decided to impose cult like restrictions on people because they were leaving the church building or were living lives that were unacceptable to the leaders.
They were overbearing, controlling, and manipulative.
It was declared a heresy.
Fortunately, these leaders came to their senses and stopped their cultish madness.
Why do you think that the apostles were taught of the Lord to "love one another?"
Because we serve in love and you would want to have a Christ like leader over you that's gentle, able to teach with patience, not lording it over you, sincere in love without hypocrisy in the faith of Christ as an example of love, purity, word, conduct, and behavior.
Anyway, should there be a home church that you're comfortable with in attending, it may or may not lead to going to an actual in person church service. If they're growing in the faith, shunning sin, and edified, we shouldn't compel them to forsake that set up.
Neither should we sneer our noses at in person church attendance because we're not to lord it over His sheep.
There's only One Head over the church. The Lord Jesus Christ.
If in person service is what you need, make your way to the place of true Christ like worship in spirit and in truth. If home church is what you need, make your way to the place where Christ is worshipped.
If live streaming is what you can do and it works for you, make your way to live streaming to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Shun neither of them.
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