Questioner: “Alan, do you go to a church?”
Me: “No, I do not, for a number of reasons outside of my control, which I am willing to explain”.
Questioner: “But aren’t you disobeying the commandment in Hebrews 10:25 which says, “Do not forsake the assembling together of ourselves, as is the custom with some”.
Me: Firstly, let me say that there is no commandment there at all. You have simply latched onto something you probably heard some preacher say once. But it is not true. Also, you have not quoted the words correctly. It really says, “Let us not neglect meeting together, as is the habit of some”. Plus, one has to appreciate the context of that verse. Let me go into this some more, especially because of the cavalier and cultish manner in which that verse 25 has been interpreted and completely wrenched out of its context. 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 those who insist on such an interpretation (which I will open up below). 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.

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 39th verse is a mirror of what Jesus said in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 24, verse 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. 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, ‘DO NOT FORSAKE THE ASSEMBLING OF YOURSELVES TOGETHER!’” If I had a dollar for the number of times this verse 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 a cavalier approach? Let us go into this even more deeply…

When the formerly-Jewish Christians (to whom this letter was originally written, The Hebrews) 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 being a voice out of the clouds on Mount Sinai. The context was plainly about being rescued from apostasy, as can be seen from the previous verse and from the few verses following (Letter to the Hebrews, chapter 10, verses 23 & 26-31). But the folks who want to guilt-trip you into ‘going to church’ are very good at lifting single verses out of context 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 rather than 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 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. 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 Revelation 21:8, 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, with all the pangs of hell and the massed oppression from the forces of darkness, human and discarnate (see the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 26, verses 37-42; Gospel of Luke, chapter 22, verses 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” (Hebrews 6:32-34).

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 the fact that 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” (Hebrews 10:34).

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” Hebrews 12:2-3).

Thus, the contentious verse 25 is but one little part of a whole realm of commendations as to what things can encourage the disciple of Christ and bring him or her into a deeper maturity and thus be well-buttressed against any possible backsliding or apostasy. 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 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, chapter 10, verse 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. That is the real context in our sacred text. Such 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 [perish the thought!] on the internet!) than in a formal church setting where so often one man or a group of men wield an open or even clandestine control which goes way beyond that intended by the original Apostles. So many can only see Church in terms of control rather than mutually loving encouragement. The modern system of formal church “membership” is an example of that attempted exercise of control.

Usually, there are profound reasons why disciples would not want to be with fellow disciples 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, and spirituality which comes from the heart (rather than through rote or control) is what the New Covenant is all about.

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 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.

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, or forcing them to move home across country?

The “Go to church or else!” rendition of Hebrews 10:25 is simply bad Bible hermeneutics (interpretation). Many have failed to grasp that there is a pastoral context to this verse 25 of our text. The natural desire of the faithful disciple of Christ is to be in the company of other disciples. There is some truth to the old image of how an ember (glowing piece of wood or coal) in a fireplace burns more brightly when in the company of other embers. But we are now living in the days when probably the majority (i.e. at least more than 50%) of local assemblies of professing Christians do not provide the necessary ‘embership’ required by genuine disciples of Christ. A local assembly of professing Christians may have a large membership but it may not have the necessary ‘embership’ for genuine disciples to desire to be part of it! It is not church membership which real disciples need… it is church ‘embership’. If you can find a local gathering of disciples whose embers burn with passion for truth, with courage and love, then you have won a great prize which is increasingly less available today. The startlingly interesting thing is that the embers of people who have been spiritually abused in churches only begin to ‘glow’ again after they had stopped going to church! They only began to regain their equilibrium when they tore themselves away from the ‘heavy shepherding’ churches which had maligned them and damaged their spiritual integrity, or from the churches which had filled their heads with wacky teachings and demonic 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.

“Meeting together” these days has come to take on different meanings apart from keeping pews warm in a church building. Some people have to find their fellowship (“meeting together”) on the internet. Others just meet in homes with others in their area who have also had enough of the ‘heavy shepherding’ or false teaching in formally organised churches. There is a vast number who live like this. I am in touch with many of them. Thus, they are not “neglecting meeting together” (verse 25) and are thus fulfilling the appeal of that verse. They have not shied away from meeting with other disciples but only from ‘going to church’. Thus, they are still ‘meeting together’. They do not back off from ‘going to church’ because they are afraid or because they are apostatising but because they do not want to be in co-dependent submission to an authoritarian or wayward assembly of professing ‘Christians’. They are first and foremost disciples of Christ and do not subscribe to mere ‘churchianity’.

