New Article: “Fellowship & Alienation in the Visible Church Today”

Why Many Devout Disciples of Christ Do Not or Cannot Indulge in Merely ‘Attending’ a Church

[For those who would prefer a copy in PDF format, you will find a download button at the foot of this article]

Preamble

Having just had an interesting chat with a former ‘New Ager’ with a creative personality who is understandably struggling to fit into the clonelike expectations of so many professing “Christians” in churches today, I realised that I need to pull together all the various little bits and pieces that I have written about ‘church attendance’, ‘fellowship’, and what it means to be an individual disciple of Christ in a group environment and how that can so often lead to alienation and even bewilderment for certain types of people. I have then built on all those pieces with further input to create the article you now have on your screen.

This is going to be a wide-ranging article which will no doubt challenge the current thinking of many. For that ‘thinking’ has so often been marred by an almost cultlike attitude and a herd mentality which is not in the spirit of true Christian fellowship. So, let us set off on a journey of exploration and see where it takes us. (Hint: You might need your seatbelt; so buckle up!).

The Truly Spiritual Person can Never be a Clone of Any Kind

Many believe that because the visible ‘church’ is still called ‘church’ it must automatically mean that all those in it are genuine disciples of Christ. This is very far from the case. A great many churches function more or less as social clubs where members hope to annul their loneliness and isolation in a community meeting place, or they operate in a distinctly cultish manner which infantilises the congregation with a false authority and an overbearing strictness which does not reflect the Spirit of Christ — what is known as ‘heavy shepherding’. Far too many churches are based on unquestioning conformity and unhealthy, obsequious subservience to a pastor/priest/eldership, or they are dominated by a secret small body of manipulators at the heart of the congregation but which is not at all apparent at first glance.

I have a passionate belief in wise, discerning, caring leadership and wholesome education, in all areas of life, but especially in relation to the Ekklesia — the true church, which is invisible to the world and energised by the Holy Spirit. Those who have a deeper understanding need to be able to pass on that understanding to those who, so far, understand less and who are open to understand more deeply through having a teachable spirit. All disciples of Christ (including pastors and teachers) are always pupils. But blind conformity of any kind has no place in the life of the one who has embarked on the spiritual way which leads to life and liberation; which is why genuine disciples of Christ do not do so well in so many of the visible churches of today. As I wrote in a recent article:

“In my experience, a great many people in churches are personality-disordered but most of the time it is disguised behind hideously false smiles, rampant pietism, Bible jargon, Christian clichés and ‘butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-the-mouth’ smarminess — until someone challenges them in some innocuous manner. Consequently, there is no real place in a great many churches (probably most) for someone who ‘tells it like it is’; someone who sees right through any gaslighting bullshit; someone who understands human psychology, the power of suggestion and brainwashing techniques; someone who is not at all ignorant of Satan’s devices; someone who knows the difference between real authority and false authority; and someone who has a genuine love of truth and authenticity. Yet, this is precisely the kind of person who is very much needed in the halls of God’s people. Yet such a person will not last long in most of those halls today, whether as a pastor or member of a congregation. If you have those characteristics, you will very quickly become a pariah in most of today’s churches and (ironically) you will be labelled as a troublemaker” (quoted from https://diakrisis-project.com/2024/06/12/modern-synagogues-of-satan-the-decline-of-the-visible-church/ .

The truly spiritual person can never be a clone or acolyte of another human (for Christ is his or her only Master); and it has to be said that a great number of geographical churches do produce clones. It is almost as if such churches exist to cater exclusively for those who merely want to appear to be disciples of Christ, while oppressing and undermining those who genuinely are His disciples and who live it out fervently in the way they live, move, speak, think and write — those who see beyond enforced creeds and catechisms, those who have no time for the manmade rules which prop up rigid systems of human control.

The problem is that whenever a group is formed in which the majority lack spiritual authenticity (even if they imagine that they have it), there will very often follow a slavish herd mentality in that group, while ruthless, controlling men (or women) of ambition who are devoid of wisdom and who like the sound of their own voice and love to have things their own way will rise to the top of the pile. (It is the same in corporate industry too, and many other walks of life in which false authority can be wielded).

Sadly, a great many people in congregations are very easily manipulated and, it has to be said, have about as much discernment as a disused telegraph pole. They are very sleepy, passive, and allow conditions to prevail in churches which should have no place there. One really does need to be an expert in group dynamics and crowd psychology these days to cut through the skubalon one finds in so many churches.

Understanding the Difference Between Secular Sheep and Christ’s Sheep

When Jesus spoke of His people as “sheep”, this should not be understood in the popular understanding of a herd of passive, easily manipulated, fearful clones who blindly follow a leader, even an unscrupulous one. Disciples of Christ are only called sheep because they have Jesus the Christ as their Shepherd (read John, chapter 10). They are called sheep because their Shepherd protects them from the wolves. The idea of sheep in John 10 is not of a bewildered flock of conformist clones being herded this way or that by others. Rather, it is about encouragement, assurance, and protection. Christ laid down His life for the sheep (John 10:11). He is the ‘Gate’ through which His sheep must go (John 10:7-9). No one can snatch those sheep out of His hand (John 10:28-30). This is not a picture of a herd of passive clones but of the most undeservedly privileged people on earth who are proactive in terms of their growth and sanctification. They do not fit into this world at all. They are a counterculture, at odds with conventional society. They are spiritual warriors.

The Need for Due Diligence Before Committing Oneself to Anything

We are living in strange and extraordinary times right now in which apostasy is rampant, both in the world and especially in the visible church. Evil people and impostors (counterfeits) are everywhere, especially in the churches. For these reasons, the genuine ‘truthseeker’ (who is always a truth lover) is extremely hesitant about being a ‘joiner’ of anything these days and wants to do a great deal of ‘due diligence’ before committing. Such a person will be very discerning about partaking in organisations or groups of any kind, especially in the religious/spiritual scene, for they very often lead to mindless conformity, peer pressure, sectarian tendencies, false teachings and practices, coercion, ruthless authoritarian oversight, bullying, dominance by a complete smartass (or group of them) who tries to take over, etc.

Instead, the genuinely spiritual truth-lover will maintain his or her distance emotionally, not getting sucked into any dramas or imbroglios, coolly assessing things for him/herself and will not be coerced into any tendentious ways of thinking or acting which are inimical to truth. In many churches, such a person of perception and insight can have an extremely rocky ride and will not at all feel as if they have ‘found their tribe’. For such discerning people, a local ‘church’, if it is not a “Word of God” church, can feel like a prison rather than a spiritual home — the very opposite of what liberation in Christ should be. There will be much more about all this further below.

The New Diaspora

Way back in 2002, I wrote an article in the eZine I published which caused a storm of typical objections from professing Christians, the usual plague of lies, together with lots of plagiaristic dishonesty and misrepresentation. (It also had much appreciation from folks who had been waiting for these things to be said, but that isn’t relevant right now). It is at times like this that churches and Christianistas (the name I give to pushy, authoritarian, counterfeit “Christians”) show their true colours.

The article was about the way that so many disciples of Christ and followers of His Light had been abused and damaged in churches and were subsequently finding themselves dwelling in isolation in order to recover and work out what to do next, though they were not at all idle in relation to God’s work. Many had come in my direction for counselling and they were in a bad way. The title of the article was “The New Diaspora: Strange Measures for Strange Times”. Diaspora (διασπορά) is a Greek word which means “scattered throughout the world”, dispersed like seeds riding on the wind.

‘Diaspora’ was originally used to describe those in the early church era who were scattered widely across the Roman empire as a result of terrible persecutions. For example, in the opening of Peter’s first letter (written around AD 64), it is addressed like this: “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the chosen pilgrims of the dispersion of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bythinia” (First Letter of Peter, chapter 1, verse 1).

