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Thursday, November 15, 2018

Can Attending Church Save You?

Church of Holy Trinity in Iškaldź
taken by Olga Maximova in 1975
That can be a loaded question. The common belief is that one does not need to go to church to be saved and one with God. They'll point to the thief on the cross that entered Paradise on his "deathbed." Forgetting, of course, that he was an exceptional case. If you want to have a deathbed confession of faith, and live like you want to most of your life, then you may have a rude awakening on Judgement Day. Especially when there is no time for a deathbed conversion.

All it does is point to: 1. God can save who He wants, by whatever means He deems necessary to accomplish His Will. 2. That it can be bypassed when necessary. It isn't an absolute necessity to accomplish one's salvation.

Now, I'm not suggesting that an occasional miss here and there for valid reasons is going to necessarily damn you to hell. All depends upon the circumstances and one's reasons as to whether that is problematic or not. However, there are some important considerations in faithful church attendance to one's salvation.

In each case that one can point to of someone who "made it" into paradise, there were circumstances that prevented church attendance or very frequently in most every case. There are the examples of several monastics who went to the "desert." They had little community church services that they attended. The most famous of these is probably St. Mary of Egypt. She was a whore for several years of her life. She is only recorded as having attended two, maybe three, "official" church services. Yet, she went into the desert for over 40 years and grew to be one with God more so than most at that time or since.

The problem with pointing to her as a reason that going to church is not necessary for salvation is multifaceted. One, she was called by God to go out into the desert. At first, mainly so she could stay away from men, her primary temptation she had to overcome.

Two, what convicted her was going to a church service. When she attempted to go into the service venerating the cross of Christ, she was prevented from entering. It was through repentance and prayer to God that she was able to enter the church, and is what turned her life around.

Three, she still had "church" services on her own, most of the time. All monastics do, whether in a community or on their own, they are constantly in prayer and services, even while doing other work. You will rarely ever find a monk sitting in front of a TV playing games. It was through St. Mary's prayers and focus on God that she grew to be such a great saint, due to her closeness to God. As a matter of fact, most monastics who go out on their own do so with the approval of their abbot, because most of them, and us, cannot pray consistently enough without the support of a community.

It is this last point that is the reason the Scriptures say:

And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: 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. (Heb. 10:24-25)

Communion with God is the point of salvation. For most of us, that will require assembling ourselves together where we can pray as a community of saints, provoking each other toward love and good works. In other words, most of us won't commune with God as we should unless we are provoked.

"But, what if the congregation I find doesn't provoke me to love and good works? What if it provokes other, not so good, qualities in me?"

That is a valid consideration, in that churches are hospitals for sinners, like ourselves. So no one church will always provoke each other only the good things. In some cases, they may end up provoking hatred and gossip and other sins, with very little love and good works mixed in. Some people, to protect their salvation, may have to find an alternate means of communion.

"But, I have had bad experiences at every congregation I've been at."

Two issues here. One, was it one or two people at this church that were "bad"? If so, there were likely others there who were loving and encouraging. We often have the view that one bad apple spoils the whole lot. Yes, sometimes, depending on circumstances, one person can make attending a church destructive to one's salvation. However, in many other cases, it is someone who mistakenly is searching for the perfect church. So any sin, no matter how small or confined to one or two individuals, gets blown out of proportion. Make sure that is not happening in your situation,.

Two, an exception to the rule does not negate the rule. If you have genuinely not found supporting, loving people in the churches you attend, then maybe you are looking in the wrong place? Maybe you are surrounded by bad churches? On the last day, they will likely get spewed out of Christ's mouth. Instead of staying away from God, maybe your response is to pray to God on behalf of those people and churches. Christ will judge those churches on the last day, not us.

Going back to the title of this article, can I get away without attending church services and still be saved? Do I need to attend church to be saved?

Well, based on Scripture, you'll either need to have a deathbed experience, which if intentionally done, negates the conversion as sincere, and is risky at best; or you'll need to adequately hold services yourself, that is, communion with God, in such a way that you become one with God. A very tall order for anyone to fulfill on their own.

This doesn't even touch upon the bishop/priest of each parish as representing Christ and the Eucharist, as understood in the more traditional churches, as being something essential.

The truth is that Christ established the Church, the Body of Christ. That means we are all interconnected into one Body. Every child of God, is one with each other. But as Jesus said, there are tares among the wheat. That means we will have to put up with some tarry behavior at times. Jesus has already warned you that would happen. It should be no surprise when you find sinners in the Church. Just look at your own life. Any church you enter will have at least one sinner in it. The rest of the church also has to put up with your sins as well.

Now, I know what some people are going to say. That one isn't "saved" by such works. One is saved by faith in Christ. Sure, there is that. And if you are a "once saved, always saved" Calvinist, then what I've said here won't make much difference. (In which case, why have church at all?) But for everyone else, who believes along with St. Paul that you need to fight to attain the "crown." (1 Cor 9:25-27), our salvation is in large part also dependent upon our union with God remaining strong and growing toward him. For most of us, that will only happen in a church environment, if at all. So, yes, by far, most of us need to attend church to find salvation and grow in salvation.

After all, the apostles gave their lives to establish churches with bishops overseeing them. They must have felt it important enough to do that. Perhaps we shouldn't take it so lightly ourselves?

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