Seeing without Blinders: Organized Religion
I’m expanding on the previous post; Why leave the Church System (CS). In hopes to spur diligently seeking, I further explain why it’s imperative to leave the corruption of the CS and cling to the Truth and the true temple of God, a place made without hands. Luke 17:21
As individual seeking is deemed unnecessary (see previous post), those in the CS receive an “image” of God “handed” to them by “trusted authorities.” This receiving without discernment, creates a gateway for deception. It opens the pathway for false images to arise. It opens the door for the father of lies to enter in. Without individual seeking, which leads to discernment, truth and spiritual understanding, darkness prevails. 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10
The number of professing believers who diligently seek God to know Him as He is through the Bible by the instruction of the Holy Spirit are few. Thus in the CS there are numerous ways for the father of lies to covertly spew his poison. There comes a point where the deception spreads and takes over the entity. A little leaven affects the whole lump. Lies breed corruption and spiritual decay.
God knew this corruption would happen. It’s foretold through the prophets to warn us. As a result, in the end as a part of judgment, God gives the CS over to its own corruption as it’s released into the hands of the enemy. Revelation 18:2 God allows the people to walk the path they have chosen, which is to follow and heed “religious leaders” instead of Him. As a result, the enemy now reigns where he shouldn’t. Lamentations 2:7, Matt 24:15. When we see this happening, we are told to flee, and not to go back for any reason. Matthew 24:16-18
In Lamentations 4:12, it says no one would believe that God would let the enemy take over the sanctuary. Read the Bible again and you see that He has and He will as a part of judgment. For those seeking and “watching”, they see what the CS has become – an inhabitation of every foul thing Revelation 18:2, a den of thieves, and place where souls are destroyed as they are kept from entering into the kingdom. This is powerful language of the Bible to make an insurmountable point.
But I don’t see evil people in my church. Over and over we are warned that the enemy looks humble, kind, godly… is transformed into ministers of light and righteousness, wolves in sheep clothing. 2 Corinthians 11:12-15 What will that look like? Remember it’s deception. They don’t appear as slick salesmen (well, some do); they look like the humble and godly person. Even someone with “good” intentions can be lead astray. A soul without discernment because of a lack of LOVE for the truth is a breeding ground for lies regardless of how nice.
What is so evil? We are doing nice things. The father of lies is moving in. John 8:44 God’s definition of evil and good are different from this world’s definitions. Evil is anything counter to God’s will. The greatest evil is that disguised as good. Without individual seeking, an image of God is being manifested in the CS that defines good and evil and keeps people from seeing the truth. Our eternal life is knowing the true God; not some image. John 17:3
But my church references the Bible … One of Satan’s greatest tactics is using God’s words and twisting them to make them a lie. It’s what lures people in because there is an element of truth. He did this with Eve and Jesus. Satan uses the Bible for his purposes to destroy, which you see throughout church history. For those who lack a LOVE for the truth, they won’t be able to discern between the holy and profane. They don’t see the twisting of the scriptures. Thus, they are given into the delusion that puts them on the path to destruction. It’s like being lost to the world’s lies. A lie is a lie. As the CS keeps people from true seeking, those inside are kept from the light, thus darkness spreads.
This corruption and evil that is destroying souls is why true seekers are leaving. In diligent seeking, eyes are open to see what is taking place in the CS. The sanctuary is being given over for judgment and the impending plagues. Examine the lives of those in the CS and your own. In the CS, you will experience the plagues that come upon it. Revelation 18:4 Therefore, you have to leave. Most are expecting plagues that look the same in each life. What looks the same is the suffering, but how they’re manifested appears different. Revelation 9:17-18.
In seeking, you see the signs and leave. If you haven’t been seeking, you will stay because you are following the religious leaders who tell you why you should be there. What voice you have been following is the voice you will heed.
Why would God give His people over? They turned from following Him. They followed an image of Him instead of Him. Matthew 7:22-23 (read these) They followed their own will. From the beginning God set before us life and death; His way or our way. Most haven’t sought to really know God’s way and fully chosen Him. God is giving them over to the choice they have made, themselves.
God is love. Sometimes the greatest act of love is allowing someone to walk their own path to learn it isn’t life so that they will turn to the One who is life. Many are living what they think is life, but are swimming in the mud-pit. God wants them free.
Seek. Psalm 34:10 Embrace God, His truth, and the instruction of the Holy Spirit. Desire the fellowship of the true believers who are the temple, a place without walls. Instead of each week receiving messages leading to spiritual depravity, each day dive into a fellowship with God seeking His face in the Bible to know Him and trust Him. Instead of heeding the voice of a person, heed God’s voice. Seek to draw near to God in truth and spirit and not to the doctrines of the religious leaders.
