Can I follow Christ by reading the Bible and not attending any church?

Question

I know there are protestant brethren who insist the importance on the word of God and establishing a personal relationship with Christ himself and I believe most of us will not deny we need to grow as a community.

But since every pastor has his own beliefs in how the church should run, who should we follow? To follow one who says divorce is alright, or another who does not allow abortion etc. The emphasis I will like to point out here is that there is NO UNITY among christian churches.

Unlike the Catholic church which through past 2000 yrs has been consistent although amendments is made through the various councils such as the vatican council in the 60s. There is consistent doctrine among all the churches and every mass is the same be it in Italy, Hong Kong or America although vernacular language is used instead.

Peace to all.

Hi all, thank you so much for the 18 questions thus far, esp. when coming to Catholic Church, I am wary of been bombard by fellow protestant brethren.

Of all, thank you for sharing your point of view. Cheers.

Answer 1

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 2

Hmmmm I'm not sure what to answer, here. Is the first question the real one, or was it simply an excuse to extoll the virtues of the Roman Catholic church?
I will assume you were sincere in the first question. My answer is: The church is the Briede of Christ. He is building His church. And "church" means "assembly of believers". So I would say it would be hard to follow Christ but to stay apart from His church which He loves.
Now, as to the second one. The confusion is caused by the belief that "Protestant" is one "religion" or "church". It isn't. You would be better to compare "Baptist" to Catholic or "Mennonite" to Catholic or "Plymouth Brethren" to catholic or "Pentecostal" to Catholic.
My only advice would be that as a thinking adult, you look around, and find a local church that honours Christ and the Word of God. It won't be an infallible church, it will be made up of fallible people like you, the pastor included. But look around, and where you find that the general purposes of Christ and the New Testament are being carried out, join them, and do your best to help them.
EDIT:
P.S. "Church" isn't a building. it might meet in a home or in a community hall. Church is the people who meet together regularly and cooperate in fulfilling Christ's purposes in a given location.

Answer 3

Ive actually found myself wondering the same thing.
Personally I think that a part of religion is living life the best we can. If you cant go to church every week then in my opinion that should be fine. There is a quote in the bible that goes "do not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing, when you pray, pray in your room with the door closed, not where others can see you"

I take this to mean that you should pray by yourself, you should be the one to know your relationship with God. Church is there for the eucharist and for the teachings. If you recieve the eucharist atleast 1 a year you are fine. Thats catholic minimum.
Same with the abortion and what not, believe what you believe but keep it in God's path.

Answer 4

This is where convintional churches have been sooooo mislead. In the bible, Jesus lead small home fellowships. In my church, we believe as far as church and how to run it, we should try to walk in the steps of Jesus Christ because he's the only perfect man to have ever stepped foot in this world. Because the bible says that fellwoshiping with other likeminded people (other people who know and follow the Word) you probably do need to go to some form of Church, but that doesnt mean that the traditional church is the only way to go. The way ministries is an AMAZING way to go without feeling like you're not geting the bible story your pastor wants you to hear, or only the half truth.

Answer 5

Yes, you can follow Christ by reading the Bible and not attending church. That being said, there will come a time in your walk with God when you need the fellowship of other believers. You will need to get out there in the world and help spread the word, both to teach it and be taught by it. You will need strengthened in faith and uplifted.

Yes, the "traditions of men" have royally messed up and even flat out confused certain clear messages in the Bible. It is important to fellowship with other believers. Start your own small group of Bible believing Christians. The true Church is the body of believers, not a building.

Answer 6

Our faith should be in Christ, not the church or it's pastors.Jesus Christ is Lord, meaning He alone has all authority. Litmus test... by their fruits you will know them, churches too.

The Catholic church does provide uniformity, including their ever changing doctrine, among all their churches. The various denominations do likewise. There is unity in their beliefs.

The most important unity is that all these churches, denominations and beliefs hold to the core beliefs of Christianity. That Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that by His death, we have salvation and eternal life. God does not care what church we belong to. He cares about you, and what you do. We are responsible and held accountable for ourselves. Thank God that He has given His Spirit to those who believe, to teach and to guide us individually and to the light the paths He would have us go.

Philippians 2:11-13
"and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure."

Answer 7

Sure, if you can also manage to post questions on the internet just by reading your computer's instruction manual.

Otherwise, you're going to need instruction, some infrastructure, some other, like minded people, some established, reliable, and widely accepted protocols, and some specific hardware and software.

Jesus founded his Church to freely supply all of the above, plus abundant grace, sufficient to obtain salvation.

He never founded a Bible.

Relying on the Bible alone is like reading a computer manual, but never experiencing the real thing.

What would be the point?

Answer 8

You should find a church like the one I attend and follow the Pastor only as he follows Jesus. http://www.alcf.net

My Pastor doesn't preach "gospel light", tastes good, less filling. He teaches the whole counsel of God's Word and doesn't and to nor diminish from it.

No church is perfect because if it was, you and I couldn't belong to it. But you can still search out a Bible teaching, Christ honoring, Spirit led assembly and play your part as a member of the body of Christ. There are no "lone ranger" Christians. We have all been given spiritual gifts that the Pastor is supposed to teach us how to use to serve one another.

Ephesians 4:11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Answer 9

God will under no circumstances push you the way this individual is pushing you or forcing you to do those issues. If God particularly wanted to be extra religious, then he will deliver you a delicate reminderand it particularly is going to be your self which will decide to do those issues.....yet you do no longer could do all this to be on the factor of God, he's with you often in spite of wither or no longer you study the bible ect.... Be sturdy and use the corage that God gave you to say no to this individual

Answer 10

Yes. The more you read it, the more you'll know. On condition you read it all. No such thing as half a book. Especially about today ... and especially about tomorrow. It's how things are done now. Here. You'll definitely need this, either online or hard copy:

http://www.eliyah.com/lexicon.html

Answer 11

good observation,but to answer your question no you cannot follow christ simply using the bible,the bible itself goes against this concept,although many say you don't need church they are wrong,it is the church(catholic church) that gave us the bible not the bible that gave us church and so by this you can see the importance of the church and apostolic tradition and succesion. the roman catholic church has this unity because it understands these truths. here are some sites that may be of use for you

catholiceducation.org
scripturecatholic.com
catholicism.about.org
fisheaters.com
salvationhistory.com

god calls us into union as one,the church is union with the body of christ,the buildings are the visible unions, not all who are christian are in union about the teaching of christ and so it is wrong to negate the call of christ for us to be in union and not go to church.