When Is It OK to Leave a Church?

The following is a pre-recorded version of CORE Christianity.

When is it okay to leave a church? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can call us right now with your question at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. If you don't get through, you can always leave us a voicemail, and you can post your question on one of our social media sites or watch us on YouTube. If you have an email question for us, here's the address. It's questionsatcorechristianity.com. We do our best to go through our emails every day, so you can send us a question that way.

Well, first up today, let's go to Jan in Lost Springs, Kansas. Jan, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Well, in the New Testament, I've read several times where, as a matter of fact, I think it's three or four times they say, do not eat foods offered to idols, do not engage in immoral sexual acts, do not eat strangled animals or blood. Actually, it says and blood. My question is, what do they mean by strangled animals to be in the contents of such four important things?

Jan, excellent question. There are a number of discussions in the New Testament, in particular about food that was offered to idols. This was sort of a gray area issue in the days of the apostles because there were some people who were really bothered by meat sacrificed to idols, their conscience. They had left this sort of old form of worship, pagan worship. They're coming into the church and they see believers eating this meat that had been offered to an idol in the market. They just think, oh, how could you do that? Their conscience was pricked. They were caused to stumble. Then there were other believers who maybe had a stronger sort of conscience and who knew an idol is nothing.

They're not real. This meat is not magically cursed or something like that. They would eat it regardless of the fact that it had been offered to an idol. There was this debate, this conflict in the early church. The apostle Paul, his point in a number of different books, in particular books like the book of 1 Corinthians, is don't cause your brother to stumble. Don't cause your sister to stumble. Whatever you're doing, if you're doing something that's hurting the conscience of your brother, you should be very careful not to give offense by your actions.

There's some flexibility there with that question in particular. But as far as the prohibition related to animals that were strangled in the blood, that kind of a thing, I think you're referring to Acts 15. This is actually a really important chapter for us to know in the Bible. Acts 15, it's the Jerusalem council. It's when the disciples, the apostles of our Lord came together to discuss church-wide issues that they were needing to work through. Sort of at the forefront was welcoming Gentiles into the church and what the church is going to look like now that you have this mixed community. Jews and Gentiles worshiping side by side together. It's there that you have essentially this exhortation. Acts 15, verse 19, therefore, my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols and from sexual immorality and from what has been strangled and from blood. For from ancient generations, Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he has read every Sabbath in the synagogues. Now, why those things in particular?

Well, my view is, there's a couple of ways of looking at this. One, we're sort of at this transition stage in the history of the church. The old covenant, the old system of worship is being done away with. The new covenant has been inaugurated by Jesus in his very blood. He talked about this when he instituted the Lord's Supper at his crucifixion. You sort of have this overlap here a little bit with the old system with the temple and its sacrifices and the ceremonial law being done away with and this new system being put in place, that is the new covenant. With these exhortations in particular, Jan, I think these are things that the disciples wanted to encourage the churches to observe so that there could be peace in the churches. You imagine you have these Jews who have accepted Jesus, who have all of this sort of carryover from their life in Judaism. These are some of the things that God commanded under the old covenant. You're not eating things with the blood, things that were strangled. Some of those ways of eating foods were associated with pagan worship.

He's just saying, look, don't do that. You Gentiles who are coming into the church, you probably shouldn't do that because that's going to cause conflict in the body of Christ. The disciples here are trying to create an atmosphere of peace, togetherness with this new Jew-Gentile church coming together around the gospel.

That's why you have those things specifically mentioned because those would have been stumbling blocks for the Jewish people that they would have seen among the Gentiles. Great question. Sorry to go a little bit longer there, but it's just a great question and I appreciate your call. We love your questions here at Core Christianity.

You can call us 24 hours a day and leave your voicemail at 833-THE-CORE. Let's go to John in Seminole, Oklahoma. John, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? My question is that I'm at the age of 85 now and I'm one of the last of my family members. I'm looking at whether I want to be buried or cremated. I'm asking, my question is, is there any difference in the religious world, in the biblical world, as far as one being acceptable and the other not?

Hey John, thank you for your question. The real thing we need to focus on here is when we're talking about the afterlife, entering into the presence of God, it is not the manner of our burial that matters, first and foremost. It's who did we trust and who did we believe in while we lived on this earth? You think of some ancient societies like the Egyptians and they had these ornate burial practices and they would bury or entomb the pharaohs with all of these artifacts of gold and things that they hoped to carry with them into the afterlife, that kind of a thing, but the reality is none of that mattered.

