February 2000 New Horizons

Don't Go to Church!

by Thomas E. Tyson

Most folks in the United States don't go to church. Forty percent never attend church at all, and more people were not in a worship service on the last Lord's day than were. For tens of millions of our countrymen, Sunday is a day to sleep in, have a continental brunch at a restaurant, and then settle in for an afternoon of football and beer. Church services are considered boring, irrelevant, and worth neither the effort nor the cost. Now, if Christianity were purely an individual matter, if there were no fourth commandment, and if God hadn't given any instruction regarding church attendance, then the behavior described above might be OK. But Christians are not isolated individuals who just happen to share a common destiny. Rather, they are the body of Christ. Furthermore, the Sabbath commandment, which sets apart one day in every seven as a day of rest and worship, is still binding. And, the Bible does have something to say about church attendance: Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in ... Read more

Why Go to Church?

by Rebecca J. Layton

I recently sent the following letter to my sister, who, although professing to be a believer, has decided that there is no need for her to go to church. When I invited you to church for Easter, you replied, "But then I would have to go to church. Well, here are some reasons why to go to church. You don't have to go to church; rather, you want to go to church, because you love the Lord and because the Holy Spirit whispers to you that it is the right thing to do. (See John 14:15-17.) You go to church to learn about God and his wonderful works, to learn about Jesus. The more you learn about God, the more there is to learn, since God is infinite. And if you go to a Bible-believing church, you learn what the real truth is. Go to a church that does not water down the Bible with psychological feel-goodism or that compromises the Word of God to be politically correct. (See Hebrews 10:24-25, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, John 1:1-3.) Go to church to worship God, because you want to praise him for what ... Read more

Joining a Church

by Carol Gohl

I had completed the education classes to join this new church. Meeting with the elders was the next step in the process. I had finally adjusted to the fact that I could sit with the pastor and two ruling elders and profess my faith before them. Then I learned that there would be four ruling elders, not two. My heart went into panic mode. The way I saw it, I would have to sit in a room with five men, who would judge my credibility as a Christian woman. I had three days to think about this meeting. At work, I talked with several people about it. It was light talk, just words disconnected from my true feelings. We even laughed about it. When the day came, I kept telling myself, "I know I can do it. I was making too big of a "thing about the whole situation! When I came home from work that day, I was counting the hours—four hours left. In my mind, I was fighting my fears, not even knowing what I was afraid of. I kept telling myself that God was with me, that he always sent his Spirit to me when I ... Read more

Leaving a Church

by Brad Winsted

Have you ever been suddenly surprised and saddened to hear that a particular family or individual has left your church for no apparent reason? Maybe on the previous Lord's day you were celebrating the Lord's Supper with them, and now they have gone and are "not coming back. The situation is painful and confusing. And, more times then not, it could have been resolved if the biblical means of restoration or confrontation had been used. But now you hear that "it's too late, and you never have fellowship with that family again. One of the obvious outcomes of the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century was the formation of a new church. Martin Luther had to leave the church of his life, the church to which he had made sacred vows. But he had no options, for the Pope had excommunicated him, and the Roman Church considered him a heretic. Have you heard why most people leave churches today? (Orthodox Presbyterian congregations are not immune from this.) Sadly, it's not often because biblical truth is ... Read more

What You Might Find at Church

by Dick G. Vanderpyl

Some time ago I got hold of a very interesting paperback, with the title War in the Pews . Its subtitle: A Foxhole Guide to Survive Church Conflicts . Its 170 pages are littered with stories of strife in the church, but also present valuable suggestions on how to solve them God's way. It's fascinating reading. Let me give you a true story of an incident, which almost caused a rift in a congregation. It is about "the battle of a belly button. We all have one, you know that! A church asked one of its members to paint a mural for the catechism classroom. The artist was to depict the Creation story. Everybody admired the painting—until someone spotted that Adam had a belly button. The critics argued convincingly that Adam could not have had a navel, seeing that he was created by God and not born of man. Most of them couldn't be bothered. Someone suggested that God could very well have created him with a navel. Why not? Anyway, it was decided to leave it as it is. But, over a period of time, ... Read more

Doctrine 101: Regeneration

by Edward N. Gross

We know that people were created primarily to exalt or glorify God the Creator. With the entrance of sin into this world, through the fall of Adam, our ability and desire solely to magnify God has ended. In order to regain that ability and to correct the awful course of sin in the soul and creation, God purposed a plan of salvation through his Son, Jesus Christ. Through the course of redeeming us, God has exalted his love (grace), power, and justice to new heights of beauty. Regeneration is the work of God's Holy Spirit in the soul of humans, enabling us to see our sinfulness and peril, and to behold the beauty of the Savior so that we can truly praise and worship him again. The work of regeneration is described differently in the Scriptures. The Old Testament speaks of it as circumcising and softening otherwise unholy and hardened hearts (Deut. 30:6; Ezek. 36:26). It is portrayed as the act of God's writing his law on the human heart (Jer. 31:33). In the New Testament, it is represented as becoming a ... Read more