The Church of Your Choice
Hemant Mehta, a 22-year-old atheist and leader of several secular organizations, has offered to go to church one day for every ten dollars bid on Ebay. He will attend the church of the highest bidder's choosing. He promises an open mind, assuring his bidders that he will change if the evidence warrants it.
Off the Map (OTM), a non-proft Christian organization dedicated to "making evangelism fun," took Mehta up on his offer, winning the bid at $504.
Now that OTM has bought an atheist, an interesting question arises: Where do we send him to church? Instead of making the choice themselves, OTM is giving their readers the opportunity to weigh in.
The religious culture of this country is galaxies away from God's original plan for church membership. He never intended for believers to have a choice as to what church they should attend. Surely He never meant for us to be buying conversions.
The divine plan, as it is explained in Acts 2, is as follows: "So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls...And the Lord added to their number ["the church," KJV] day by day those who were being saved" (vv. 41, 47).
Can God approve of denominationalism while maintaining this control over the borders of His kingdom? Does He choose churches for His children as the Holy Spirit apportioned miraculous gifts (1 Cor. 12:11)--this one goes to the Baptist Church, that one to the Methodist, this one's a Catholic, ad infinitum?
Christ is the head over "one body" (Eph. 4:4-6), and He is the Savior of that body (Eph. 5:23). Instead of waiting in the cafeteria line of denominationalism, believers ought to be concerned about getting into the church Christ built by following the words Christ spoke (Mt. 16:18; Acts 2:38, 41; 1 Cor. 12:13).
Oh, and one more thing: Is it really possible for an non-believer to be a member of a church? Never before has the cart been this far in front of the horse!