That ‘dispersion’ was a major factor in the history of the early church, in which Jews who really believed in their Messiah and His promises, together with many non-Jews, came to be disciples of Christ and through persecutions were scattered across the Roman empire, which thus paved the way for the spread of truth about Him to go beyond Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

In the Bible book of the Acts of the Apostles, we see how many other diasporas took place as a result of persecutions, and the Truth about Christ was spread in God’s way as disciples of Christ were reluctantly hurled into new, often virgin, territories. (Once again, we see how even apparently ‘bad’ things will be used by God to fulfil His plan of the ages).

Today, a new kind of ‘scattering’ is taking place, a New Diaspora, as many who have been disenfranchised from geographical churches, who have been persecuted and abused, both by the world and by the churches they attended, and who have therefore been disillusioned with churches as whole, have moved into a kind of reluctant semi-isolation. Here is an extended excerpt from that article, “The New Diaspora”, written twenty-two years ago:

“Everything which I write comes from the heart. Occasionally it comes from the heart with a special seal, a particular passion. This article is one of those seals and passions. It is a subject very dear to me. It concerns the way that the experience of ‘church’, for so many today, has become a nightmare holocaust ghost train instead of a dream vision growth journey. Readers should be warned that this is not a cold treatise on Ecclesiology. Rather, it is a passionate exposition of the manner in which the reality for many has fallen short of the ideal…

“There is a common ideal about ‘church’ which just does not match the reality. The prevailing notion seems to be that ‘going to church’ is the solution to everyone’s problems — that all people have to do is to go to a geographical church and the sun will shine forever. Go to church and the Lord will bless you. Go to church and receive the ‘means of grace’. Go to church and your life will be transformed. Go to church and your needs will be fulfilled. Go to church and receive the teaching of the Lord. Go to church! Go to church! Go to church! etc., ad nauseam. Sadly, for a great many people, this has turned out to be anything but true. It has instead been a case of… Go to church and get screwed up. Go to church and get stabbed in the back. Go to church and get poisoned by lies. Go to church and massage a pastor’s ego. Go to church and have your worst nightmare. For many it has been a case of… Go to church and be robbed of what little faith you already had. Go to church and wish you’d never been born. Yes! “Go to church and wish you’d never been born”. Shocking, isn’t it? I counsel many people online, especially on this matter, and those are the actual words of one man who wrote to me on the verge of a breakdown. His experience of church made him wish that he had never been born! If you think that is too strong, I can tell you that for many it is an understatement! For them, churches seem more like the slumly environs of hell than the sublime suburbs of heaven which they should really be. When they go to church, they see a nest of hornets rather than Abraham’s bosom. They’ve been stabbed in the back so many times that they will say to you (as one said to me): “When you sing that hymn, just make sure you sit in the back pew” (let the reader understand this shocking advice). Now you may not like it that so many people will say things like that today, but you’re going to have to suck it up and live with it anyway. Because it is true. You cannot pretend that reality is something other than what it is, no matter how uncomfortable it may be and no matter how much you may not want it to be so.”

That is just a tiny excerpt from that article. As a result of publishing it, the knives really came out — especially from the evangelical or so-called ‘reformed’ churches who often treat ‘church’ as if it was almost a kind of cult (which indeed, in the case of many of them, it more or less is). Lies were told about me (e.g. that I had “joined a cult in France” and was “back on drugs”!), my article was plagiarised, cut up and had parts removed and was subsequently republished on a couple of websites in order to undo its true meaning, and so on. You would not believe the evil lengths to which people who confess to be ‘Christian’ will go in order to ‘do the Lord’s work’, as they falsely see it, when someone does or says something of which they do not approve! At the time, that was the final nail in the coffin for me as far as the geographical churches are concerned. So many fight dirty and seem to have no self-awareness about the amoral nature of their behaviour. For them, their ends justify any means possible. There is no fiercer wrath than that exercised by cults towards former members who have escaped. There will be even more wrath hurled at this piece when the ‘spies’ report back to base about it. That is not a paranoid exaggeration, by the way. It really is like that. I have ‘double agents’ who report these things back to me, which is always fun, revealing, and supremely interesting to one who steadfastly studies human behaviour.

Incidentally, it isn’t baby-Christians who are spreading such rumours. It is so-called mature Christians, elders and pastors of supposedly orthodox conservative churches who foment these things. Also, those who are involved in ministries that I have shown to be unbiblical (e.g. ‘deliverance’ or ‘healing’, or ‘slain in the spirit’) — they are dirt shifters too, in that they revel in spreading lies and slander about those who expose their “ministries”, as they have done about me and others. I fail to see how any genuine believer could engage in that kind of activity. But I know why they do so. It is because they are afraid of people like us. They are afraid of us because we can see through them, because we ask too many questions, expose too many of their follies, discover too many lies, reveal too many contradictions, and there is no room for such insightful people inside the rigidly authoritarian, dictatorial, Spirit-quenching (and spirit-quenching) churches of today, where the liberty which is in the Gospel of Christ becomes miraculously transformed into a burden for one’s back and then a big stick with which to break it. In order to get by in so many churches today, you have to roll over and show them your belly. Then you will be regarded as being “in fellowship” and a “member in good standing”. What possible motivation could there be for the sensitive, thinking Christian to go within a million miles of such churches? Is it any wonder that a New Diaspora has been born?

The genuine disciple of Christ finds that the same alienating situation exists in churches of all types but manifesting in different ways. Many of the souls in the New Diaspora first got ‘worked over’ in a so-called ‘charismatic’ church with a ‘heavy shepherding’ style of eldership and lots of phoney, threatening, controlling so-called ‘words of knowledge’ and ‘prophecies’ directed at them.

[Sidebar: A ‘word of knowledge’ or wisdom refers to the ability of the one so gifted to minister that knowledge or wisdom verbally to others rather than the personal receiving of some inward Divine revelation as is now commonly thought. It is one of the ‘gifts of the Spirit. (For more information, you can freely download my book, “Signs, Wonders & Divine Revelation: The Gifts of the Spirit and their Abuses in Today’s Churches”). Their true purpose is for the building up of the Ekklesia, but both these ‘words of knowledge’ and alleged ‘prophecies’ have often been used as ways of manipulation in a church by unscrupulous people who, for example, want to falsely disparage someone of whom they disapprove or by whom they feel threatened, or to manipulate people into thinking in a certain way. By falsely framing it as a ‘word of knowledge’, it appears to have been given authoritatively by God. I can only imagine what kind of terrible fate is reserved for those who misrepresent the Spirit in such a manner. To hide one’s prejudices and malintents behind a pretended ‘message from the Lord’ is not only cowardly but also mendacious and even blasphemous].

So they leave that wayward church (somewhat duffed-up), then they discover a local Evanjellycal church, which serves up cold tripe one Sunday, the blandest, lukewarm liquid the next, and alienates true disciples by sneering at their ability to discern truth from falsehood and disdaining their powers of perception.

[Sidebar: I call them “Evanjellycal” rather than Evangelical because of the way that they wobble around like a jelly about everything, fail to stand up unequivocally for Truth and Light, always sit on the fence and exercise compromised hyper-diplomacy instead of clearly ‘calling a spade a spade’ — all of this being done to show how ‘super-tolerant’ and ‘loving’ they are (or, as I believe is really the case, to disguise their secret, repressed anger with which they have never dealt)].

So, the genuine disciple also leaves that wayward church. Then, in their search for ‘healthy teaching’, these already-abused people go to a heavy-duty ‘Reformed’ church, only to find that they are unacceptable to the leadership because of their manner of dress, earrings, shark’s-tooth necklace, tattoos, love of the arts, love of classical music, their nonconformist vibes, or their unformed theology, and they are even bullied by the cold, formalistic, unsympathetic, legalistically-motivated leadership.

From there, battered and bruised, they stray into some mainstream denominational church for some peace and quiet, where they are not only misunderstood but also subtly fed more of the poison which had already damaged them originally in the chaotic charismatic church, plus a toxic dose of wishy-washy ‘woke’ liberalism into the bargain.

