The Reason Believers Are ABANDONING Churches NOW
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Those who are born again, and only those, are the Church. Denominations are not the church. Buildings are not the church. Lord Jesus keeps those who are His and He is building His glorious church. I can assure you that whatever Lord Jesus plans, He will bring to pass. We who are born again are already victorious.
I'm happy to see the so-called church falling away. They are mostly make believers. Some believers are mistreated and disillusioned. That's a great shame. But it is usually because of the attitude of the self appointed pastors who treat the ministry like a business. There is too much dead religion and not nearly enough grace and truth. At the other extreme, "church" has become a Christianised rock concert, an hour or two of entertainment that leaves people empty. It's not even milk, let alone meat.
The true church is forsaking formalised religion, not the Lord Jesus. And that is a good thing. Of course, there are exceptions. Those fellowships prosper, the people are taught and blessed and they stay with it.
I abandoned the institutional, 501c3 church over 20 years ago.
On another note, how does one "abandon" what they are?
Voddie Baucham was right about certain things. I've watched some of his videos, my sister told me about him. On the other hand he was a die hard TULIP Calvinist. I can't reconcile that with what the Word teaches.
Someone mentioned being "CATFISHED" earlier in the thread. Well............
Alert: AI Videos Use Prominent Pastor to Push Heretical Teachings
By Michael Austin May 26, 2025 at 4:00am
A suspicious YouTube channel appears to have created and published ~fake sermons~ from conservative evangelical pastor Voddie Baucham using artificial intelligence.
The channel, which is named “Voddie Baucham World,” was launched on March 28 and released over 100 videos since that time, according to a May 19 report from Christian commentary outlet Protestia.
At first glance, the account seems to be a curation of sermons and messages from Baucham, an American minister who until recently was working overseas as the dean of theology at African Christian University in Lusaka, Zambia.
But many of the purported sermons directly contradict Baucham’s well-known Reformed Baptist and theologically conservative convictions.
One fake sermon entitled “What Does the Bible Actually Say About Women Preaching and Teaching” endorses the notion of female preachers.
But Baucham has repeatedly opposed women serving in the pastorate, a stance which aligns with biblical and historical doctrine recognizing church leadership as reserved by God for males alone.
Many of the videos have thumbnails that mimic Baucham’s likeness through artificial intelligence.
~Continue reading the article here if you'd care to: https://www.westernjournal.com/alert-ai-videos-use-prominent-pastor-push-heretical-teachings/
This all seems a bit frightening! I caught the problems with the video and what it taught almost immediately, but these kinds of fake messages will, no doubt, be made to seem more and more like the real McCoy going forward.
~Deuteronomy
Alert: AI Videos Use Prominent Pastor to Push Heretical Teachings
By Michael Austin May 26, 2025 at 4:00am
A suspicious YouTube channel appears to have created and published ~fake sermons~ from conservative evangelical pastor Voddie Baucham using artificial intelligence.
The channel, which is named “Voddie Baucham World,” was launched on March 28 and released over 100 videos since that time, according to a May 19 report from Christian commentary outlet Protestia.
At first glance, the account seems to be a curation of sermons and messages from Baucham, an American minister who until recently was working overseas as the dean of theology at African Christian University in Lusaka, Zambia.
But many of the purported sermons directly contradict Baucham’s well-known Reformed Baptist and theologically conservative convictions.
One fake sermon entitled “What Does the Bible Actually Say About Women Preaching and Teaching” endorses the notion of female preachers.
But Baucham has repeatedly opposed women serving in the pastorate, a stance which aligns with biblical and historical doctrine recognizing church leadership as reserved by God for males alone.
Many of the videos have thumbnails that mimic Baucham’s likeness through artificial intelligence.
~Continue reading the article here if you'd care to: https://www.westernjournal.com/alert-ai-videos-use-prominent-pastor-push-heretical-teachings/
This all seems a bit frightening! I caught the problems with the video and what it taught almost immediately, but these kinds of fake messages will, no doubt, be made to seem more and more like the real McCoy going forward.
~Deuteronomy
John 8
32 You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Voddie passed recently ~ Voddie Tharon Baucham, Jr. (March 11, 1969 – September 25, 2025) R.I.P.
With Deepest Sympathy
People aren't abandoning all churches, just the traditional mainline protestant denominations. People are gravitating to megachurches and charismatic groups that promote ecumenism and nationalism. Ultimately, all roads lead to Rome.