None of that mattered. The way we're buried, whether you're cremated or you go down into the ground, you're buried in a coffin, that's not what God is most concerned with. What God is most concerned with is, who are you trusting in?

Where is your hope? We trust in Jesus Christ and we have the hope, also John, of our bodies being resurrected from the dead by the power of God, whether we're cremated or buried, not because of how we were buried again, but because we are in Jesus who himself rose from the dead. I think that the biggest question you need to ask yourself is, there's a freedom here with regard to the cremation or burial.

I think you're free to choose either one and that God is not going to curse you either way or it's not going to displease the Lord because you chose to be cremated instead of buried or buried instead of cremated. The real question for you is, do I know Jesus? Am I in him?

Am I trusting in him? That's what matters on the day of judgment when we stand before the Lord. Do I have Christ in my heart by faith? And if you have that, then you have the hope of the resurrection of the dead as well. Thank you for your question. John, thank you so much for your call and for listening to CORE Christianity.

We really do appreciate you. By the way, we have a CORE question on this particular topic on cremation. You can find that by going to corechristianity.com forward slash questions. Just look for the question on cremation.

We do receive a lot of questions about that. This is CORE Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Kimberly in Bluff City, Indiana.

I'm sorry, Bluff City, Tennessee. Kimberly, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Greetings. Thank you so much.

I listen to your show every day. My question is, Cain and Abel, the first children, I'm assuming they were the first children from Adam and Eve, when Cain was exiled out into the world, who was he so afraid of hurting him? Who was he fearful of? Were there other people out there?

Thank you. Yeah, no, really a great question, and I'm glad you asked it. I'm actually currently preaching through Genesis right now at the church that I pastor. We just went over this section of scripture with Cain and Abel. In particular, we're thinking about after God had cursed Cain for murdering his brother, and Cain is upset. He's afraid that the people are going to hurt him or going to harm him because of this mark that God had placed on him.

The question is, well, who's he thinking is going to hurt him? Probably his family members, and that is the other children that Adam and Eve would have had. Verse 17 says, Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. Verse 17 of Genesis chapter 4, and he built the city, and he called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch. Now, in the very next chapter, in Genesis chapter 5, verse 4, it says the days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years, and he had other sons and daughters. That is to say that we have some of the characters given to us here, but there were other sons and daughters that were born.

I think Cain's concern is some of my family members are going to want vengeance on me, these other sons and daughters, if you will, because of what I've done. That's the answer to your question, and I appreciate the call. God bless you. You are listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. By the way, we have a group of people that we really appreciate here at this program. It's called The Inner Core. We are not supported by a particular church or denomination, so we rely on people just like you to keep us on the air, and one of the ways you can do that is by joining what we call The Inner Core. Yeah, we are, as Bill just said, they're so grateful for the members of The Inner Core, and it's just been such a blessing to receive your support, both your prayers and your gifts. The Inner Core, for a donation of $25 or more every month, you can be a part of The Inner Core, and we have all sorts of exclusive resources that we send to our Inner Core members, devotional resources, just fun things that we're working on here as a team. We want to encourage you even as you encourage us, and so if you've been blessed by Core Christianity, if you're encouraged by the broadcast, would you consider joining The Inner Core? We'll also send you a copy of that book by Dr. Michael Horton, which is Core Christianity, the book this program was founded on. To learn more, go to corechristianity.com forward slash inner core.

That's corechristianity.com forward slash inner core, or you can call us for information on that at 833-THE-CORE. Let's go to Nicole in—I'm going to try to say your name, the name of your town, Nicole—Mascoutah, Illinois. Did I get that right? Yes sir, you got it right.

So thank you so much for taking my call. I have a two-part question for you guys. So I grew up in an apostolic Pentecostal church, and I am now in my late 30s, and I'm now transitioning out of there to a more so Bible-centered preaching church. And the first question I have is that, is it concerning? Well, I've been a bit concerned that for most of my life, most of the elders and most of the church members that attend the church, they focus so much on the gift of tongues that I didn't really realize that they lacked a bunch of the other fruit that Jesus spoke about in the Gospels.

