(Note:This treatise was penned by my longtime friend, mentor and honest-to-goodness hero Gerald Sutek, who, for the last several years has been laboring in the Philippines and as of late has been holding church in the midst of martial law-like conditions)
This thesis will not win me any new friends and God knows I do not need any more enemies but I feel I am old enough to insert my comments on a bad, very bad habit developing within the body of Christ.
Heb 10:19 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
Heb 10:20 By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
Heb 10:21 And having an high priest over the house of God;
Heb 10:22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
Heb 10:23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
Heb 10:24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
Heb 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
Yes, Hebrews 10:25 is STILL in the Bible and dispensationalizing the book of Hebrews out of the church age won’t convince the Holy Spirit. The context alone speaks to the last days New Testament Christian and verse 25 is probably the most neglected and disobeyed verse in the New Testament. It is also interesting that the verse has a very profound prophecy concerning 2021 or the year we live in and even future from that.
We hear more and more from comfort-loving Christians that this verse “doesn’t have to mean actually bring-your-body-to-a-church-building”. Well, you need to read it carefully again and remember the Bible says of Itself.
Pro_30:5 Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
Luk_4:4 And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
My life has spanned from pencil and paper and landline phone all the way unto manual typewriter, word processor, voice mail, email, cell phone, facebook, zoom and Youtube. Yes, I am that old. When I was little I sat in front of the seven inch TV and stared at the test pattern until the first program of the day came on at 4PM. Howdy Doody did not know how to spell anything beyond innocent, childish, fun.
The only “religion” on TV in that era was Bishop Fulton Sheen who was never worth any time. What I am trying to say (beyond revealing my age) is that what a Bible believing Christian should know to be CHURCH cannot remotely be replaced by a zoom/Youtube TV program.
My family got up early on Sunday morning and put on our finest duds. My dad had the car clean and mechanically ready lest we miss Sunday school. We carried an actual paper version of God’s Word to class and communed with similar aged warm bodies and listened to a prepared teacher teaching from a paper version Bible. We gathered again in an auditorium with the main body of the church. We found a seat closest to the front next to other smiling/hand-shaking brothers and sisters who loved God and His Word enough to rise early on their day-off in order to fellowship (remember that word) with other beings who were created in the image of God. We also experienced the full affect of the presence of God among His great congregation and sensed the genuine tug of the Holy Spirit wooing us to the altar to settle a certain matter with our Maker and Saviour. We enjoyed our individual classes but we also had the familial union of the whole family sitting in church together and submitting ourselves one to another under the fire and brimstone laced spit of the man of God in the pulpit. We could not just push a button and try another ecumenical entertainer to see which one we liked better.
Can you imagine the testimony of a young child in our web-world describing sleeping in until five minutes after the TV service began and then jumping in mom and dad’s bed in our jams while mom serves dad his coffee and us hot chocolate. Dad looks at TV guide to find the zoom service of First Convenient Baptist Church. We all zoom in together and plump our pillows for ultimate comfort to be entertained by the latest and best-to-offer pop choir song titled Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus…..Oh, yes Jesus…Amen. The sermon is homiletically perfect and is so powerful that dad white-knuckles his coffee mug while little sister snores in her plumped pillow.
I fully understand the convenience of today’s internet church and I would truly appreciate this spiritual crutch if I were in a hospital bed locked in by some dreaded disease of discomfort. But the Laodicean Christian had turned this crutch into a skateboard to speed past Heb. 10:25. I also understand the opportunity of minstering on this media into an area where there truly is no “good church”. But I have also heard about Christians who take a promotion in their career that requires a relocation. They jump to the money and position but when asked if there might be a “good church” nearby, they plump their pillow and lean back comfortably on “We can always find something on Youtube”. This violates “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God”. Thank God for every pastor who has the availability to minister to his flock during Covid 19. But any Bible believer ought to know that Hebrews 10:25 certainly transcends any temporary prohibition given by local authority.
When the good Lord inspired Paul to write Hebrews 10:25 He clearly had your best spiritual interest in heart. Unless you twist your mind to accept the perverted version of Heb. 10:25 found in Zoom-channel-11, there really is a universe of difference between the bodily attendance in a local NT Baptist church and Zoom-Web-TV-Pajama-Baptist. There can be little thought and less prayer put into grabbing your phone and punching in your offering rather than to put cash or check in the plate as it passes by. The call into service by the Holy Spirit, although not necessarily destroyed by the internet is certainly softened and surely easier ignored. Even the invitation to be saved or get right with God loses much altar-tug-power through the long distance of radio signals. It’s just not the same and you know it.
Then add the prophetic aspect of Hebrews 10:25 and how the Lord so perfectly foresaw the electronic era of our day. and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. How the devil, by a multiple-thousands of ways could insert himself and, indeed minster to his audience. God designed the ministry of the local church so He might draw and deal with His bride in a very personal way. Through the air waves the prince of the powers of the air can now salve the consciences of the guilty and clothe the preacher’s message in a garb much prettier than the rough garments of Bible preachers.
Judge me “old fashioned” and I confess to that. But, don’t be lulled into slumber on the subject of Hebrews 10:25. Read it again and realize that God said what He meant and meant what He said.
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