After that, bleeding, bruised and sutured from head to toe, they realise that there is nowhere else to go. So, they reluctantly tolerate their isolation and then get unjustly pestered by diehard Churchianity people and Christianistas for being ‘individualists’ and ‘disobedient to Scripture’. But at least they are free! Free to learn at their own pace. Free to enjoy fellowship with those whom they know will be of value to them and to whom they can be of value. Free to discover things which they could never have discovered before in the fettered, tendentious, hothouse, controlling environments they previously inhabited. Free to be their spiritual selves completely 24/7 instead of having to put on a front every Sunday to become the people-pleasers that are so valued in today’s church scene. Free to worship, love and be loved as their Christ intended.

Dealing With Objections

In the wake of my first writings about the New Diaspora, a typically gung-ho elder wrote to me with the following challenge:

“I challenge you to show me ONE instance where any apostolic writer said that they were “going it alone” because of some ‘bad behaviour’ in a church. Can you also show me anywhere in the New Testament where a Christian is not a part of a local fellowship of believers? You will not be able to do it!”

Well, I love a challenge, and I receive quite a few such blusterings over the airwaves, so I was up for this! My response to him was as follows:

“What I really want to deal with, in answer to your first question, is the use of the term “going it alone” to refer to disciples who are a part of the “New Diaspora”. We have already exposed the fact that there is a vast unsung scandal of abuse and nuthouse activity in churches today (which you deliberately attempt to minimise with the euphemistic words “some bad behaviour”) and that, as a result, there is a vast quantity of hurt people who have given up — at least temporarily — on churches. This term, “going it alone”, is plainly a disparaging remark designed to make out that these people of the New Diaspora are autonomous-minded and self-centred, who want to have nothing to do with the people of God and have no desire to be answerable to God for their actions. This is a ‘Straw Man’, of course, and has no basis in reality. But many of your type have learned that mud sticks. They have also learned that the dirtier it is, the better it sticks.

“Going it alone” is but one epithet of many. Other examples of the insulting sayings which are levelled at the people of the New Diaspora are “Lone Rangers”, “Free Electrons”, “Mavericks”, “Individualists”, and “Isolationists”. They are terms of abusive labelling which are designed to back up the claim that a believer who does not attend a church must, ipso facto, be guilty of rampant egocentricity and rank disobedience to God. However, giving something a label may be a convenient way of tarring that person in the eyes of the world (commonly known as propaganda), but it does not necessarily encapsulate what that person is truly all about in terms of their standing before God. And it is our standing before God which counts for infinitely more than how we may appear in the eyes of the world or a handful of despotic elders and pastors.

“I can assure you absolutely that the people of the New Diaspora are not at all “going it alone”. In fact, they are in touch and in tune with the Spirit of God on a far more profound level than their accusers! No true disciple of Christ truly “goes it alone”. If a person has prayed his or her heart out to God to show them the next step on their pathway and then He has clearly and irrefutably led them to a place where there is no church, but where they can be and have become a beacon for those in their neighbourhood or environment or sphere of work, leading to God-alone-knows-what-wonderful-thing-next, only a hardened Pharisee would argue against that.

“How easily we make negative judgements about others when we have no real understanding about their inward wrestlings or about what has taken place between them and their God. It is no coincidence that one of the original Pharisees’ major beefs against Christ was that He was operating on His own authority — the equivalent of a “Lone Ranger”, “Free Electron”, “Maverick”, or “Individualist” (e.g. Matthew 21:23). Religious people cannot stand those who are spiritual, and they make it their business to fetter such folks with false authority and place them under stifling burdens. Religious people do not like the light which burns in the eyes of the spiritual ones. They are jealous of it. That is one of the secret reasons why they killed the Lord Jesus Christ. And they will, as it were, kill Him again and again when they see the spiritual light of faith which shines in the eyes of His genuine disciples who will not pay homage to false authority.

“It may be convenient to label the New Diaspora with such a disparaging epithet as “going it alone”; but it is completely irrelevant because they are not at all “going it alone”. No true believer ever could — just as Christ was not “going it alone” when the Pharisees questioned who was behind His authority. His disciples are answerable directly to Christ as their Lord, and they know it. They may find themselves temporarily isolated in the world’s terms, having been abused and hurt. They may find themselves temporarily lonesome, having reluctantly had to separate from a corrupt situation and, like David, having to find healing in the Cave of Adullam (1 Samuel 22:1). But they are never truly alone, and they are assured of that (Matthew 28:20). As they seek their direction in prayer, the Lord will work in their lives and reveal it to them. The only difficulty will be the casual, disapproving, sightseeing, critical onlookers like you who fail to comprehend and empathise, and instead cajole and criticise, in the same way that those in a cult will carp at those who have escaped from it. You seem to have no idea how cultishly you are acting. A little self-awareness would go a long way.

“Regarding your second question, there can be no comparison between the churches of the Apostolic era (from the outpouring of the Spirit in Acts 2 until the end of the first century) and those of today. There is a huge difference between the churches in the Apostolic era and our own day. In the Apostolic era, it was a church under persecution of varying degrees, often severe. It was also a church under apostolic protection. Nowadays believers do not have to fear being thrown to the lions or onto the swords of gladiators. That situation created churches full of genuine disciples, whereas today’s churches are full of impostors who would drop the faith if they had to be subjected to torture or a slow agonizing death. In the Apostolic era people gathered together knowing they were in good hands and that (with very few exceptions) all present would be genuinely reborn. Today there is a vast proliferation of looney-bins posing as safe havens for disciples with no Apostles around to deal with such aberrations. There are plenty of false apostles today — masses of them (even though true Apostleship faded away with the death of John towards the end of the first century!). The truth is that there are comparatively few genuine “Word of God” fellowships anywhere. Finding a decent church today is like finding a needle in a haystack.

“Now some of you folks like to say, “Well if you know of a church hundreds of miles away you must move there”. My friend, people are not going to uproot home, family and job to go to a church that could just turn out to be another major disappointment. It is only after going to a church for some time that one finds out if it is healthy or not. Most are not today. Even cults look inviting to the unwary eye.

“The situation that we have today with this New Diaspora is completely different to anything that existed in the infant church as handled in the New Testament writings. However, in the third century, when the majority of churches were badly infected by Gnosticism — and then later on when the majority were badly infected by Arianism — the number of true believers had to leave those churches and set up alternatives, or even exist in horrible isolation. There is little published about this from that period, but it must have been difficult for many. Well, just look at Athanasius (died AD 373). He was exiled and treated like a pariah by the false church. His anti-Arianism must have left him a lonely and isolated man — although he was eventually vindicated.

“So when you say, “Show me anywhere in the New Testament where a Christian is not a part of a local fellowship of believers”, I reply that is a false question because local fellowships in the Apostolic era were made up almost wholly of genuine disciples of Christ glad to be together because of all the persecution outside the gathering’s doors. The churches had not at that stage, within a generation of the ascension of Christ, become contaminated, such as it did a century or two later and such as it is now. Today, all the persecution of genuine believers in the so-called “free world” comes from inside the churches themselves! In the Apostolic era no one wanted to be outside a fellowship because it was a haven in the midst of a hell. Today, a great many churches are hell masquerading as a haven. So, again, your question is a false one with no relevance whatsoever to the people of God. You are simply pursuing your own deviant way of thinking and indulging in a misplaced critical spirit”.

Another guy predictably said to me in an objection: “Your problem is that you are filled with rage and malice. Such bitterness is unfitting for a Christian teacher. You need to repent”. So I replied:

My friend, you are confusing rage with passion. You are assuming that I am caustic, angry and bitter when I write about these things. But nothing could be further from the truth. I am not angry or heated at all. I do not get angry. Anger is a waste of time, unless it is righteous anger, which manifests as godly passion. You may not like my tone. But how about Jude’s tone in Jude 12-13? How about the Lord Jesus’ tone in Matthew 23:13-30? Christians, it seems, are not allowed to be passionate about anything! I am passionate. Period. Real people like that sort of thing. Unreal people don’t. Real people can tell the difference between real passion and bitterness and rage. You wouldn’t believe the number of hurting people on the Diakrisis e-mail list who have suffered at the hands of pharisees, autocrats and insensitive ignoramuses! I become passionate about that sort of thing. Always have. Always will. I repeat, I am not at all enraged, just passionate. If you cannot discern the difference between the two, then you need to wake up to the pain of others. It is no coincidence that the very word “passionate” comes from the Latin word for “suffering”. Passionate people can identify with suffering and its sufferers. On that basis, I cannot avoid wanting to help the underdog, or to champion the cause of the downtrodden, or to shine a light for the blinded, or to provide an arm for the cripple. Such is passion. It is rooted in empathy — a quality which seems to be missing in so many church settings today.

