“What makes me tired is the man-made, man-dominated, man-centered façade posing as the true church” Bishop Eddie Long: It’s your time
Over the seasons and times we have watched many media channels delivering gospel or christian content and it has become apparent that there are several places and mentions that you get great applauses in church. When you mention victories or you speak of how bad things are in the church. We applaud the most because in us we feel we are separate from that church, oh yes it is not our church it is the other church
We have seen the church unashamedly bashed, abused, brutalized, and cannibalized. People have preached so bad about her that the world has a bitter taste in their mouths. She has further been named a fraud, a place of grand delusions, were weak minded, poor, and broken people go. If you go in you are going to come out worse than you did when you went it.
All this has legitimized the view that the church is not needed hence she deserves to be separated and isolated from society. We have contributed significantly to pushing her into irrelevance.
If those that belong to the church and claim to be the church continual mock her, then how can the people that are outside take her seriously?
Accused her of barrenness/ and laughed of her reproach
1 Samuel 1: 5 – 6 ”5But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion; for he loved Hannah: but the LORD had shut up her womb. 6And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the LORD had shut up her womb”
We have separated her from her husband
- because we have taken her away from her husband, we have this powerless church, that’s only offering self help message, which they can get on TV, books and the Internet.
- we have prayed for the people to come back to church but what has been presented to them is this hopeless, needful, money hungry and mind controlling church.
- Even in the way that we advertise her, we trumpet her programs, children’s church, our Easter programs, our social events, we bring them in by that but there is no power, so they window shop and go back what they know works.
We have partitioned her, segregated her, denominationalized/ partitioned her, and called her names
- We have called her the white church, the black church,
‘The one church that Christ purchased with His own blood belongs to Him and the name it wears must honor Him. We read in Romans 16:16, “The churches of Christ greet you.” This name glorifies and honors Christ, the one who built it. Other names honor and glorify John the Baptist, Martin Luther, the day of Pentecost, the apostles, Rome, Antioch, Nazareth, the Greeks, the Russians, the methodical way of doing things, Christians, the free will, being primitive, southern, missionary, general, the seventh day, science, catholic, the advent, and the list goes on and on. Even by their names they do not claim to be Christ’s one church. Why can’t we give the glory and honor to God and Christ where the honor belongs?’
[Determine your salvation: http://www.bible.ca/interactive/salvation-23-lords-church.htm]
Mis-characterization/ misrepresentation
- we have had gatherings and we are busy telling the world we are her,
- Because of our mischaracterization, we have made her the works of our hands, made the world think we are building her. And for some of us we have turned her into an idol, an entertainment center, a theater, a dating club
- It has been set as a place where you get customized prophetic words, an oil soaked towel, holy water from Israel, religious gimmicks, pay for your miracle places, a den of thieves.
- We ourselves do not even know who the church is let alone what she looks like
We have said she is
- an entity represented by the four walls,
- equated her to a set of our branded programs
- her lifeless, bloodless, pathetic, so needy (a charity case)
- a whore/prostitute
The three Sects of what the world sees in the churches
- The Pharisees
- The Sadducees
- The Essenes