It’s the Word of God that saves and sanctifies. John 17:17. It’s the truth that will save you in the end.
Seek the truth from God. Stop following others. Start following Him.
Living Light 
March 15, 2011 at 9:17 pm
Thanks for the post, Rachel
I’m going to have to pray about this. I’ve read your references and it rings true, however I hate to toss out all the organized churches in one basket. I know there are many precious brothers and sisters there, including quite a few of the pastors and other leaders. I know they’ve got the wrong idea in so many things and I believe they will either come out or be “assimilated” eventually, but I wonder whether they’re really as bad as all that just yet . . . all the same, some of the things God has said to me have been pretty harsh concerning organized religion. You have me pondering . . .
Love you, Sis!
March 15, 2011 at 11:06 pm
Hi Cindy, it is strong … and as you read the prophets, Revelation, etc. .. it gets even more “tough” in terms of the language used and the word pictures to describe what is happening spiritually. If we could strip back the physical and see what is happening spiritually I think we would be stunned. God works all in His timing. He is stirring hearts. It will be interesting to see what happens in the near future.
July 27, 2012 at 4:25 am
even samual was raised in the temple around the things of God but had not known God yet, Eli grew weary and lost vision as many in the temple do and will today. Eli had sons that were out of control in Gods temple, so do we leave the temple, or do we examine our selves rather than justify our selves and create excuses as to why we wont go to church any longer, it appears that many are leaving the church system because they see the humanity in it rather than focusing on the God who desires to meet them there. yes I know that where ever there is flesh there shall be issues with it, but we as Gods children who claim to have so many deep truths, ought to have enough good sense to know that we must look beyong the little children of God and see the Father that is still in the temple just as he was in Samuals day!
Paul had the same issues with the corinth people in the church getting drunk and eating all the bread and not discerning the others as members of the body, which is what the comunion was all about, if you cant see that the Christ in me is the Christ in you what communion do we have? when Jesus broke the bread as his body and each got a fragment of it, how does the bread come back to his body, when you and I gather with discernment that God is in each one of us, we bring the mystical body back together and Jesus is in our midst, I would encourage you to look For God rather than at people and their messes. and My God works in any situation even in the midst of witch doctors and satanist my God still delivers, the thing is that I would rather be in the ark with the cow dung and camel dung and all the mess than to be lost in the religous world outside the ark, its not like we come in church and created our own people, we got some messed up people and we all have ours, and we are doing what we can with what we have, if God is not in your church when you show up, something is wrong that goes beyond faultfinding in the syestem. If all we see is fault in the church what are we beholding, I know of many great churches who point only to Jesus and teach us to have a personal relationship and be as a berean on every word they share!
July 30, 2012 at 2:23 pm
Hi Robert – it isn’t the people, it’s the false image that is worshiped and all the images that surround that false image that people worship. People who worship a Pagan god … I don’t dismiss them, but I don’t worship at their temple either, same thing. The end of one age is coming to a close and another is dawning where righteous will reign. God is starting to move His people into that kingdom, where the temple is built without hands and is constructed in all purity and as He wills, not man. Now is the time of the judgment .. when all will be set in righteousness. Yes, many of His flocks are being trampled … but as His kingdom moves in .. this will be rectified.
John 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.
Matthew 23:15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.
The plagues are upon us, look around at the number of people in hardship; especially sickness. This will tell you where God is and isn’t.
He is our ark, not the church system! Rev 3:10
Revelation 2:9 “I know your works, tribulation, and poverty (but you are rich); and I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
2 Corinthians 11:14-15 And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.
Proverbs 13:20 He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will be destroyed.
Isaiah 9:14-17
Lamentations 2:4-7
People are awakening to the truth … Christ is gathering His people to Himself, the true sanctuary.
God does not meet you in church .. He meets you in your spirit; to say this makes church God.
March 16, 2011 at 4:54 pm
Cindy — a couple more things came to mind this morning … We aren’t to judge any one heart good or bad, it’s not our place and we can’t truly. We can look at the messages/concepts/ideas/institutions presented and seek God’s will and follow that for our lives. Yet, we are called to exhort each other to seek God with all our heart, soul and mind and to put Him first – even above the church. Luke 14:26 We are to speak what we feel God has taught and laid on our hearts. This message He has laid on mine. It has been growing for some time now. If we remain silent with the compelling messages we’ve been given, what kind of love would that be? We are to speak what we believe in confidence we learn from Him. Romans 12:6. I trust others to do that with me, and I want to do that for others. Then it is up to each of us to examine our hearts/choices/beliefs in light of God’s Word and the Holy Spirit. The worst would be for others who I care about to say in the end, what didn’t you tell me? So I’m telling.