How God Can Work in Other Ways than a Local Church

Such is the lot of the New Diaspora. Yet, teachers of great compassion, sincere wisdom and genuine authority (not common traits in today’s churches) have known very well that the visible church in geographical churches is not the only way that God works. For example, the respected expositor, Matthew Henry (1662-1714), said:

“Christ’s grace is not tied to the visible church… Take heed lest we be carried to oppose that which yet may tend to the enlargement of the church, and the advancement of its true interests in another way”.

That is the key. That Christ works in ‘other ways’ than enforced church attendance or membership. Those words come from the part of Matthew Henry’s commentary which deals with Mark 9:38-41. This is an important part of Christ’s teaching and highly relevant to our discussion in this article and I will be developing it further below after showing some other examples first.

Some people seem to believe that the grace of God and His actions in this world can ONLY happen through the official workings of the visible church machinery. But this is simply not true. Christ dispenses His grace and works to build His church in a myriad more ways than our puny brains can ever take in. How limited and limiting we are in our vision for the Gospel!

Take, for example, the Gadarene demoniac (Mark 5:1-20). Once he had been converted, he begged the Lord Jesus that he might be with Him (Mark 5:18). But Jesus did not permit him and instead told him to go back to the Decapolis region. Now, here was this brand new vulnerable convert all alone in Decapolis with no church to go to. Imagine the Pharisees’ reaction. Think of the accusations which might have come his way: “Lone Ranger”, “Free Electron”, “Maverick”, “Individualist”. Was this man “going it alone”? Not at all. He was simply following the pathway which the Lord had clearly shown him and opened up for him. He was doing the Lord’s work. There was great wisdom in it which the religious people could never have understood or foreseen; because a little later on, the Lord Jesus went on a successful mission to Decapolis for which this “Lone Ranger” had presumably done the preparatory groundwork (Mark 7:31-37). The Lord’s ways are not our ways.

Then there is the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:26-40). He was sitting in his chariot reading Isaiah 53 on his way back from worshipping in Jerusalem when, suddenly, Philip is miraculously transported there to interpret the Scripture and open the man to the truth about the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is soundly converted and baptised. Equally as suddenly, Philip is transported away and “the eunuch saw him no more”, and he was left to return to his home in Ethiopia and become a light for the work of the Gospel there. At that time, there will have been no local church. Was this man “going it alone”? Not at all. He was simply following the pathway which the Lord had clearly shown him. In time to come, an assembly of believers may well have been more formally set up in someone’s home. But until then, he was working as what the critical religious folks would call a “Lone Ranger”, but who the Lord would call “My chosen servant”.

But by far the most instructive biblical example of one of the “Lone Rangers”, “Free Electrons”, “Mavericks” or “Individualists”, who is “going it alone” and who would have been likely to come under the undue lashing of these self-styled critics was the man about whom the Apostle John complained to the Lord Jesus with the words “he does not follow us” (Mark 9:38) — ‘he’s not in our group therefore he must be reprimanded’, bla-bla. The complete Scripture says:

“John answered Him, ‘Teacher, we saw someone else driving out demons in Your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not accompany us’. ‘Do not stop him,’ Jesus replied. ‘For no one who performs a miracle in My name can turn around and speak evil of Me. For whoever is not against us is for us. Indeed, if anyone gives you even a cup of water because you bear the name of Christ, truly I tell you, he will never lose his reward’” (Mark 9:38-41).

Here is a man who was not one of the called and appointed Apostles, yet he was going about doing the Lord’s work (cf. Mark 6:7). To John, this man was “going it alone”, and he forbade him to carry on with that work for the Lord. What is interesting here is the context of this conversation. The disciples had just been arguing about who was the greatest of them (Mark 9:33-34). Imagine that! Jesus then used this opportunity to show that true spiritual greatness lies in servanthood rather than rank or social status (Mark 9:35). He then took a small child in His arms and used him as an illustration of the lowliest of His disciples and demonstrated that to show kindness to such a one is the equivalent of doing so to the Lord Jesus Himself. At this point, John is said to respond to the Lord Jesus with his account of how the disciples had forbidden a man to cast out demons solely because “he does not follow us”. It is as if John is trying to assert Apostolic authority here after Jesus has specifically put them down for their delusions of grandeur.

Furthermore, there is a grand irony in the fact that this seemingly “uncalled” man who “does not follow us” was actually successful in his work for the Lord in the very area of work in which the disciples had been abject failures (compare Mark 9:38 with vv.17-18)! Was there some jealousy on John’s part here? Here is this guy, apparently “going it alone”, but with a successful ministry, working for the Lord Jesus Christ and under His protection too. John says: “We forbade him” (v.38) basically because — as the idolaters of churches would put it — he is a “Lone Ranger”, a “Free Electron”, a “Maverick”, an “Individualist”, who is “going it alone”. But the Lord Jesus said: “Do not forbid him” (v.39). He was effectively saying: “He may look unorthodox to you, but do not forbid him because what you don’t understand is that He is Mine and He is working for Me in ways that you cannot discern right now”.

And so it is with the people of the New Diaspora. They are not hiding in their mothers’ basements watching video games. They are networking with others in imaginative ways. They are evangelising in an imaginative manner. They are joining up with others in cyberspace and building each other up. They would go to a “Word of God” church if they knew of one and if they had been healed of their previous abuse. But, in the meantime, they have gone down another pathway; and all the browbeating of them in the world is not going to harass them into a church so that control freaks can get their satisfaction.

I want to expand on Matthew Henry’s words which I quoted above. I quote his commentary on these verses in Mark 9 in full here because Henry is well-respected as a balanced commentator and the words are so startlingly relevant to the situation in which so many of the New Diaspora find themselves. Concerning this man who “does not follow us” but who is doing the work of Christ, Henry writes:

“Some think that he was a disciple of John [the Baptist], who made use of the name of the Messiah, not as having come, but as near at hand, not knowing that Jesus was he. It would rather seem that he made use of the name of Jesus, believing him to be the Christ, as the other disciples did. And why should he not receive that power from Christ, whose Spirit, like the wind, blows where it listeth, without such an outward call as the Apostles had? And perhaps there were many more such. Christ’s grace is not tied to the visible church. It was strange that one who cast out devils in the name of Christ, did not join himself to the Apostles, and follow Christ with them, but should continue to act in separation from them. I know of nothing that could hinder him from following them, unless it was because he was loth to leave all to follow them; and if so, that was a bad principle. The thing did not look good, and therefore the disciples forbade him to make use of Christ’s name as they did, unless he would follow him as they did. This was like the motion Joshua made concerning Eldad and Medad, who prophesied in the camp, and did not go up with the rest to the door of the tabernacle: ‘My lord Moses, forbid them (Numbers 11:28); restrain them, silence them, for it is a schism’. Thus apt are we to imagine that they who do not follow him with us do not follow Christ at all, and that they who do not do just as we do can do nothing well. But the Lord knows them that are his, however they are dispersed; and this instance gives us a needful caution to take heed lest we be carried — by an excess of zeal for the unity of the church, and for that which we are sure is right and good — to oppose that which yet may tend to the enlargement of the church, and the advancement of its true interests another way” (Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, comment on Mark 9:38).

Matthew Henry uses some remarkably challenging phrases in his exposition here. Just look at these four quotations, with my comments on them:

• “Why should he not receive that power from Christ, whose Spirit, like the wind, blows where it listeth, without such an outward call as the Apostles had?”

