Dear brothers and sisters,
I am sorry for all the wrongs which you have suffered and none of them surprise me. First, I would like to say that APOSTLE Mike Neville who founded Praise Chapel though never properly call so, had clearly stated over the pulpit in front of God and the congregation and it was recorded and sold on tape cassette as well that he intentionally wished to brainwash all of us. He explained that he wanted us to be too busy to become idle as in idle hands are the devil's playground. He wanted us to be at church all the time and influenced by other believers than at home or any where else where we could be influenced by unbelievers. He called TV the one-eyed demon and so I did not even own a TV. He had a vision to reach the world and he did it. Apostle Neville was a great man that I loved and respected and he fulfilled his father's business and is in Heaven with Jesus and will never suffer again.
As for all the sin and corruption from leadership; it's ALL of our faults. We all have bibles and we all have the duty to "study to shew ourselves approved unto God". WE have and had the responsibility to address any issues that conflict with scripture by following scriptural guidelines. Confront the individual(pastor or whoever) alone. If they won't repent, then you grab some elders in the church and confront them. If they still don't repent, then you take it to the church(body) and if they still won't repent then the body needs to kick them out. And if the church is in sin and won't kick out the pastor or whatever individual then WE need to leave that church and shake the dust off our shoes and go find another church that is obeying God's Word.
Now we've all been hurt by people in the church and we cannot use that as an excuse to stop serving Jesus. On the judgement day that line "so and so did me wrong" will not fly as you will be cast into the lake of fire for eternity.
Lastly, scripture instructs us that WE OUGHT TO OBEY GOD RATHER THAN MAN. Apostle Neville also stated over the pulpit that if you don't like the church, there's the door. So if you don't want to continue in sin, then you need to leave that church, because if you continue in what you know is wrong, it is sin unto you. So here I would like to bring to light a subject that most PC'ers ignore. "HOUSE CHURCH"
Rather than complaining and luking out or backsliding over what's going on inside the commercial buildings; go home and start your own church in your own house. I know that seems crazy and un-traditional, and that's exactly what house church is . . . . . it's not traditions of man. We most likely got saved in a commercial building and had church in that commercial building for years. That was the tradition passed down to us and we ignorantly followed it.
Luke 5: 19 shows us that Jesus had church in a believer's house. Acts 2 says that the promised gift of the Holy Spirit was first ushered in from the upper room of a believer's home. Paul the apostle who wrote the majority of the NT had church in his house as a pastor while also being an apostle over all the other house churches in Acts 28: 30-31. Philemon 2 states church in their house as well as many other NT references to house churches. When Paul the apostle wrote letters to the church in whatever city; he was not writing a letter to a synagogue, or a temple, or a commercial building, but he was writing to a group of house churches scattered throughout that city which was most likely overseen by a bishop(a lost position in the church today which needs to be reinstated).
Furthermore, God told his people in 1 Chronicles 17:5 that he does NOT want buildings. He wants to be with us in our homes(tents) where we live daily. If Jesus were to step inside these commercial church buildings today with their business names, logos, and slogans, business permits, reseller permits, articles of incorporation, corporate board of directors, 501c3 tax exemptions which are compromises with Cesar, business insurance, business checking accounts, business accountants, and of course their servitude to mammon which is a business's "bottom line" in order to stay in business......Jesus would make a whip, kick over the pulpit, whip the pastor and board of directors, go into the church office and make it look like a tornado hit it. Then he'd climb onto the roof and knock off the church name sign and graffitti the word ICHABOD in it's place with a can of spray paint because they have turned his house of prayer into a den of thieves. The pastors have become hirelings addicted to that corporate paycheck. Which is why Paul the apostle was a tent maker by profession for the very sake that he could not be accused of being a hireling nor be tempted by the money flow.
Jesus told us that where ever 2 or 3 are gathered together in his name, there he is with us. So just 2 or 3 believers can be a church. Then as God gives the increase from our sewing and watering, then Jesus will fill in the offices which he gave us in Ephesians 4 such as evangelists, pastors, teachers, deacons, presbytery, and so on. So if and when you decide to leave those four walls and start a church in your own home, beware of the elder doctrine which has drowned out the house church movement. They claim everyone is either a babe in Christ or an elder. Along with that they claim to be democratic where every one is equal as a form of christian communism though in practice they do the opposite. They reject in whole the leadership titles and roles which Jesus gave us in Ephesians 4. They have thrown out the baby with the bath water because they were wronged by a commercial church pastor.
