There are legions of Christians without a church. I am a Gentile and a believer in the man Jesus who appear as the Christ. I am not a member of any organized religion.
It was not always this way for me. As a child attending Sunday school, I had the nasty habit of asking, "Why?" Even then, I saw much conflict in the church and did not understand such conflict.
One example is that story of Cain and Abel, the brothers. My Christian family raised me to believe that one should work hard to succeed in life. Cain had worked very hard and where did that get him? Why did God choose Abel above Cain? It did not seem fair to me and I thought that God was just plain unfair. Of course, I could not go so far as tell anyone what I thought. Nevertheless, I had to question that story.
The Sunday school teacher gave the usual answer to my questions. "You just have to believe it. The Bible says it and you must believe it. You have to have "Faith". I could not pretend enough Faith just to believe what was obviously amiss to me. After a few short weeks of Sunday school, the Sunday school teacher asked me not to return.
If it made me feel like the devil's spawn, it was certainly something I could not tell my parents. Mom and dad, your church says there is no hope for me, sorry about that, your seed and eggs are deviled like some appetizer at some orgy. No, could not let them know that. Therefore, I spent my Sunday afternoons and my tithe money at the little store across the street. Buying candy and reading the comics off the rack until it was time for my parents to come and get me from Sunday school.
Now I realize it was not such a bad deal. That becoming persona non-gratis at the Christian church was much an actual blessing for me. Things Biblical are much easier to understand when the mind is not confused with things that conflict the very heart of the Christ message.
I had learned early to keep clear of the Christian church, which had refused me. I kept as clear of this "God" as I kept clear of my dad when he was drinking too much. That Judea/Christian Bible, I rarely touched the thing. However, I always kept this Jesus in my heart. I knew very well that this was the one person, this Jesus, who really loved me. I knew that Jesus was probably the only one who would ever really love me.
It was to this Jesus that I prayed. Most often, I prayed that he would intercede with God on my behalf. That God might make me normal. I always prayed in private, often with tears. My prayers, or so I thought, were never answered.
I came, many years later to understand the parable of Cain and Abel. Why the Sunday school teacher did not tell me, I do not know. The moral being that one should not selfishly adore and devote one's self to gathering things material (Cain) in life. For is one uses ones devotion to acquire material things, one cannot help but kill one's spiritual side (Abel). That devoting oneself to collecting material all things begun will never bear fruit (lasting happiness).
I am still as I have always been, a Christian without a church. This is not for everyone to be. There is good in all churches that serve the One God of all things and the church can do much good for many, many people.
I wonder how many church going people who like to be Christians understand what Jesus the Christ was; is; and will be.
How many church going Christians understand things Biblical as should be. I watch in horror as un-Christian attitudes and belief are mistakenly is perpetrated and many congregations are inadvertently mislead into an arena of righteousness purported in self-aggrandizements.
Once I had made my own peace with the Bible and God, neither of these things condemned nor hated me, I had a huge shock in life.
A young man was betrayed, beaten, tortured and crucified. A traditional sect of this very own religion fervently denied him.
Only a small and traditional sect of the Jewish religion placed and heralded the crucifixion of Jesus. This is understandable in the life of Christ, as he demanded it should happen and must happen lest we lose our way. On that note, the teachings of some organized Christian religions to hate the Jews are an unholy thing. Jesus WAS a Jewish person, would these "Christians" hate that for which they claim devotion?
Only a small sect of the Jewish religion initiated the crucifixion of Jesus; the government of Rome carried it forward. Shall one also hate Italians in the name of God?
Those who spin and exaggerate the words of this Good Book, the Judea/Christian Bible, are the self-righteous. In the teachings of Jesus the Christ, no person can hate another under any circumstances. One may judge (consider) behavior but not sit in judgment of that persons soul. This is the domain of the Father!
What is it these church-going Christians do not understand? Jesus walked with the most persecuted of the time, the whore (though many now attempt to spin and exaggerate things for their own money or self-gratification).
Who does not understand? Jesus walked with the whore who was to be stoned, the most persecuted for the sake of righteousness of the time. Yet still today, there are those who would deny the Christ!
The betrayal, beating, torture, crucifixion and denial by a sect of this own church of which I speak is not about Jesus Christ. It is of recent origin concerning a young man named (rather Biblically), Matthew Sheppard.