There are those today who think that a person can do the work of the Lord ONLY if they have actually been formally “called and sent” by a local church. But the Holy Spirit will not be tied down to our narrow-minded conception of mission and Gospel witness. “The Spirit blows where it listeth”. Great observation.

• “Christ’s grace is not tied to the visible church”.

It is tied to the Body of Christ, which is not to be confused with the visible church. If there is any grace in the visible church it is derivative of the Body of Christ. And that saving grace will therefore be dispensed in ways far beyond our wildest imagination. Wherever members of the Body of Christ go, the grace of Christ will go with them — nay, before them! The grace of Christ can even work in a heart of darkness in the darkest of corners, if He so wishes to do so. We should not attempt to limit it with manmade rules and regulations. This is not to say that rules and regulations are bad; but if they actually work against the movement of the Holy Spirit, then they are surely ill-conceived.

• “The Lord knows them that are his, however they are dispersed”.

The Lord’s people are dispersed in many more ways than the narrow lines on which we would wish to fix them. The New Diaspora (dispersion) is a way that the Lord has driven people out of dead, despotic, unwholesome, or heretical churches into their communities, workplaces and alternative spheres of activity. Their dispersion, as being through the providence and under the sovereignty of God, can only work out for a higher, noble purpose.

• “Take heed lest we be carried — by an excess of zeal for the unity of the church, and for that which we are sure is right and good — to oppose that which yet may tend to the enlargement of the church, and the advancement of its true interests another way”.

The enlargement, advancement and feeding of the church — the Body of Christ — can take place in ways other than those we may want to prescribe, or even other than what we have understood from Scripture. God’s creativity is boundless. How careful we should be not to ‘tread on God’s toes’ with our error-spotting opposition to anything which doesn’t fit into our narrow preconceptions. “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!”

Yes, I grant you that this is a control-freak’s nightmare, but the church as the Body and Bride of Christ should not be the place for control-freaks. However, the visible church today has become so full of control-freaks, so full of heretics, so full of tares, so full of false teachers, so full of Pharisees, so full of liberals, so full of impostors and deceivers, so full of unctuous ear-ticklers, so full of the restrictors of God’s sovereignty, so full of the restrainers of God’s Spirit, that many have reluctantly abandoned it until something better can be formed or until they themselves, with the Lord’s help, can form it.

So many seem to imagine that a thing cannot possibly be God’s will, or be Scriptural, or be in obedience to God, unless it is done in exactly the way that they think it should be done, or in exactly the way that it has always been done by them and people like them. But praise the Lord that He does not work down our tramlines!

This is NOT to give carte blanche to anyone who wants to act in an entirely whimsical, superficial and arbitrary manner and hop around churches or to leave a church for no reason at all. I know that is how this piece on the New Diaspora will be received by some. But it simply is not true. The people of the New Diaspora could easily join one of the corrupt, dead, liberal or nuthouse churches near where they live, but it would prove nothing. It may satisfy some people who want everything to look neat from the outside; but it would not be a truly spiritual solution.

Having to spend time out of a church is not the ideal situation. But if one can find good food and fellowship in new and interesting places, then it is infinitely better than being systematically stifled or dripfeedingly destroyed by social institutions masquerading as spiritual homes. The people of the New Diaspora would love to be part of a real, loving, teaching, vibrant fellowship; but they have no desire to join a social club, or a lunatic asylum, or a mausoleum, or a penitentiary, which is the only neighbourhood choice for so many today.

When Christ said the words, “I will build My church” (Matthew 16:18), He was not referring to bricks and mortar and He certainly wasn’t envisaging ‘church’ in the way in which so many have come to view it. He has His people everywhere, in many different situations and guises. Just because people are not part of a recognised geographical church grouping when they do Christ’s work does not mean that they are not disciples of Christ. (Please just take in those words, if you can). To think that they are not is part of the cultic, controlling manner in which so many geographical churches operate. Christ never came to start a religion and countless geographical churches merely provide a refuge for religious people rather than a lively spiritual meeting-place for genuine disciples of Christ who love truth. To restrict the Ekklesia to geographical churches is a failure to recognise the huge variety of ways in which the body of Christ — the invisible true Ekklesia — is being gathered in. To that idea we will now turn…

Other Ways of Doing Church

My 2002 article was calling for a new approach to Ekklesia which would evolve out of the New Diaspora — the present vast scattering across the world of disenfranchised and disillusioned former church-people and other isolated disciples of Christ, many of whom are involved with others via the internet and other media. There need to be new ways of ‘doing church’. There is a place for the loose formation of alternatives to church buildings which focuses on building a global counterculture based on bodies of folk in discipleship to the true Christ, spiritual growth, maturity, eschatological preparedness, while challenging illusions, delusions and false authority wherever it may be — whether inside the church or outside of it.

The time has come for the many isolated disciples of Christ and followers of His Light to come together in dynamic ways, not necessarily geographically (though that could be), but at the very least in some kind of communication, in order to prepare the world for the cataclysmic time into which we are currently entering (as that is a great introduction to the Gospel) and to enrol people as disciples of Christ, ready for the new aeon to come. This is not the time to be arguing about, or dividing over matters not affecting the Gospel, or about whose catechism is correct, or whether Martin Luther was a crypto-Catholic, or how many angels can fit on a pinhead, or any other pointless dispute. Neither is it the time to hide away in clonelike geographical churches which slavishly conform to secular societal norms rather than challenge the world-system as the true counterculture which the church is supposed to be. Disciples of Christ should only be proclaiming what is unequivocally Truth, while exposing the works of darkness.

Even though most churches today are compromised or cuddling up to a corrupt model of ‘church’, there are still many good people in many of those churches. But they are being stifled in the confines of that system, while many have left disillusioned and are holed up somewhere wondering who they can talk to and with whom they can find some solace (and very often it is people like me to whom they turn). Also, as is so often the case in the world too, the good people in churches are often quiet and sensitive introverts and do not wish to create a scene, while the positions of authority are often filled by hardmen with big mouths who only think about their own reputation and advancement, though disguising that behind a clever presentation and the typical piety of a religious hypocrite.

The False Church Versus the Body of Christ

In the wake of my writing the first edition of that article, a pastor wrote to me these words: “This is a disgraceful way to speak about God’s church. I am appalled that you should have such a low view of the body which the Lord Himself is building”. My answer to him was as follows:

“Please do not confuse the visible church with the Body of Christ. None of what I am writing is directed at the Body of Christ, the true Ekklesia and you know that very well. After all, how could it be? You are just getting on your high-horse to bluster because I am someone who you cannot control, and churches are full of people who want to control. I am very obviously speaking about abusive and demeaning social institutions which people have the audacity to call “churches”. Even though so many get defensive about their church, it is now my belief that the apostasy is far deeper than most people realise. I now believe that a large majority of pastors and church members in this world as a whole are not real disciples of Christ at all but impostors. In fact, I believe that the true disciples of Christ are as they always have been, as inspirationally defined in the Bible as “a remnant according to the election of grace” (Letter to the Romans, chapter 11, verse 5). The word “remnant”, used there by Paul, is the equivalent of the word “few”, as used by Christ when He says, “there are few who find it” (i.e. who find the way which leads to life, Matthew 7:14)… A pastor of the Elizabethan era, William Perkins (1558–1602), said that the two great works of a church (which he likened to ‘the suburbs of heaven’) are “the bringing in of the sheep and then keeping of them from the wolves”. Wonderfully true. But I believe that not enough has been done to keep the wolves at bay and, with a number of exceptions, they have virtually taken over on a global basis. That is not the Body of Christ but is the false church, which will most likely one day greet the Antichrist with applause, believing him to be the true Christ because many in churches now seem unable to differentiate between a sorcerer and a saint”.

