It Is Time Religious Tenures be Removed and The Truth, Revealed

The Church will always be a topic concerning spiritual tenure. However, today, it is being duped into a statute of mediocrity by those finding more relevance in societal dominance than in the supernatural dominion existing with God. When you spend time looking at articles about America’s churches, you see those citing data on the exorbitant number of closures. But for those who talk about the concern over the statistically documented decline in the number of those who claim to be Christians, one is relevant to the other; both tell a story of a Church in spiritual remission of its proprietary status.

There is an alarm to be sounded when the data shows that, for America alone, over 4,000 church closures occurred, while only over 3,000 opened in 2022. But is that to be the genuine concern regarding this subject? I say no, as churches will continue to close and open, but some data indicate a severe problem with the mainstream denominations. In just over two decades, most have declined by an average of 23%. While that hasn’t appeared alarming, it suggests that people are either changing their spiritual perspective on religious tenets or no longer seeing a need to attend churches that still derive their existence from practices and a scripturally out-of-context ministry.

You would be right if you say that it is more from the religious context than that of any scriptural debate. Typically, once people accept the standards that define their faith, they are acceptable to whatever traditions and customs support it. And yet, in a scripture aligned with the truth of the bible, the scripture itself is the primary relevance to one’s faith. Rom 10:17  Then faith is of hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. In the context of a decline in denominational congregations, much of the cause is pulpits moving into what is called today a more dynamic posture, with a greater dexterity in integrating worldly contexts to align with the latest social trends.

In other words, less literal scriptural truth and more blends of worldly-derived exorcisms. However, amidst all this, the elephant in the room is that today’s churches do not revel in the work of the Holy Spirit. They maintain diligence by an institutional order. While the Holy Spirit is recognized as the interim of any ministry efforts, He is not in control. For centuries, that is a statute that has belonged to the facet of leadership, whether by a papal or pastoral status or an oversight committee’s directive.

If you question this, may I remind you that the Methodist Church has agonized over LGBTQ authority for quite a while and recently has divided itself because it refused to follow the truth the Holy Spirit reveals from scripture? The aged Catholic Church continues to debate the relevance of pre-mandated celibacy as its coalition of local parish attendance reels from decades of sexual expression upon its youth. These and other relevant spiritual issues stem from religiously smug leadership and its approach to the Holy Spirit’s role in the church.

The point of this blog is that regardless of whether it’s church decline or people decline, the most evident factor is that Jesus’s efforts by the Holy Spirit have not been a paramount issue among denominations. If the Church comprised of these organizations exists by the truth as the Holy Spirit reveals, then that Church would be the most spiritually dynamic presence on earth.

BUT THERE ARE NONE!

As a matter of fact, the spiritual near-sightedness of denominations actually operates by a religious gambit. One that has been here for almost the whole 2000 years of Church existence. Thus, as they neglect His accountability to God in bringing about a world filled with a replenished population of sons and daughters, a religious facade is placed by leadership for the sake of tenet authority. Gen 1:28  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 

I hold my position on this based on the fact that Scripture reveals that if the truth, as presented by the Holy Spirit, is unfolded and followed through by faith among a body of believers, Christ’s power and authority would flow over all the earth, bringing forth the supernatural promises God has made to His creation. And though salvation and the prominence of the gospel that affords it are focused upon, the one entity that manifests Christ’s power and authority, outlined as the Holy Spirit, is not rendered control.

So, any decline is not the result of anything He has or has not done, but solely the result of those leaders who see themselves as the sole spiritual authority. If scripture has any prominence (at all) among today’s believers, then what Paul writes in the book of Ephesians is most important for changing this status quo of Holy Spirit abstinence. Eph 5:25-27  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself as the glorious church, without spot or wrinkle or any such things, but that it should be holy and without blemish. 

Religious authority upheld by denominations has been the darkest spot in the history of the Church and has prevented it from being what God in His word says it is to be. But there is coming a day of change that can only occur by the truth the Holy Spirit reveals, and it will be a change so dynamic that the world will be in a state of awe as the results of it garner the presence of Christ’s power and authority supernaturally all over the world, just as God says.