I’m back. We returned from a grueling 3000 mile road trip last week. It was fun, but left me worn out. I need a vacation from my vacation!
I realize I haven’t been keeping up with the blog all that much in the past few weeks. I hope to pick the plow back up this week. Unfortunately, when I returned I found out that my sidebars had vanished. Just the WordPress default sidebars are showing, all my customizations just disappeared. Hopefully I’ll be able to restore them soon.
On our trip (we drove to Pensacola, FL to see my sister-in-law graduate, and then to North Canton, OH to visit my brother’s family and my mom), we couldn’t help but notice this unusual sign on Interstate 65 a few miles north of Montgomery, AL.
This sign raises a question: why do we go to church? I, for one, don’t think the answer given on the sign is theologically correct. Before I explain my thoughts, perhaps some of my readers (assuming I still have any…) would like to weigh in on what is wrong with this sign. Or maybe you agree with its basic premise. Please, join the conversation. I’ll be posting my thoughts on this later today or else tomorrow.
Update: Here are my thoughts concerning the sign above:
My beef against the sign is that it seems to imply that one earns brownie points for going to church. If you don’t get those points, you become vulnerable to the Devil. Now it is highly probable that if one is not going to church they also are vulnerable to the devil’s attack, but such is not a direct cause and effect relationship.
Salvation from the devil comes by grace. It is only because of Jesus and His work on the cross that we have a hope of standing against the devil. Going to church and living obediently does not earn us anything. It can provide for greater assurance, and it witnesses to the genuineness of our salvation. If obedience is lacking we should have cause to doubt the legitimacy of our salvation. But in all of this we are to trust in Christ more.
Trusting and believing in Jesus is how we overcome the devil. It is true that he is seeking to devour us and is very real. The way to fight him, however, is not to grit our teeth and determine to go to church more often. Instead it is to find our hope and faith in Jesus and fly to Him for refuge.
Going to church should be something us believers LOVE to do. We should want to meet God and find more grace in the assembly of believers. We go to church because God wants us to (Heb. 10:25), and we want to obey and please Him.
Our hope should not be that we are religious people who go to church. It should not be that we have DONE anything, not good works, baptism, church membership, or even doing the “sinner’s prayer”. Our hope should be that Jesus DID it all for us, and he has caused us to love and trust Jesus alone for our only hope of salvation.
I am sure the people responsible for the sign have every good intention. I have nothing against them. I just think such a sign obscures the gospel message. If you are unsure of what the Biblical gospel is, or if you have been trusting in your own efforts to ward off Satan, please take time to follow the links near the top of my right sidebar, under the title “Good News”.
Thanks to all for the excellent interaction in the comments concerning the question “Why Go to Church?”
We go to heaven for mutual edification and growth and also to serve as the type of gathering of the universal church.
“[E]ach local church is not seen primarily as one member parallel to a lot of other member churches, together constituting one body, one church; nor is each local church seen as the body of Christ parallel to other earthly churches that are also the body of Christ–as if Christ had many bodies. Rather, each church is the full manifestation in space and time of the one, true, heavenly, eschatological, new covenant church. Local churches should see themselves as outcroppings of heaven, analogies of ‘the Jerusalem that is above,’ indeed colonies of the new Jerusalem, providing on earth a corporate and visible expression of ‘the glorious freedom of the children of God.’â€
D.A. Carson, Evangelicals, Ecumenism, and the Church (pg. 366)
Quoted in Believer’s Baptism: Sign of the New Covenant in Christ (pg. 148)
I’d say that sign is correct if that church bit was missing. “…the devil will get you.” The fact that Satan is the present-day ruler of earth is so evident, not only in the workplace, school, or the shops we visit, but also in many churches! After all, the people running these churches are sinners as well.
Fortunately, these “sinners” are saved by grace. They have the covering of Jesus Christ and the promise that “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I will be in the midst.” I believe that when we do gather in Jesus’ name, we should first take off the baggage from our daily lives, demand that Satan leave our presence, and draw near to God. Even when the priest approached the tabernacle, he had to purify himself, purify the temple, then enter into the presence of God.
Praise God that the Holy Spirit who lives within us has the power to repel the present ruler of this world!
Bob,
I’m glad you’re back. I’m sure you got warmed up with some Florida sunshine. Too bad we couldn’t meet in person, though!
As for the sign…. I love the silliness of it in the sense that only such a sign could be found in the South! At any rate, it smacks of ‘works religion’ by advocating that going to church will somehow save you from the devil. Such shallow thinking is inept in bringing one into the power from the Gospel that reveals who Jesus is and what He did on the cross. Going to church is a religious excercise that has no power. Regardless, the devil is the ruler of this earth (temporarily) until Christ returns to set up his millennial kingdom.
Oh, yes… I ‘forgot’ to add something…. I now am a ‘seminary graduate’! I have a M.A. in Theological Studies, newly minted this past Saturday. I will receive my diploma in the mail (and for those of you who think I went to a “diploma mill”, I did much of my seminary classes in residency at an IFB seminary that is approaching full accreditation).
“Mr. Hayton, welome back. Weee missed you.” – Agent Smith ; )
I’d love a higher res version of the sign if you have it. Please?!
Happy to have you back!
Church attendance motivated out of fear is wrong. Church attendance motivated by love for God and love for brothers and sisters in Christ is right.
Well, number one, we should go to church because it’s biblical. There are no lone-wolf christians in the new testament. All of the letters from Paul assume church membership.
I too am glad you’re back, Bob.
Great responses everyone. Thanks for the interaction.
See the update in the post above for my thoughts.
One other thing, I don’t necessarily see church membership as a clearly taught Scriptural doctrine. Church attendance is assumed. Often it is assumed that all believers in one locale are church “members”. But modern American church membership is another issue for another post.
Steve,
I sent you a higher resolution pic (as high as I have).
Thanks for dropping by.
Bob
Hmmm- haven’t seen any emails come my way.
Steve,
I did send it. My email program did not notify me it did not go thru. Make sure to check your spam bin, and make sure my email (now [email protected]) is not on your banned list.
Hope it makes it thru.
By the way…
Did anyone else wonder why a scythe is in the Devil’s hands instead of a pitchfork??
In more than a few cases (especially in the IFB world) the sign could be written as an “and” statement which would make it more accurate.