In an article some twenty-six years ago, I referred to such folks in an article as “The New Diaspora” — scattered sheep who have been wounded or appalled by local churches they have attended and expect something better. Essentially, the visible church, in large measure, has become part of the great apostasy and is therefore something from which one should ‘shrink back’ rather than be forced to be involved with by trigger-happy pastors with a control-freak mentality!

An accusation which is likely to be made in the wake of this piece is that I am “encouraging isolationism and individualism”. The problem is that what people often disparagingly call ‘isolationism’ is for many ‘recuperationism’ for those who went to a church and were traumatised by spiritual abuse. It takes a very wise man to be an elder in a church. Such wisdom is thin on the ground; which is why so many churches are out of kilter and why so many do not want to ‘go to a church’ which is dominated by someone less wise or less compassionate than they are. 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 with anyone? 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 and unempathic character would fail to recognise this. (Empathy is one of biggest missing elements in many people’s ‘sanctification scrapbook’). Recently, someone told me that they had tried to go to a church after having been traumatised in one twenty-two years earlier and only now had they summoned up the courage to do so and they were shaking as they entered the building. There is a pastoral dimension here which seems to completely evade the understanding of far too many professing ‘Christians’ who have no regard to the reality of PTSD (what I call Post-Traumatic Spiritual Disorder) in these circumstances.

A common accusation in many churches of anyone who thinks imaginatively, or who dresses differently, or who is somewhat ‘bohemian’, or who presents themselves differently, or does not ‘go to church’, is that they are showing signs of individualism. They say that the scourge of the church is ‘individualism’ (I have heard this said many times), and that I am aiding and abetting this scourge by propping up the ‘individualists’ with what I write. It seems that many confuse individualism with individuality. Folks need 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 whatsoever wrong with being an individual. We were created as individuals and given an individuality for a reason: because we have individual goals to achieve and individual functions to achieve them. Unfortunately, most people use their individuality to exalt themselves and their milieu. A disciple of Christ uses his or her individuality for the glory of God. Any organisation which seeks to quash that individuality and encourage blind conformity has already become a cult. Sadly, many churches, under the guise of preventing ‘individualism’, wind up crushing the uniqueness and individuality of so many of those in their fellowships that they then become mini-cults. We must never confuse egocentric individualism with healthy, natural, God-given individuality.

Regarding my own situation, I would dearly love to be near a group of genuine disciples of Christ, but I cannot find one in my vicinity. I do not use a car but a bike so my distance is limited. There are two what look like possibilities on paper in my area. But having looked into them and visited one, I would not feel comfortable there. One I had written to concerning transport as it is not easy to get to. They never replied. The other (a brethren church) will only accept new people for the Lord’s Supper if they can produce a letter of commendation from their “home church”. I smelt legalism, not to mention the fact that the notices around the building are very poorly maintained and make it look almost derelict. Also, a lot of these country churches are quite incestuous and do not take kindly to incomers. On one occasion, I did manage to attend the church which never replied. The elder on the door said he had replied, which I do not believe. Plus, it was run in all respects by one family which owned all the premises. They were distinctly unfriendly and did not encourage me in any way to return. I did not get a good feeling about the place.

So many churches are too insular and its elders do not like ‘outsiders’ who seem as if they cannot be manipulated or who might ask too many questions, or who look as if they might uncover the clandestine ways that they “lord it” over their church. And that church I mentioned above is not the only one which did not reply to an enquiry. Recently, I promised a lady who had come to me for counsel that I would try and find a decent church in her area. She has a severe health problem and cannot get out and wanted elders to come and lay hands on her for healing (as per James 5:14). I wrote to what seemed like a faithful church on paper, explaining everything, and looked forward to their reply. It never came. Is it a pattern these days that churches cannot be bothered responding to mail from new people? It is all very well to be smarming over folks when they come in the door, but fellowship means far more than a service by rote on a Sunday.

Things are going to get very messy over the next few years and, indeed, they already are. As the you-know-what really starts to hit the fan, many people — especially genuinely spiritually-seeking folks who are a bit lost — 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. As the you-know-what really starts to hit the fan, the wayward churches are also going to be faced with the dilemma of either continuing their allegiance to falsehood and the corrupt world-system or leaving all that behind to fearlessly declare their faithfulness to Christ in an increasingly Christ-hating world in which even their lives will be under threat. Under those circumstances, a loving fellowship of people who have no surreptitious agenda will be such a great blessing. May we all be found being part of one, miraculous though that would be!

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© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2026
[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]

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