I wrote those words in 2002. Imagine how much worse the situation is now! I do believe that there is a massive unsung problem of widespread abuse and manipulation in churches which is simply being swept under the carpet by those who are frightened that any publicity about it will put people off going anywhere near a church. (In fact, I have written a major article about that abuse which you can find here: https://diakrisis-project.com/2023/08/23/new-book-swept-under-the-carpet-the-scandal-of-spiritual-abuse-in-churches-today/ ). However, I think it would be far more attractive for people to become part of churches if the churches themselves engaged in some heavy-duty housecleaning. To revile the New Diaspora with theological clichés and inappropriate Bible texts (one of which I will deal with in detail below) is pointless and counterproductive. Pastors should get creative about how they can enable people to feel trusting towards their churches. All I am trying to do is speak into this messy situation and help to bring something good out of it. Christ will be my judge, and no doubt He already is.

Many Have Never Witnessed a True Shepherd in Action!

The problem is that if someone says anything remotely derogatory about churches, those who want to defend them go right off the deep end with a knee-jerk reaction and try to portray the people of the New Diaspora as ‘anti-authority’ and ‘anti-’ any kind of leadership in churches. But this is simply not true. A great many people have been totally alienated from churches because of the wielding of a false authority involving a kind of despotic rule which goes way beyond the jurisdiction of the ‘shepherd’ (pastor) as he is portrayed in the Bible, who is not supposed to “lord it” over anyone (as Peter stated well in 1 Peter 5:1-4). Far too many see the holding of an office in a church as a form of power and control instead of nurture and protection. It is shocking to realise that a great many disciples of Christ have never witnessed a wise and true shepherd in action. Their only experience has been a Genghis Khan or Machiavelli or a professional narcissist, or some beta-male simp who will not stand up to people on a corrupt mission. Small wonder that they should not want to darken the doorstep of a church again!

Church leaders are going to have to work very hard if they want to make their churches attractive enough to these people — i.e. make them into “Word of God” churches that are enough like ‘the suburbs of heaven’ — to encourage them to come back and take their place as fearless participants. Additionally, someone really needs to create a directory of guaranteed ‘clean’ “Word of God” churches, so that unsuspecting or more naïve folks will not step over the thresholds of churches which do not form part of those suburbs of heaven.

Why do you think that it is so common for the same kind of people to be treated so badly in church after church? It is because a certain kind of person gets screwed-over in churches. That kind of person is usually intelligent; questioning; discerning; intuitive; sensitive; empathetic; wise-beyond-years; perceptive; understanding well how hypnosis, suggestion and manipulation operate; non-conformist; non-pigeonholeable; non-gullible; whose life is a relatively bullshit-free zone (i.e. they have ‘done the work’ and ditched most of their ‘baggage’ and continue to do so — a vital part of progressive sanctification).

Actually, I have found from my mailbag that it is usually the most interesting and lovely people who get abused in churches. Frankly, I would dearly love to gather together all those lovely, interesting people and, with them, create a very interesting alternative to the corrupted, or abusive, or just non-Word of God churches! But they are scattered all over the globe (and, in any case, the rumour-mongers, calumniators and false witnesses would only say that I had started my own cult! 😉 ).

Playing Fast & Loose with Scripture to Force People to ’Go to Church’

There is one particular verse in the Bible which often gets hurled into the faces of those who have been abused in churches and who now will not go anywhere near one and prefer to keep themselves to themselves. I refer to Hebrews 10:25: “Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have made a habit, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching”. Merely to apply this verse to trooping along to ‘church services’ on a Sunday represents a completely inadequate vision of fellowship in Christ, as I will show below. These people will try anything to force people into a church. Well… tough! It isn’t happening. Many arrive initially at churches when they are already in a bad state because of their pre-conversion lifestyle, relationship hassles, or even abuse in another ‘fellowship’, and the last thing they need is maltreatment and manipulation from professing “Christians” when they thought they had finally found the suburbs of heaven. I do not believe that Scripture heartlessly harangues such folks to remain in that kind of scenario. Our Lord is more compassionate than that — although to listen to some of those bearing His name as ‘Christ-ians’ you would be forgiven for thinking otherwise. To apply Scripture in such a heartless, robotic manner appears to me to be very legalistic and completely misses the point of the passage in Hebrews 10, as I will now go on to explain.

Throughout his letter to the Hebrews, the writer is continually warning about apostasy in the face of knowledge received and blessings experienced. There were some who were indeed ‘shrinking back’ because of persecution from the Jews and our text in Hebrews chapter 10 reveals that. I am especially interested in focusing on verse 25 and the manner in which it has been taken out of that context, and why. I remind you of it again: “Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have made a habit, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching”. How often I have seen that verse isolated from its context and hurled in people’s faces if they even fail to go to church for one single Sunday or two! Merely to apply those verses to trooping along to ‘church services’ on a Sunday represents a completely inadequate vision of a life of fellowship in Christ, as well as a total misunderstanding of that verse in its context. It tells us much about the coercive mentality of those who insist on such an interpretation.

The realm of the disciple is not supposed to be a cult; yet to see the way that people treat Sunday church services as the be-all-and-end-all of the spiritual life, you would think that it was the most pernicious cult of all, especially when, in most cases, there is very little in those services which would truly enhance one’s spiritual life and growth — often just consisting of a load of soppy, repetitive choruses in CCM style and a lukewarm ‘message’ to dull the minds of the hearers. (Even the very word, ‘message’, is a weak, castrated description of the kind of teaching, exhortation, and proclamation which should be happening in an assembly of Christ’s disciples!).

Everything from verse 19 onward in this tenth chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews is related to, and building up towards, the climax which is in verse 39: ”We are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls”. For this 21-verse section — in keeping with the rest of the letter — is above all about the danger of apostasy and how to avoid it. That 39^th verse is a mirror of what Jesus said in Matthew 24:13: “The one who perseveres to the end will be saved”, and what Jude said in his letter, verses 17-22. To pull one verse out of Hebrews, chapter 10, and make it into a Divine regulation for compulsory church attendance is one of the biggest examples of playing fast and loose with the sacred texts that I have ever come across and I think it is disgraceful. There are many who appear to put it almost on the same footing as the Ten Commandments, as they thunder at you: “THE LORD SAYS IN HIS WORD, ‘THOU SHALT GO TO CHURCH OR YOU WILL BE CAST OUT OF MY ASSEMBLY!’” If I had a dollar for the number of times this isolated verse in Hebrews 10 has been hurled at me to try and make me ‘go to church’ every Sunday, I would be a rich man! How has this come about? What could be the motivations for such an aggressively cavalier approach? Let us go into this more deeply…

When the formerly-Jewish Christians (to whom this letter was originally written) received those words “Let us not neglect meeting together”, it was not meant as a rigid command for them to “go to church, or else!” It was not even written as a rigid command but as a loving appeal. It was not ‘thundered’ at them as if it was a voice out of the clouds on Mount Sinai. The context was plainly about being rescued from apostasy, as can be seen from a previous verse and from the few verses following (Hebrews 10:23 & 26-31). But the folks who want to guilt-trip you into ‘going to church’ are very good at lifting single verses to suit their own agenda. That verse was not referring to those who had merely ‘failed to attend church’ but to those who were abandoning the faith altogether because they were afraid of the persecution which it brought on them from the Jews and the world as a result of associating with the company of the faithful. That is why it says in the final verse of the chapter, “we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls”. In other words, this section is all about encouragement to attain maturity and avoid apostasy and not to be afraid of meeting with others, rather than any condemnation. Thus, right after having said “Let us not neglect meeting together”, verse 25 also speaks clearly about “encouraging one another”. The meeting together is for mutual encouragement. That is the all-important element.

So this entire section in the book of Hebrews is not a Divine commandment to ‘go to church or else’ but an appeal to do all those things which encourage us and prevent us from fear and cowardice in the face of persecution for our faith in Christ. One of those things is to have fellowship with other disciples, which is not exclusively in a church attendance environment where one could easily attend and then go away at the end without any real fellowship at all! We tend to forget just how damning it is to be cowardly — a word which should really have no place in the life of the disciple of Christ. In the Book of Revelation, chapter 21, verse 8, the “cowardly” are one of the classes of people (right alongside liars, the sexually immoral, murderers and sorcerers!) who will end up in the metaphorical “lake of fire and brimstone” and who will undergo “the second death”.