But as for individuals we can’t judge. I feel our part is to relay the message that we feel God has taught/shown us in our Word – then it’s out there for each to examine their own hearts against. We are the messengers not the judges.
March 17, 2011 at 4:53 am
Hey, Rachel
Yes, I see what you mean. And I have to agree that the system followed by organized religion is bad — not the people necessarily. The people may even be where God has them for the moment. But yes, I’m afraid I can’t think of many good things about the system.
Preachers typically emphasize how they want their congregations to seek God for themselves, but in reality, it’s hard enough to do that with the ally of hunger and responsibility on your side. When someone is always there once a week to pass out the subsistence rations, and when there’s nearly zero possibility of having an opportunity to share what Jesus has given you, there’s just not much motivation.
Like being on welfare. You may know you’d be better off seeking on your own, but there are so many other things to do . . . and of course you can depend on the sermon on Sunday morning to give you enough to keep from starving for another week. Bleak, really.
March 17, 2011 at 9:35 pm
Hi Cindy … agreed. And as I mentioned to Andy my next blog post came out of these comments .. I think it will explain a bit more.
March 16, 2011 at 11:33 am
As a point of clarification, are you referring to the Catholic church system? That is the only scenario that fits.
“As individual seeking is deemed unnecessary (see previous post), those in the CS receive an “image” of God “handed” to them by “trusted authorities.”
If so, I would agree with some of what you say – although even in the Catholic church system there are still some very devout people of God. In fact I think most churches have at least a remnant.
But there are some very good Protestant churches that encourage the personal relationship. But like in everything, some get it and some don’t. Some do it and some don’t. In all cases, it is not the church’s fault.
March 16, 2011 at 4:57 pm
Hi Mike … thanks for your comment … I address your comment in part in my second comment to Cindy… It’s always easier to see others faults and not our own. With ourselves we have “blind sides”. I don’t desire any of us to be walking and making decisions blindly. I think the messages of the Bible are for all of us to examine our lives and choices by.
March 16, 2011 at 9:21 pm
The American church as a whole is drastically different from the early church. I don’t totally understand which churches are lumped into the CS, I’ll have to read the original post again.
How would you address the average “consuming” Christian claiming that what you are teaching is just another option from the pastors teachings down the street? Some unbelievers or Christians that are heavily in the CS may have this question.
Also, what about a church that teaches the same thing as what you are expressing here, except they gather together once a week for worship and fellowship with each other?
I’m sorry if I am not even talking about the CS you describe here, I just get the impression you are lumping all the main churches in America together.
I know some pastors very personally and they set an incredible example for me to follow Jesus.
March 17, 2011 at 9:27 pm
Hi Andy — your comment and some others have spawned my post for next week. There is a bit there. So I think that will hopefully answer some of your questions.
March 18, 2011 at 3:48 am
I look forward to reading it! I trust you are sincere and think the next post will answer questions other people have.
March 16, 2011 at 9:24 pm
Also, I watched your YouTube video on hearing God and it was AMAZING! I was so impressed to see teaching like that on such a untouched subject, at when it comes to being under the authority of scripture.
March 16, 2011 at 10:52 pm
Rachel:
You write beautifully and your points are valid. I have an issue with the fact that you blog messages from God and in essence you are the same as a preacher in the church. If someone chose to simply read your blog once a week and take that message as the word and did not seek any other understanding on their own with a personal relationship, they would then be guilty of accepting a “pre-packaged” God. In this sense you are doing the very thing you are guiding against.
Further that ~ I have never gotten the impression that you are anything but sincere in your relationship with God. You have to offer that same courtesy to those that seek fellowship within an organized setting.
As I said before, I do a bit of both. I have a wonderful Sunday School Class that I attend regularly. We have a different volunteer each week from the class facilitate a lesson. The lessons come from a book that a group of people from the class suggest. The “preacher” (I really don’t like that title) does lead the main service each Sunday and I enjoy hearing his perspective. I take that message and I seek understanding further from God. I truly have a passion for knowing God and having a relationships with him, but I think that relationship is enhanced by people like you and those that I have chosen to bond with in my organized setting.
