In the Old Testament, there was a temporary home for God – Moses’ tabernacle. It was, in effect, a mobile home. It had to be mobile because the Israelites had come out of Egypt but had not yet entered the promised land. God’s people were on the move, and the resting place for God in their midst had to reflect that reality. The time came, however, for God to have a permanent home – Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem. David had made the way for this permanent home to be constructed by capturing a Canaanite stronghold and making it Israel’s capital. The tabernacle – being a temporary structure – had to give way to the temple – because it was a permanent structure.
This history foreshadowed how the church would have to give way to the kingdom of God. Moses’ tabernacle was a transitional structure; so also was the church. Sometimes transitional structures outlive their usefulness because people try to treat them as permanent. Yet they weren’t designed to be permanent. More on this below.
Seeking the Kingdom of God Instead of Church
Jesus said that we should seek the kingdom of God. He never said anything similar about church. In fact, He spoke very little about church, only mentioning it by name two times in the gospel accounts of His earthly life. On the other hand, He spoke repeatedly about the kingdom of God (sometimes calling it “the kingdom of heaven” or even just “the kingdom”) and urged His followers to seek it and to prepare to enter it. From time to time, someone will make the argument that the church is the kingdom, but that flies in the face of the rest of the New Testament which depicts the church as preparing for the coming of the kingdom, not thinking it was the kingdom. For this reason, and others, the idea of the church being the kingdom gets dropped pretty quickly.
If the church of the New Testament wasn’t the kingdom, then today’s church, with its thousands of denominations, certainly cannot be. Jesus said any kingdom divided against itself could not stand. Today’s church is nothing if not divided.
None of this is to criticize those who attend church in search of the living God. It is merely to say that attending church is not something God requires. Moreover, attending church often leads people away from a personal relationship with God because the needs of the church as an institution take precedence over the commandments of God. For example, a church has to collect an offering to be able to pay its bills, but if all its members are serving the poor and giving money to the poor instead of coming to church and putting the money in the offering plate then the church will go bankrupt. Thus, the church member is forced to choose between obeying God and supporting the church.
It’s easy when you’re a church leader to think that you’re serving God when you try to grow your church. I know I fell prey to this thinking when I was a pastor years ago. I wanted people to serve God and I saw their serving church as a way to do that, not realizing that I was adding to their burdens by needing their time and money. Additionally, I was unconsciously conveying to them that they were serving God when they were coming to church when God was wanting them to serve Him in all their existing activities – not merely add another weekly activity to their already overburdened lives.
If you want to grow in your personal relationship with God then you’re simply going to have to go to…God. God came in the flesh, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, to put a face on God. So, you don’t have to relate to God as some ethereal, inscrutable, divine Being. Just relate to God as if He’s Jesus – because He is!
Keep His commandments, the most fundamental of which is to love: Him first, others second, and self last. Be His disciple day by day. If someone wrongs you, turn the other cheek. Above all, follow Him. Not church. Not me. Not anyone else. Him. This…is the kingdom of God.
Church Is Not the Answer; Christ Is
Organized religion displays more interest in drawing you to organized religion than drawing you to God. Therefore, if you are interested in God you have to be cautious about organized religion.
God is everywhere. He doesn’t need a building or shrine or official group. In fact, He doesn’t even want those things. Instead, He wants to be enthroned in your heart. Someone will say, “Didn’t God tell the Israelites to build Him a tabernacle in the wilderness after they were delivered from slavery in Egypt, and didn’t King David build Him a temple in Jerusalem to replace it?” Indeed, these things are so, but those were temporary arrangements foreshadowing the day when He would dwell among us all as the resurrected Christ.
The last religious grouping we saw God supporting were the Jews and Gentiles of the church we read about in the New Testament. That New Testament church was different from any church we see today. For one thing, it was not a divided church. Today we have thousands of Christian denominations, each of them claiming to be the one true church. How could that be of God?
God wants you to relate to Him, not to a church. God wants to make you a better person and redeem the relationships you already have – not distract you with a whole new set of relationships with a new group of people. Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead so that He could have a very personal relationship with you. There is no need for an intermediary between you and Him. In fact, wouldn’t the insertion of a third-party only distance you from Him?
If going to church regularly drew people closer to Jesus then churchgoers would be the most righteous people on earth. However, we can plainly see that churchgoers are subject to the same human failings as the rest of us. To the extent that churches preach Jesus Christ and help the poor, they are doing good; but there is much they do that doesn’t have anything to do with either of those two activities.
The church does not have redeeming power, but the Christ it preaches – He does have redeeming power!
The Duty of a Man 