LDS aren't Christians to begin with. They are a cult started by a known false prophet Joseph Smith. The Mormons as they are called after their Book of Mormon which is their canon have a totally separate canon from the Bible that is both at odds with the Bible and reality itself, Finally just very simply they do not affirm the trinity doctrine nor even the whole of the Athanasian Creed, so from a even the most basic understanding of Christianity they are not Christians they're tritheist heretics really if they were classified as heretics but frankly their cult and their canon of fictions about stripling young lads fighting Lamanites in a fictional prehistoric America penned by their false prophet is such a fantastical and absurd canon that really they might very well constitute being a totally separate pagan religion from even a very cold unemotional nonpejorative sense of it. Mormons simply diverge on the fundamentals too much in structure from the Christian religion, even beyond the levels of unbelief of schism, apostasy, or heresy.
While naturally one wants to play the savior of course and heroically destroy their cult structure and false religion and set the captives free you also have to keep in mind there is the trap here and it is simple and recurring and more trending in terms of the topic of the youth generations leaving various cults and more formal religious institutions let us call them. You kinda want them to run away from that cult on a human level of course, but the sad truth is most ex-cultists fall into atheism and degeneracy sins and they don't become Christians when they escape the cults they just become even worse and more radical and if they don't go back to the cult which that pressure will be there of course, they go like the way more rebellious hellchild route and go after other even more wicked and demonic religions and ideologies instead. From the frying pan to the fire as it were. The challenge then is not really crushing their cults and pagan religions for they are self-defeating anyways since it is a false religion. The question is how to pick up the pieces and get them to see the path to the true religion of the true God, the Lord Jesus? To be saved they must understand and believe in the canon of the Holy Bible, the religion of Christianity, affirm the statement of faith the Holy Athanasian Creed, and have some level of understanding not just mere indoctrination of the true theology of God the trinity doctrine; the Father, the Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
While naturally one wants to play the savior of course and heroically destroy their cult structure and false religion and set the captives free you also have to keep in mind there is the trap here and it is simple and recurring and more trending in terms of the topic of the youth generations leaving various cults and more formal religious institutions let us call them. You kinda want them to run away from that cult on a human level of course, but the sad truth is most ex-cultists fall into atheism and degeneracy sins and they don't become Christians when they escape the cults they just become even worse and more radical and if they don't go back to the cult which that pressure will be there of course, they go like the way more rebellious hellchild route and go after other even more wicked and demonic religions and ideologies instead. From the frying pan to the fire as it were. The challenge then is not really crushing their cults and pagan religions for they are self-defeating anyways since it is a false religion. The question is how to pick up the pieces and get them to see the path to the true religion of the true God, the Lord Jesus? To be saved they must understand and believe in the canon of the Holy Bible, the religion of Christianity, affirm the statement of faith the Holy Athanasian Creed, and have some level of understanding not just mere indoctrination of the true theology of God the trinity doctrine; the Father, the Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
The Reason Believers Are ABANDONING Churches NOW
Is it any wonder of Spirit why Believers are indeed ABANDONING false-Churches NOW!
The True Church of God is the CALL from God to come out of her.
Revelation 18:4
And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.
This is what the word 'Church' means.
Revelation 2:18
“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, ‘These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass:
church ἐκκλησίας (ekklēsias) Strong's 1577. ekklésia
KJV: assembly, church
NASB: church, churches, assembly, congregation
Word Origin: [from a compound of G1537 (ἐκ - among) and a derivative of G2564 (καλέω - called)]
1. (properly) a "calling out"
2. (concretely) a called out assembly of citizens
3. (specifically, of Christ) the community of the Redeemed of Christ whether being on earth or in heaven or both
{used only of people, not a location, structure, etc. Of Christ, used only of the Redeemed, not of the unredeemed in their midst}
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance
assembly, church.
From a compound of ek and a derivative of kaleo; a calling out, i.e. (concretely) a popular meeting, especially a congregation -- assembly, church.
see GREEK ek
see GREEK kaleo
HELPS Word-studies
1577 ekklēsía(from 1537 /ek, "out from and to" and 2564 /kaléō, "to call") – properly, people called out from the world and to God, the outcome being the Church (the mystical body of Christ) – i.e. the universal (total) body of believers whom God calls out from the world and into His eternal kingdom.
[The English word "church" comes from the Greek word kyriakos, "belonging to the Lord" (kyrios). 1577 /ekklēsía ("church") is the root of the terms "ecclesiology" and "ecclesiastical."]