So cowardice can have no place in the life of the genuine disciple of Christ. It begins as fear, which makes one “shrink back”, and ends as apostasy. Nevertheless, fear or apprehension can understandably occur even in the minds of the faithful. Even Jesus, in His human nature, was apprehensive about His upcoming dreadful ordeal at the hands of the authorities and the massed oppression from all the forces of darkness, human and discarnate (see Matthew 26:37-42; Luke 22:41-44). Such apprehension is understandable and the Lord will provide ways of encouragement for those of His people who are so afflicted. But if one faithlessly over-indulges fear, it can turn into cowardice which, if not checked, begins a downward spiral towards the fringes of apostasy. This is why our text says, “we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed”. If we are faithful disciples, we are definitely not “of those”. So, in verses 32-34, the readers of the letter are given an important reminder about their former joyful faithfulness and courage:

“Remember the early days that you were in the light. In those days, you endured a great conflict in the face of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to ridicule and persecution; at other times you were partners with those who were so treated. You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, knowing that you yourselves had a better and permanent possession”.

It is clear that some of those formerly Jewish disciples of Christ were avoiding associating with their fellow disciples because they were afraid of the repercussions from the Jews in their neighbourhood through being linked with the name of Christ. So they are reminded with how at one time early in the days when they were first “in the light” or ‘enlightened’ — having been illuminated (the Greek word there is φωτισθέντες, phōtisthentes) with the truth about the Christ — they had experienced awful persecutions and even had their property impounded. Yet the faithful joyfully accepted all that, and imprisonment too, because they knew that what they possessed in Christ is infinitely more important and significant — “knowing that you yourselves had a better and permanent possession”. The faithful would also not have had any problem with meeting up with other disciples, regardless of whether or not that could lead to persecution and property confiscation.

Thus, in the verses of our text in this Letter to the Hebrews, chapter 10, the recipients of this letter were being lovingly reminded of the things which are important for encouragement in the life of the disciple of Christ, such as “the new and living way opened for us” (verse 20), the priesthood of Christ and His atoning sacrifice (verses 21-22), the hope we have in Him who is faithful in His promises (verse 23), the spurring “of one another on to love and good deeds” (verse 24), fruitful association with fellow disciples (verse 25), mutual encouragement (verse 25), maintaining confidence in our faith (verse 35) and perseverance/endurance (verse 36). We are also given the example of Christ’s perseverance to encourage us:

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart” (chapter 12, verses 2-3).

Thus, the contentious verse 25 is but one little part of a whole realm of commendations as to what can encourage the disciple of Christ and bring him or her into a deeper maturity and thus well-buttressed against any possible backsliding or apostasy. It is not at all a commandment to “go to church”. That is just ridiculous!

In relation to this verse, I have often seen it said that “The Christian is commanded by God to attend public worship every Sabbath”. First, there was no such thing as “public worship” when the Letter to the Hebrews was written. Churches as we know them today did not happen until the third century AD as a more centralised religious control began to be wielded in the Christian scene. Prior to that, disciples met informally in each other’s homes. The fellowship was spontaneous and there was a ‘common purse’ so that less fortunate disciples could be helped financially. Second, in the original template of the life of the faithful, there was no such thing as Divinely-decreed attendance of church. Aside from the fact that “churches” as actual buildings which were separate from home residences did not start happening until the third century, an authoritarian compulsion to meet in homes had no place. Forcible attendance of church by the government in the UK was tried in the seventeenth century and beyond. Today, there is no end to the number of people calling themselves “Christian” who look back to those as ‘the glory-days’. For pews were full and the whole community was ‘under church discipline’. Perfect result for control-freaks! But commanding disciples to meet together was not part of the original life of the Ekklesia. For Christ did not come to start a religion but a network of disciples who would meet together voluntarily and joyfully as a means of encouragement and collective devotion.

So many seem to want to impose rules and regulations while developing authoritarian structures to force conformity to man-made norms. That is what lies behind this misapplication of Hebrews 10:25. Control. Religious apparatchiks do not like anyone to be out of their control. When one views God merely as some rigid tyrant in the heavens, that is going to determine the way one interprets the sacred texts and how one lives one’s life. But exhorting (not commanding) disciples ‘not to neglect meeting together’ is a way of emphasising that backsliding and apostasy are far less likely to take hold of an individual when that individual is in fellowship with others rather than hiding away from such fellowship because of fear of persecution. Nothing to do with ‘church attendance’ once a week! That is the real context in our sacred text. Fellowship, not church attendance. For true fellowship is not confined to the attendance of a church. In fact, I have often had more fruitful and genuinely loving fellowship when meeting up with disciples in their homes (or even — shock, horror! — on the internet!) than in a formal church setting!

Usually, there are profound reasons why disciples would not want to attend a church gathering and they therefore need counsel rather than commandments. The role of elders in any ecclesiastical setting is not to guilt-trip people into ‘attending church’, for enforced attendance is not from the heart. There is nothing instantly magical about a local ‘church’. Being forced to attend is not conducive to healthy development. The Ekklesia as a whole is supposed to be ‘the suburbs of heaven’ for disciples of Christ. That is certainly true about the true Church, the body of Christ. But it is sadly not true about all local representations of the Ekklesia. The truth is that a genuine disciple of Christ has no need to be literally coerced into ‘going to church’, for a genuine disciple loves to be in the company of other disciples. Such fellowship is precious and s/he will find it one way or another to have it.

These days, the usual way to find it is by going along to an actual church building on a Sunday. But that is not the only way. Going to a church is the easiest way. But what if someone has had a bad experience in one or more local churches (which is very likely given the state of many of today’s churches)? What if they have been spiritually abused (or their offspring sexually abused in the case of denominational churches)? What if someone has seen through the false teaching and practices of his or her local church (which is very likely given the state of many of today’s churches)?  What if there is no loving, faithful local church within travelling distance? Are you going to browbeat such people into church attendance by thundering Hebrews 10:25 at them? Perish the thought!

It seems there is a kind of macho scoffing at people who have been so hurt that they had to part company with a church. To regard such people as “spineless wimps” (as I have actually heard some say) and then revile them for not being obedient to Scripture is not only insensitive but it is also entirely contrary to the pastoral spirit of our common faith. The primary purpose of the work of Christ is not to make people robotically, callously, heartlessly and legalistically obedient to the letter of Scripture. Instead, the primary purpose of the work of Christ in His people is to increase their love for God and for their neighbours — especially for those who are fellow disciples of Christ — and to enable them to stand against the works of darkness. Faith is only proven to be a true saving faith when it works through love (See, for example, the Letter to the Galatians, chapter 5, verse 6; the Letter of James, chapter 2, verses 14-26). I am not referring to a schmaltzy, sentimental sort of love but a vibrant, questing, life-enhancing one. I would say that such love is what is distinctly lacking in the hearts of those who have reviled the New Diaspora so vehemently.

I am aware that some people hop around churches and leave them for little or no reason. But that is not what we are dealing with here. I am not at all discouraging souls from being part of a REAL assembly — a “Word of God” assembly; those who say that I am are creating a “straw man” (a common dishonest tactic in the cut-and-thrust of the Christian scene today). All I am seeking to do is to minister to hurt souls in the situation in which they are now. That is where the Lord Jesus met people, and that is where I meet them too. The fact that I have suffered a little in churches enables me to empathise with them, and also enables them to trust me — broken trust being the sore spot with many of them. Someone has to minister to those who have been alienated by churches today.

Some have said to me that I should focus on building Christ’s church rather than concentrating so much on internet articles. I believe that in my own way I already AM helping to build Christ’s church by what I am doing through the internet. You may not like that or agree with it, but it is just coming from a different angle to what many are used to. I deal practically with reality rather than hypothetically with ideals.

