Which apostle said that the church was not needed to find God - one must instead look inside himself?

Answer 1

I do not bekieve it was an apostle that made that statement. ALthough I was unable to locate my source on the web, I believe it was a gospel whcih was purported to be a transcription of the words of Jesus. The Lost Gospels or Lost Books of the Bible was the source. I believe you will find it there. Also a movie was called stigmata was loosely based on this premise.

Answer 2

None actually, but none actually specified the need for the Church either. A friend of mine once said that "A religion can't simply be a collection of platitudes". I agree, in the real world, the apostles found that in order to keep the Gospel intact and to get the tithe to those who needed it required some earthly, logistic organization. (in fact the 1st known church was simply a gathering place where poor people would go get a meal or some clothing, much like a modern day soup kitchen). The Church explains this by separating Scripture from Tradition. Scripture ONLY says, "Do this in memory of me". How, exactly, we do it, is tradition. But the word tradition has taken on such a negative context. The fact is that some traditions are well founded in human psychological and practical needs. The tradition of the church answers many of these earthly needs. for instance, an enforcement authority to protect the Gospel from change, a quiet place where you can think about religion away from the distractions of daily life, etc. The point is that these traditions solve very real practical problems. The following is a quote from the article "Is there an Artificial God?" by Douglas Adams, author and atheist, himself paraphrasing a story in the book "Man on Earth" by John Reader.
---
...The one [story from 'Man on Earth'] I have in mind at the moment is one that describes the culture and economy of Bali, which is a small, very crowded island that subsists on rice. Now, rice is an incredibly efficient food and you can grow an awful lot in a relatively small space, but it's hugely labour intensive and requires a lot of very, very precise co-operation amongst the people there, particularly when you have a large population on a small island needing to bring its harvest in. People now looking at the way in which rice agriculture works in Bali are rather puzzled by it because it is intensely religious. The society of Bali is such that religion permeates every single aspect of it and everybody in that culture is very, very carefully defined in terms of who they are, what their status is and what their role in life is. It's all defined by the church; they have very peculiar calendars and a very peculiar set of customs and rituals, which are precisely defined and, oddly enough, they are fantastically good at being very, very productive with their rice harvest. In the 70s, people came in and noticed that the rice harvest was determined by the temple calendar. It seemed to be totally nonsensical, so they said, 'Get rid of all this, we can help you make your rice harvest much, much more productive than even you're, very successfully, doing at the moment. Use these pesticides, use this calendar, do this, that and the other'. So they started and for two or three years the rice production went up enormously, but the whole predator/prey/pest balance went completely out of kilter. Very shortly, the rice harvest plummeted again and the Balinese said, 'Screw it, we're going back to the temple calendar!' and they reinstated what was there before and it all worked again absolutely perfectly.
---

Answer 3

There is nothing that talks about look inside of yourself in the bible as far as I know because we don't know a thing! Anyways, the first part of what you said however IS in the bible in Acts 17:24-28 and was said by the apostle Paul as follows:
"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'

Answer 4

The kingdom of God is within you and all around you. It is not within buildings of wood or stone. Split a piece of wood and you will find me. Look beneath a stone and I am there.