I realize we are going to have to agree to disagree on this one. I enjoy your perspective and I appreciate you sharing this one.
March 17, 2011 at 9:32 pm
Hi Anonymous … I see what you are getting at … but my writing I hope is all about seeking God. I don’t hold a authority over anyone. I don’t ask for anything else. That’s it. I appreciate your view point, but I think you’re right, we’ll have to agree to disagree 🙂 I’m only a messenger … read my next post on Monday it explains this issue a bit more.
March 17, 2011 at 2:03 am
Great post, Rachel. It’s coming down to the wire now, around the world.
As you say, LOVE for TRUTH is where it’s at and whilst the CS continues to cherry-pick from the Scriptures, it is not standing for TRUTH….and never will. The difference is they’re telling people what they want to hear and you’re telling us what we need to hear. I pray for any church doing the same, it takes guts. Keep at it.
Roger
March 17, 2011 at 9:32 pm
Hi Roger .. as always I appreciate your encouragement. 🙂
March 17, 2011 at 11:34 am
Rachel,
I started to not comment because I didn’t want to come across as opposing your belief. I do believe God is quite capable of leading us all down different paths for different reasons. I think otherwise it would all be boring to Him.
In a way, I was accepting your position and trying to understand, by the comment of yours that I quoted, if your feelings were linked primarily to the Catholic church or all organized churches in general?
March 17, 2011 at 9:37 pm
Hi Mike … feelings are linked to the Bible .. I don’t judge any one church. My next blog post will explain more. Your comment along with a couple of others all fall around the same issue (in my mind and I hope in yours) so I’m writing a post to address that very important issue – of “who” exactly are you talking about when you refer to the CS.
March 18, 2011 at 5:03 am
Hi Rachel
I have been out of the CS for quite a while now, and I just wanted to leave a word of encouragement to you. Many times your posts are a confirmation to me as the Holy Spirit’s message is the same around the world! I disagree with anonymous who suggested you were acting in the position of Preacher…your message is a call to all who stop by Stirring the Deep to seek the Lord for themselves and develop their relationship with Christ as all who are His should.
I know I don’t comment very often but wanted to in this instant.
Blessings to you and the work of the Lord you are walking in 🙂
March 18, 2011 at 7:18 pm
Hi Claire – thanks so much for your encouragement. It truly means a lot.
March 19, 2011 at 2:05 am
Thanks for this post. More sermons need to be taught on false prophets and teaching in the churches. TimBob did a similar post on this.
http://timbob3.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/cleverly-disguised-as/
March 19, 2011 at 4:55 pm
Hi Code — thanks for sharing Timbob’s post on this … I don’t believe I read that one. 🙂
March 2, 2012 at 1:02 am
I am certain that this message is from God for this season. I however think it will be received differently by different people depending on where one is at in their walk with the Lord. I personally left an institutional church last year that I had been a part of for close to 10 years. In my mind I only thought God was moving me to another church, although I did not know which one. How things turned out immediately after made me realize that He was leading me out of the system into seeking Him. It didn’t take long for Him to lead me (through written material and blogs like this one) to other people who have walked this path before. . I could not go through the blog in one sitting because a lot resonates within me and I have to make reference to the scriptures to ensure what is written is so (acts 17:11), sometimes pausing quietly to allow the truth to sink in. I appreciate this so much Rachel.
Keep writing what you receive from Him so that he that reads may run with it (Hab 2:2). It will keep us in remembrance of the present truth (2 Peter 1:12) and the body will be built by that which every joint supplies (Ephesians 4:16)….
March 2, 2012 at 10:50 am
Hi Patrick – truly this is a message that is delivered to a soul by God Himself and each in His time, as I’ve heard others’ stories. Thanks for being a faithful Berean and your encouragement.
November 11, 2012 at 9:02 am
I just want to say thnk u for this I needed to read that I Thnk God for allowing me to find this it helped me. He has taking the blinders off my eyes an I just left my church but I got understanding now.
November 14, 2012 at 12:32 pm
It’s a great blessing to see .. many you grow to know the true Father who created you and His love that is great and powerful toward you.
November 11, 2012 at 9:47 am
Hi Rachel, E W here! I am sure this has to do with the teaching of “old & new wine skins”. The doctrine of Jesus being put into an old wine-skin/denominational-beleiver or self-reliant, would cause a spiritual explosion. It is why a person must become a new creature/new wine skin in Jesus(living by every word out of the mouth of God), before the Holy Spirit can begin to teach all truth of God.
November 14, 2012 at 12:32 pm
Absolutely.