We know what the ideal is, as expressed in Scripture. But that is not always possible. That is all that I am saying. And where it is not possible for reasons outside of human control, this does not make vile sinners of those who cannot fulfil the ideal. Culpability is based on the intent of the heart rather than the unavoidable inevitability of circumstances. Any lawyer will tell you this. That is the Lord’s standard. He will judge the hearts of people rather than their outward show of works. The people about whom I have been speaking, who do not or cannot attend a church, love the Lord and His people dearly and want nothing more than to be in REAL fellowship with other likeminded people. Their hearts are in the right place — especially when judged next to the millions who do “attend” churches but who are mere hypocrites making a show.

Misuse of the Labels “Isolationism” and “Individualism”

Another accusation received in the wake of this article is that I was “encouraging isolationism”. The problem is that what people often disparagingly call ‘isolationism’ is simply ‘recuperationism’. If your son or daughter had just come out of a really bad and abusive marriage, would you try and force them immediately into another one? And if they had been abused in one marriage after another, and felt that they didn’t want to be married again, would you start thundering at them about the evils of spinsterhood or being ‘single’? Of course not. So why do people — in such a threatening manner — force those who have been abused in a church to start immediately attending another church? That is just so cultish, not to mention insensitive. Hurt people who do not go to church are not ‘isolationists’, as they are often falsely accused, but ‘recuperationists’. They need time to convalesce. It may take weeks or months, or it may even take years — in some extreme instances, it might take decades. Only a completely insensitive character would fail to recognise this. There is a pastoral dimension here which seems to completely evade the understanding of far too many professing “Christians”.

The startlingly interesting thing is that the New Diaspora people only began to ‘glow’ again after they had stopped going to church! They only began to regain their spiritual ‘zip’ when they tore themselves away from the churches which had maligned them and damaged their spiritual integrity or had presented them with unbiblical practices. They only began to realise how much God really cares for them when they removed themselves (or in some cases were forcibly removed!) from the churches which had tried so hard to crush every last ounce of their God-given incisive minds and individuality.

Speaking of ‘individuality’, another of the accusations levelled at me in the wake of this 2002 article was that I was ‘encouraging individualism’. My response to that accusation was this:

“It seems that you are confusing individualism with individuality. A common accusation in churches of anyone who thinks imaginatively, or who dresses differently, or who presents themselves differently, or they have a naturally nonconformist character is that they are showing signs of individualism. You say that the scourge of the church is ‘individualism’, and that I am aiding and abetting this scourge by propping up the ‘individualists’ with what I say. But you have failed to understand the important difference between ‘individualism’ and ‘individuality’. Individualism means that someone puts his or her own ego above all other considerations, whereas individuality means that s/he simply exercises his or her God-given abilities, talents, idiosyncrasies, and discernment. Our individuality comes from our Creator. If that then becomes “individual-ism”, then we are making an idol out of ourselves. However, there is nothing wrong whatsoever with being an individual. We were created as individuals and given an individuality. Any organisation which seeks to quash that individuality has started to become a cult. Sadly, many churches, in their bid to crush individualism, wind up crushing the uniqueness and individuality of so many of those in their fellowships that they do become mini-cults. We must not confuse egocentric individualism with healthy, natural, God-given individuality. We were created as individuals, not as clones!”

On the Ashes of the Old Build the New!

So, this is the New Diaspora — the scattered disciples of Christ across the world. The fat unpersecuted cats of today’s ‘Churchianity’ positively loathe the New Diaspora. Rigidly legalistic and fundamentalist-style Christianistas despise the New Diaspora, surely because they are jealous of their liberty and because they cannot control them. Bishops, Archbishops and Popes vigorously condemn the New Diaspora because they will not succumb to their usurped authority and priestcraft and are living outside what has come to be called ‘the means of grace’. Professing ‘Christians’ who nitpickingly put human confessions of faith above discipleship of Christ hate the New Diaspora because their manmade tramlines may be uprooted by them and shown to be anachronistic. Above all, the New Diaspora is despised because it is iconoclastic (anti-idolatry), truth-seeking, and unwilling to be deceived. On the gigantic heap of ashes of the self-serving, or narrowminded, or condemnatory, or rampantly heretical or authoritarian churches of today, alternatives need to be built.

Do you seriously believe that the ‘Church Militant’ (the name traditionally given to the hidden body of disciples waging spiritual warfare in this evil world) is truly represented by the global visible church today? That is just a delusion held by minds which cannot look beyond what can merely be seen with the eyes. The visible church is a theatre of castration and compromise and is unfit to have any part in the counterculture which is what the ‘Church Militant’ should be today. As I wrote in a recent article:

“Something first needs to be said about the present-day church situation in relation to enjoying fellowship. Looking around at the state of the current global false ‘visible’ church, which is not synonymous with the true Ekklesia (referred to in the Bible as “the body of Christ”, Ephesians 4:12), I would be hard pressed to advise anyone to be part of any local church today, though I do know some honest, wise and faithful pastors scattered across the world whose gatherings are “Word of God” based.

“People  from various parts of the world are often asking if I can provide them with information about a decent church in their area. After researching the possibilities, only very rarely am I able to say, “Try this. I think it will fulfil your needs”. When I have been able to point people in the right direction, I have actually had people tell me how they burst into tears on entering the doors of a rare “Word of God” church. The devout simplicity (no gimmicks). The profound preaching of the Word (no tendentious eisegesis). The strength and spirituality of the songs (no soppy choruses). The genuine warmth of the people (no cultish ‘love-bombing’). The clear sense of worship in all hearts (no so-called ‘worship-leaders’ necessary). All this is so rare that those seeking the deep “Word of God” and true New Testament fellowship are awestruck when they encounter it” (quoted from https://diakrisis-project.com/2024/06/12/modern-synagogues-of-satan-the-decline-of-the-visible-church/ ).

That should move you to your very soul. To be part of a fellowship with no gimmicks and the Word of God being ministered is a true rarity today.

Closing Thoughts

Things are going to get very messy over the next few years. Many people not presently connected with the body of Christ will find that they are forced to ask the world and themselves some serious questions and then begin to see that stepping onto the spiritual pathway as a disciple of Christ is the only solution to the terrible dilemma they will face. As the skubalon really starts to hit the fan, the churches are also going to be faced with the dilemma of either continuing their allegiance to the corrupt world-system of “the spirit of the Antichrist” or leaving that behind to fearlessly declare their faithfulness to Christ in an increasingly Christ-hating world in which even their lives will be under threat. The two will no longer be compatible. The visible church will be something from which one has to declare one’s independence.

After the Antichrist has been revealed and then destroyed, the sheep will be sorted out from the goats — the wheat from the darnel/tares/zizania. Then the true Ekklesia will be revealed, and the New Diaspora will be seen to have served its unique purpose as this evil age comes to a close, Christ returns triumphant, and the great change of aeons can at last be fulfilled.

Here I will conclude this piece using the same words with which I finished my article on “The New Diaspora” in 2002:

“When the present false church has shown its true colours and has been judged accordingly, God will use the New Diaspora in His own way and in His own time, just as He used the first century Diaspora to which Peter wrote, and just as He has always done with all seemingly-wayward but truly faithful groups from the beginning of His creation.

“I love the New Diaspora. Do you want to know why? It is because I believe that something marvellous will eventually materialise from it. In fact, I have every faith that the people of the New Diaspora are at the heart of the true church and represent the Ekklesia of tomorrow. I believe that as the end draws near and backs really begin to be rammed against walls and the detritus of this passing world really begins to hit the fan, then the Spirit will abandon the deadly formalistic, drably Evanjellycal, falsely ‘reformed’, crazily chaotic, powerfully poisonous ‘churches’ and will bring something extraordinary out of the New Diaspora to offer a final challenge to the crumbling Babylonian Establishment of this world in a way which the lackey, compromised, obsequious, self-centred churches could never do today.

“I just hope I live long enough to see all of that happen. And I hope you do too!”

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[Here is a download link for a PDF format version of this article]

Fellowship and Alienation in the Visible Church TodayDownload

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© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2023
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]