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What the world calls "Churches" in Truth are religions.
So a truer statement would be :
"The Reason Believers Are ABANDONING religions NOW" - Is because they hear the voice(True Church) of God, calling them out from worldly religions of carnal man.
Is it any wonder of Spirit why Believers are indeed ABANDONING false-Churches NOW!
The True Church of God is the CALL from God to come out of her.
Revelation 18:4
And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.
This is what the word 'Church' means.
Revelation 2:18
“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, ‘These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass:
church ἐκκλησίας (ekklēsias) Strong's 1577. ekklésia
KJV: assembly, church
NASB: church, churches, assembly, congregation
Word Origin: [from a compound of G1537 (ἐκ - among) and a derivative of G2564 (καλέω - called)]
1. (properly) a "calling out"
2. (concretely) a called out assembly of citizens
3. (specifically, of Christ) the community of the Redeemed of Christ whether being on earth or in heaven or both
{used only of people, not a location, structure, etc. Of Christ, used only of the Redeemed, not of the unredeemed in their midst}
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance
assembly, church.
From a compound of ek and a derivative of kaleo; a calling out, i.e. (concretely) a popular meeting, especially a congregation -- assembly, church.
see GREEK ek
see GREEK kaleo
HELPS Word-studies
1577 ekklēsía(from 1537 /ek, "out from and to" and 2564 /kaléō, "to call") – properly, people called out from the world and to God, the outcome being the Church (the mystical body of Christ) – i.e. the universal (total) body of believers whom God calls out from the world and into His eternal kingdom.
[The English word "church" comes from the Greek word kyriakos, "belonging to the Lord" (kyrios). 1577 /ekklēsía ("church") is the root of the terms "ecclesiology" and "ecclesiastical."]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What the world calls "Churches" in Truth are religions.
So a truer statement would be :
"The Reason Believers Are ABANDONING religions NOW" - Is because they hear the voice(True Church) of God, calling them out from worldly religions of carnal man.
True churches as those described in Revelation 1-3 were assemblies of believers. Some of them were given honorable mention by the Lord in His judgement while He pointed out specific corrective rebukes.
It is true that believers should come out of assemblies which are pastored by those who are lost unbelievers or those teaching gross heresy. That would not be a blanket charge on all churches as some of the letters were Epistles to individual independent churches. Jesus is their Head and commissioned them to carry out His great commission.
ALL Epistles were for ALL who hear the voice of God calling them out of Babylon and her harlots, try researching just who the great whore is and her harlot daughters, maybe then you will discern these truths.
Unfortunately all miss-titled churches are MAN-made. The ONE True Church of God is Spiritual not physical nor carnal flesh, this is given knowledge
excerpt :
The Bible describes the "one true church" as the universal body of all believers in Jesus Christ, not a single denomination. While some denominations claim to be the exclusive "one true church,"
Christian Faith generally defines the true church as the invisible, spiritual assembly of all those who have Faith in Christ. This spiritual church is also referred to in scripture as the "Body of Christ" or the "Bride of Christ"
This is a spiritual entity, composed of all who have been "called out" to God through Faith in Jesus Christ
It is considered to be a unified body where all Faithful believers are one in Christ.
The 'False-churches' of carnal-man according to the Word of God, believe their own delusions that they are indeed the wife of God and the Son, they are in fact widow evident by their bounded-spirit and works of the flesh, they are whores seduce by the secular world of man-flesh politics and religions.
excerpt :
The Bible describes "false churches" as systems that distort God's word, reject the true gospel, and often seek worldly power. The book of Revelation depicts a symbolic "false church" as a harlot, representing a fallen, compromised religious system that has entered an illicit union with political power (the beast) and spreads false doctrine. Key characteristics include compromising the gospel, seeking power and money, lacking true love and accountability, and leading people astray from biblical truths.
Jesus describe them all as :
Revelation 2:9
“I know your works, tribulation, and poverty (but you are rich); and I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
I post this not in opposition, but for others to read and study in Spirit, to either rebuke or cement these Truths in their Spirit.
Since you call all who are not in your cult a whore....
Please point us to your "true church"
Watchtower?
Universalism?
Mormon?
Which is your "true church"?
No dodging or snarky ,petty, scripture weopnizing, (using God's word to curse us).
Just man up and expose who you really are.
Believers are leaving the church bc there is a lot of hypocrisy in church.