His murderers say that they did it solely because he was a homosexual. The sect of Christians that picketed and protested his memorial and burial did so because he was a homosexual and according to these "Christians" did not deserve a Christian burial. Good Grief! Did these Christians truly believe it was up to them to guard the gates of Heaven for the Father and Son? Oh ye, have you no faith in that which you claim the pinnacle of your very devotion?
It was this incident, of which I only heard years after its occurrence, which returned me to the Bible itself. For I had my Understanding and I was content inside myself.
It was that name. "Matthew", my favorite book in the Bible, "Sheppard", one who tends the flock (Abel of Cain fame), that demanded I seek further in the Bible. The parallels of execution and acceptance of that murder as being somehow a godly thing to do did not miss me either.
All the same, I was myself, unsure. Could these Christians guarding the path by way of Christ from homosexuals be correct? I prayed to the name of Jesus that I seek that God might broaden my understanding. I opened my Bible. I read.
Woe is unto the person who puts judgment upon the neighbor for the sake of self-righteousness, even be it a belief garnered from within the walls of a "Christian" church. Those who spread hatreds in the name of the Father and/or the Son are damned for your own sake. Those who would use the traditions found in the Torah (Old Testament) and perpetrate them as did the scribes and church leaders of old.
The Bible is not so hard to understand if one prays in the name of Christ, humbling oneself, as did Christ, purifying and purging the heart of hatreds or self-pity. As it is written, seek and God shall give it unto you.
I am sorry about the preachy stuff, hard to avoid when speaking of religion. I do not write these things to abuse church going Christians nor their Christian leaders. I believe the leaders themselves have often been misguided. That they and so many churchgoers are simply misled by those who themselves have been misled.
Who does not see that only selfishness is the base of all sin? Not money, not sex, not even drugs are the base of sin. Even unto that called the original sin. The Bible is not a work of pornography.
How many Christians, church going or not, would know of Good and Evil? That Evil is not opposite Good. That "Evil" is "Good which is used for Selfish/Destructive Purpose".
The Judea/Christian Bible is a marvelous work. From translation to out and out changes, the truths remain beneath what scribes and translators attempt to mystify. I call that Bible, "The Good Book often used for Evil Purpose."
In all of the attempts to thwart the Word in the Torah, and all the attempts to thwart, the Word in the New Testament one can see the truth if one asks for guidance from the Father. It has not yet been done by anyone. Such a masterful work, surely touched by the Spirit of Righteousness, that work itself will teach of is own human written falsified script.
One can read, even in of the Torah, but take care that you do not hang your Spirit on the wrong peg of traditions. For Moses and Aaron were not allowed to deliver the people for reason. Read carefully the Word and you will see why as the judgment of man comes to outweigh the Word in the very writing of the scripture.
Pray for guidance before you enter and any fog eventually begins to lift. Listen to the ideas of those who "teach" and "preach" to you (even what I say) but do not take it as "truth", seek, as you are to seek, for yourself not from another.
Church is a Good and wonderful thing. However, all good is susceptible to selfishness so beware for others and for your self. It is Good to gather in His name, only be sure that you not pulled asunder by the way of others. If something does not seem quite right to you, it probably is not, so do not do it. In the same respect, judge (consider) others but NEVER let your mind pass judgment upon their souls. This is not the domain of humankind.
One will find in the scripture that the Father has given to each individual that which is the "Authority to Execute Judgment". This, in modern day, is termed as "Free Will" or "Choice".
A thing of "righteousness" as opposed to "self-righteousness" is whether one uses the Free Will in a manner consistent with the Will of the Father.
To this day, when I think of that boy named Matthew Sheppard, it can make me cry. Two peers he met pretended they were gay and interested in the gay movement. They lured him into their truck (nothing sexual offered or accepted, they tell) for a ride home. They had betrayed his trust, they were not gay and interested in that movement, and they were interested in killing him. They tied beat and tortured him, they crucified him on a fence and left him to die. To the best of my memory, he was there for over two days, dieing slowly. That poor child! Even now, I weep for that boy and his parents, family and friends who suffered this ungodly loss.
There is only one place from which these two murdering young men might be convinced that gay persons are worthy of death. Every Christian, church attending or not, who spreads hatreds of others for being different than themselves put a knot in that rope used to tie that young boy to his long suffering death. You play God and you do not even begin to know the Father. You may ignore this if your like but ignoring what is true does not absolve the guilty. It might be best to confront and repent one's "Christian" hatreds.
Of course, you can just ignore all of this, after all, it comes from a "Christian" without a church.