And the Bible says, you know, that we will know them by their fruits, and I don't know how much of their fruit that I've really seen apart from the jumping and the tongue-talking. The second part of my question is, is it normal to experience, like, spiritual warfare as you transition out of a denomination such as Pentecostal? Because I've been having all these dreams and all kinds of things that happen, and I'm just really trying to, you know, just figure out where it's coming from. Nicole, I'm really glad you called us, and thank you for sharing some of your story.

One of the things I want us to do is pray for you, and so we'll definitely pray for you. And I'm really glad to hear that you're growing in your understanding of God's Word. Sometimes, and you're not the only one who's experienced this, you know, as we continue to study the Bible, we can find contradictions in what our church experience is and what the Bible teaches. And that can be a really difficult place to be, especially if you've been raised a certain way and you've been taught a certain way and you've heard these things over and over and over again. And as God opens your eyes more and more through the Scriptures, you begin to see things that don't necessarily line up. And if you transition out of that, right, people can get upset. And there can be spiritual warfare. I think that there is. I mean, we know that we're in a spiritual battle, Nicole, and one of the things that Satan wants to do, the spirit of the Antichrist, the goal of the spirit of the Antichrist in the world today, 1 John talks about this, is to take our eyes off of Jesus, is to confuse us about the Gospel, what it is that God's Word says.

And he'll use anything to do that. I mean, it could even be sort of this hyper sort of charismatic spiritual gifts thing. If our eyes are off of Jesus and His Gospel, the evil one is happy. And so I don't doubt at all, Nicole, that as you sort of grow in your understanding of God's Word and as you seek more and more to follow Jesus, to align yourself with the Word of God, that there is going to be spiritual attack. And so that's one of the reasons I want to pray for you and would just encourage you to continue to immerse yourself in the Word of God. Remember the exhortation that James gives in James 4, verse 7, resist the devil and he will flee. Put on, sister, the whole armor of God, Ephesians 6, verses 10 through 18. Clothe yourself in the promises of the Gospel, the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, the belt of truth, the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit, the boots of the Gospel of peace.

You need to be clothed in that. And so it's really important that as you make this transition, that's your focus. And then in terms of the fruit, that was the first part of your question. When you look at these sort of movements or churches that are out there that maybe focus on one element of the Bible's teaching, you were mentioning spiritual gifts, and in particular the gift of tongues, but forget about everything else or at least don't seem to touch on those other very important doctrines, the key doctrines of our faith, core Christianity, like we might say.

Yeah, it really is tragic. With regard to the gift of tongues in particular, churches that say, you know you're really filled with the Holy Spirit if you speak in tongues, that's not biblical because Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 towards the end of the chapter says not everyone who is gifted with these spiritual gifts has the gift of tongues. Do all prophesy? He says yes. These rhetorical questions at the end of 1 Corinthians 12. Do all prophesy? Do all speak with tongues? Are all prophets?

And the answer that he expects is no. And then he goes on in chapter 13 to say, let me show you a more excellent way. And he begins to talk about love and the fruit of the Holy Spirit, the true fruit of the Holy Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. Those are, I would say, the real marks of the Spirit of God at work in our lives. It's not that we perform miracles or prophesy or speak in tongues.

And I'm not saying that God can't do miraculous things. It's just we know that the Spirit is working because the fruit of the Spirit is being produced. And that happens through the solid understanding of the scriptures, through growing in God's Word. And so we have to focus on God's Word, on the teaching of scripture, on the apostles' doctrine. When Luke records what the early churches were doing when he described the fellowship of the early church, he says they were committed to the apostles' teaching, to the breaking of the bread, to the fellowship, to the prayers. That's where the church should focus.

And it sounds to me like you're really beginning to understand that. And so as you focus on that, on the apostles' teaching, on the Word of God, and as you seek to honor the Lord with your life, growing in the grace and the knowledge of Jesus Christ, may God be with you and bless you. And the last thing I'll say is sometimes we can come out of churches. You mentioned the apostolic church that you've been a part of for a long time. And we can have a really bitter attitude.

And it doesn't sound to me like you have that. I would say still be charitable. As you look back and you think, man, there were so many things that I missed there. One of the questions you want to ask yourself and you want to pray about is, Lord, help me to encourage my friends and family members who are still there to fix their eyes on Jesus, to have a deeper understanding of what the Word of God actually teaches so that they might experience the grace, the joy that I've experienced as I'm understanding the Word of God more and more. And so may the Lord use you, Nicole, in this transition.