So firstly you have politics. And despite the fact that most people believe they're not brainwashed... Most people are brainwashed. The church will cater to the Democrats and liberals to not "set them off." This can make the other side feel very isolated. Really politics doesn't even belong in church but the Democrats are so psychotic now it needs to be addressed.
So what does that look like? You will see a transgender musician singing at church on stage, but a sermon on how a man and woman should not live together before marriage. Or a church that marries 2 men, but tells a man and woman they won't marry them unless they live separately (forcing them to live in their sin).
You will see the typical Christmas sermons with incorrect doctrine such as 3 camels for the 3 kings and not a caravan bringing Jesus treasures. The church is set on making Jesus poor despite the verse saying he was a rich man, yet for our sake became poor. They also preach on tithing but not biblical principles of success to help with finances. They give the illusion Jesus and the prophets were poor, despite so name verses showing Solomon as the richest man alive and Abraham and David and Job and so many others being rich. This is government, not religion.
Preachers often preach or lecture the people. This creates more of an office feeling than a church. So you don't have friends at church, you volunteer at church. While it's good to preach sin as it's in the Bible... Preachers will often preach on the same sins and ignore or gloss over controversial ones. Again bc of the mentally unstable that can't handle it being a sin for a man to dress as a woman. This has never even been mentioned at my church.
People including pastors don't know God as well as they think they do bc most people are very closed minded and don't read the Bible for themselves. Or listen to the news and think it's sacred. When it's not a reliable source people stop listening. I mean we can't even get the Christmas story right....
So firstly you have politics. And despite the fact that most people believe they're not brainwashed... Most people are brainwashed. The church will cater to the Democrats and liberals to not "set them off." This can make the other side feel very isolated. Really politics doesn't even belong in church but the Democrats are so psychotic now it needs to be addressed.
So what does that look like? You will see a transgender musician singing at church on stage, but a sermon on how a man and woman should not live together before marriage. Or a church that marries 2 men, but tells a man and woman they won't marry them unless they live separately (forcing them to live in their sin).
You will see the typical Christmas sermons with incorrect doctrine such as 3 camels for the 3 kings and not a caravan bringing Jesus treasures. The church is set on making Jesus poor despite the verse saying he was a rich man, yet for our sake became poor. They also preach on tithing but not biblical principles of success to help with finances. They give the illusion Jesus and the prophets were poor, despite so name verses showing Solomon as the richest man alive and Abraham and David and Job and so many others being rich. This is government, not religion.
Preachers often preach or lecture the people. This creates more of an office feeling than a church. So you don't have friends at church, you volunteer at church. While it's good to preach sin as it's in the Bible... Preachers will often preach on the same sins and ignore or gloss over controversial ones. Again bc of the mentally unstable that can't handle it being a sin for a man to dress as a woman. This has never even been mentioned at my church.
People including pastors don't know God as well as they think they do bc most people are very closed minded and don't read the Bible for themselves. Or listen to the news and think it's sacred. When it's not a reliable source people stop listening. I mean we can't even get the Christmas story right....
There are genuine believers and there are make believers. Then you have these folks. 
Portland’s Woke ‘Tree’ Lighting Celebration Omits Any Reference to Christmas, Chant "Free Palestine" Instead | The Gateway Pundit | by Margaret Flavin https://share.google/3Ir4S6H38kvEtbVzg
Portland’s Woke ‘Tree’ Lighting Celebration Omits Any Reference to Christmas, Chant "Free Palestine" Instead | The Gateway Pundit | by Margaret Flavin https://share.google/3Ir4S6H38kvEtbVzg
I have a book called" the way of the master" now I'm glad I stuck with my faith and really sight the Lord. This book talks about the false teachings unbiblical. A better life. People buy it. Think they are saved,live a constant backslider. And are worse off"dog returning to its own vomit. They get more calloused against God. It's sad. I was one for a long time. Now I understand about how repentance is a must. Spurgeon talked a lot about the law so did Paul. It's the backbone of the gospel. This book talks about preaching the law to make the conscience aware of sin. Preaching hell. What Christ did to save us from it. It can make real converts. I won't say names but a lot of people know who does all this better life and I am preaching. God help us..And thanks be to the Lord He showed me the truth and the fruit of the spirit is there. Done with a lot of strongholds. I understand a lot more and what true joy is. I be a obedient child best as I can and don't do many certain things ,I'm just very grateful and I want more people to experience what Jesus is all about and feel this inner peace of salvation no one can steal. Just had to share. Peace
out