Are you attending a church, or a counterfeit?

The Lord Jesus Christ did not save us so that we could live a life filled with sin and ungodliness.  He did not intend that we remain at peace with the world, or that we love the world and serve the flesh and the devil.  Salvation, if it is real and if it is scriptural, is an act of God which includes rejection of the world, the flesh, and the devil.  It makes us strangers and foreigners as far as this world is concerned.

If any group of people call themselves a church, and then use rock and roll contemporary music, and present a man-centered message that appeals to the self-image and self-concern of people, it is a work of the devil and not a church!  There are thousands upon thousands of people who will attend one of these ungodly assemblies today and say they have been to church.  They are wrong.

A church cannot immerse itself in worldly methods, symbols, and ideas and be a Christ centered church.  If the so-called pastor is standing on a stage with rock concert lighting, wearing intentionally casual (rebellious) clothing, while giving a motivational speech instead of a Bible based Spirit driven sermon, he is depending on sensuality to bring in a crowd.  This is not church!

Indiana poet James Riley (1849-1916) is credited with describing the now familiar description of reasoning based on simple observation.  His modified phrase is:

If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.

When you walk into a building, and the decor and program look like the world, act like the world, and sound like the world, then it is the world (even if you call it a church).  Jesus made it very clear what you should do in such a case:

II Cor 6:14  Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

15  And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

16  And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

17  Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

18  And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.