May He continue to build you up, but use you also to encourage others who are still there, a part of the church that you were brought up in. And so, but let's just take a moment right now to pray for Nicole. Heavenly Father, thank you that you are at work in our lives. Thank you, God, that you're at work in Nicole's life right now, and that, God, you've been drawing her closer and closer to yourself. I pray that as she continues to study your Word, by the grace of your Holy Spirit, that you would open her eyes more and more. That those things that maybe she once embraced or believed, that maybe aren't totally in line with what your Word teaches, that she would be able to part ways with those things in particular and grow more and more in a true understanding of what the Scriptures teach. And that as she does, Lord, that she would be filled with the fruit of your Holy Spirit, with love, with joy, with peace, with patience, Lord, with all of those fruits that your Word describes. And I also pray for her, Lord, in this transition, that you would protect her from the evil one, protect her from slander, protect her from being discouraged, give her grace to continue to love and encourage the people that you put around her in her life, and in particular, her friends and her family members from the church that she's leaving. Lord, we know that the most important thing is walking with you faithfully and understanding your Word and embracing your Gospel. And I pray that as she does that, Lord, that you would continue to bless her and be with her. And even now, Lord, would you fill her with your peace, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. Nicole, we'd love to send you a copy of our book, Core Christianity, by Dr. Michael Horton, so hang on the line and we'll get your address and we'll send that to you. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. One of the ways you can ask a question is by calling our phone line and leaving a voicemail. You can do that 24 hours a day at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Here's a voicemail we received this week. Hello, my name is James, and I have a question about the Days of Mercy, meaning that we have an entire lifetime to ask for God's mercy. Am I correct in understanding that just the duration of our life is that the mercy is ongoing, and once we're dead, if we no longer have that choice because we are now facing the judgment?

Thank you very much. Yeah, this is a good question, and it's complex in some ways, because I would want to say yes. As long as you have breath in your lungs, you can turn to the Lord. God commands all people everywhere to repent, to trust in his Son, Jesus Christ. He's extending his mercy to us all day long. You know, he's like a father with outstretched arms, wanting to gather us together as a hen gathers her chicks, calling us to himself, and that's a wonderful promise. I mean, you think of even the thief on the cross after a life of rebellion.

I mean, he had committed a crime that was worthy of capital punishment and even, you know, the most heinous kind of capital punishment, and yet even there in the last moments of his life, God extended mercy to him. Jesus said, today you will be with me in paradise, and so we have this great hope, but here's my concern. There are many people who live their lives thinking, I'm going to live for myself. I'm going to do my own thing and indulge in all the pleasures and things that I want to indulge in, and then when it looks like, you know, I'm done, I've had my fill, I'm on death's doorstep, I can't do those things anymore, then I'm going to call on God's name, and it'll be good, and, you know, I got to live for myself, and then at the very end, I, you know, ask God into my life, and he allows me into heaven, and bam, you know, I did it.

I cheated the system, that kind of a thing. Well, that's a very foolish way of living, and it doesn't take into account the reality of the fact that there is nothing better than knowing and walking with God. We think that the pleasures of this world are better, but no, that's not true. There's nothing better than walking with Jesus, than knowing him, than experiencing his grace and his love, not just for the last few moments of our lives, but for our entire life, and I think what the author to the Hebrews said, author to the Hebrews said, the author to the Hebrews said, author to the Hebrews said this in Hebrews chapter three, beginning in verse seven. This is a warning that he gives to these Christians, because some of them are thinking, we're going to abandon the faith, we're going to leave the church, we're going to do our own thing, and he says, therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion. On the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test, they saw my works for 40 years, therefore, I was provoked with that generation, and said, they always go astray in their heart, they have not known my ways, as I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God, but exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Friends, today is the day of salvation. If you hear the voice of God's Spirit tugging on your heart, saying, turn to me, turn to Jesus, receive the forgiveness of sins, don't silence that voice. Say yes, because when we silence that voice, our hearts grow harder and harder, and we don't know what tomorrow holds.

Today is the day. Receive God's grace. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar, or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833, the CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program, and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.