With that said, all of us will have a line put in front of us by Cesar. The public commercial churches will soon be subject to Cesar's new world order and dictates which conflict with scripture. Choose you this day whom you will serve! Stay in Cesar's den of thieves or go into your homes and start your own church
I am sorry for all the wrongs which you have suffered and none of them surprise me. First, I would like to say that APOSTLE Mike Neville who founded Praise Chapel though never properly call so, had clearly stated over the pulpit in front of God and the congregation and it was recorded and sold on tape cassette as well that he intentionally wished to brainwash all of us. He explained that he wanted us to be too busy to become idle as in idle hands are the devil's playground. He wanted us to be at church all the time and influenced by other believers than at home or any where else where we could be influenced by unbelievers. He called TV the one-eyed demon and so I did not even own a TV. He had a vision to reach the world and he did it. Apostle Neville was a great man that I loved and respected and he fulfilled his father's business and is in Heaven with Jesus and will never suffer again.
As for all the sin and corruption from leadership; it's ALL of our faults. We all have bibles and we all have the duty to "study to shew ourselves approved unto God". WE have and had the responsibility to address any issues that conflict with scripture by following scriptural guidelines. Confront the individual(pastor or whoever) alone. If they won't repent, then you grab some elders in the church and confront them. If they still don't repent, then you take it to the church(body) and if they still won't repent then the body needs to kick them out. And if the church is in sin and won't kick out the pastor or whatever individual then WE need to leave that church and shake the dust off our shoes and go find another church that is obeying God's Word.
Now we've all been hurt by people in the church and we cannot use that as an excuse to stop serving Jesus. On the judgement day that line "so and so did me wrong" will not fly as you will be cast into the lake of fire for eternity.
Lastly, scripture instructs us that WE OUGHT TO OBEY GOD RATHER THAN MAN. Apostle Neville also stated over the pulpit that if you don't like the church, there's the door. So if you don't want to continue in sin, then you need to leave that church, because if you continue in what you know is wrong, it is sin unto you. So here I would like to bring to light a subject that most PC'ers ignore. "HOUSE CHURCH"
Rather than complaining and luking out or backsliding over what's going on inside the commercial buildings; go home and start your own church in your own house. I know that seems crazy and un-traditional, and that's exactly what house church is . . . . . it's not traditions of man. We most likely got saved in a commercial building and had church in that commercial building for years. That was the tradition passed down to us and we ignorantly followed it.
Luke 5: 19 shows us that Jesus had church in a believer's house. Acts 2 says that the promised gift of the Holy Spirit was first ushered in from the upper room of a believer's home. Paul the apostle who wrote the majority of the NT had church in his house as a pastor while also being an apostle over all the other house churches in Acts 28: 30-31. Philemon 2 states church in their house as well as many other NT references to house churches. When Paul the apostle wrote letters to the church in whatever city; he was not writing a letter to a synagogue, or a temple, or a commercial building, but he was writing to a group of house churches scattered throughout that city which was most likely overseen by a bishop(a lost position in the church today which needs to be reinstated).
Furthermore, God told his people in 1 Chronicles 17:5 that he does NOT want buildings. He wants to be with us in our homes(tents) where we live daily. If Jesus were to step inside these commercial church buildings today with their business names, logos, and slogans, business permits, reseller permits, articles of incorporation, corporate board of directors, 501c3 tax exemptions which are compromises with Cesar, business insurance, business checking accounts, business accountants, and of course their servitude to mammon which is a business's "bottom line" in order to stay in business......Jesus would make a whip, kick over the pulpit, whip the pastor and board of directors, go into the church office and make it look like a tornado hit it. Then he'd climb onto the roof and knock off the church name sign and graffitti the word ICHABOD in it's place with a can of spray paint because they have turned his house of prayer into a den of thieves. The pastors have become hirelings addicted to that corporate paycheck. Which is why Paul the apostle was a tent maker by profession for the very sake that he could not be accused of being a hireling nor be tempted by the money flow.
Jesus told us that where ever 2 or 3 are gathered together in his name, there he is with us. So just 2 or 3 believers can be a church. Then as God gives the increase from our sewing and watering, then Jesus will fill in the offices which he gave us in Ephesians 4 such as evangelists, pastors, teachers, deacons, presbytery, and so on. So if and when you decide to leave those four walls and start a church in your own home, beware of the elder doctrine which has drowned out the house church movement. They claim everyone is either a babe in Christ or an elder. Along with that they claim to be democratic where every one is equal as a form of christian communism though in practice they do the opposite. They reject in whole the leadership titles and roles which Jesus gave us in Ephesians 4. They have thrown out the baby with the bath water because they were wronged by a commercial church pastor.
With that said, all of us will have a line put in front of us by Cesar. The public commercial churches will soon be subject to Cesar's new world order and dictates which conflict with scripture. Choose you this day whom you will serve! Stay in Cesar's den of thieves or go into your homes and start your own church