by Velma aka Shammah

Created on: July 26, 2009

If these were the days of "Joan of Arc" - and you believed in God and not the church - you can bet your bottom dollar, you'd be burned at the stake; and likely, I'd be the first one to go! I've been very outspoken for some time about this business of "church" and it and the word "religion" make me sick! If I walked into one of my congregations and got up at the front and said these things, in all likelihood I'd be blacklisted from that congregation, possibly labelled a heretic, and like I said, if it were allowed, "burned at the stake."

I dislike two words that relate to God, Christianity: church and religion, both equally. God didn't create man for "religion" but for "relationship" and as for church (as we know it today), well Yahshua went about, through fields, highways and by-ways talking, mingling, deliberating (make note of the word "deliberating") and having discussions and debating with the people.

Yahshua was an interactive leader and he was also a student, all at the same time. Just as you and I are leaders and students all at the same time. We know that "God" exists or is told of in the Bible, but the word "church" does not exist in the form as used in modern day. Here is what Strong's has to say when cross-referencing from the word "church" which is only found in the New Testament, and which comes out of the Greek word "ecclesia."

Now, before I really get into this article, let me share where I am coming from as regards the various and sundry versions of the Bible that Christians refer to from time to time; using as their "handbook" of life. I am of the convicted opinion that there has been a lot of mistranslation from what was originally said or written down through the centuries. I am puzzled by why some versions have some books in them and others do not? I have no doubt (but no proof) that perhaps one or more of the versions of the Bible were crafted and put together for "self-serving" and "self-aggrandizing" purposes of a human being or organization. I question the authenticity and I bring everything before the Lord in prayer when I am drawn to stop at something I read in one or another version of the Bible. I seek conviction by the Spirit, for it is no man's job to convict another of what is or is not Truth. That, my friends, is the task of the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit).

And further, by way of preamble introduction, when searching the word "church" on a commonly used bible reference site - the word was not even found in versions

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