I would like to recommend a new book just published by Paul Dohse titled “The Church Lie” (please follow this link to order your copy or read it for free). I plan to provide extended quotes from the book over the next few weeks because I believe the material that Dohse and Young cover is very important.
At the end of this post I list all of the chapters in The Church Lie along with the theses (central ideas) in each one. Why am I doing this? Because their indictment of Christianity as practiced for the last seventeen centuries is spot on. In fact the “Church Fathers” (they are not my “fathers” spiritually or in any other sense) are even worse than Dohse and Young paint them. These men were interested in gaining power over people (the laity) and not so interested in following the Messiah. If you want to follow them then go ahead but they will lead you back to Rome.
The other thing I really want readers to notice is Chapter 11 of The Church Lie where Dohse and Young strongly advocate for a return to the home church model shown in the New Testament. The authors correctly point out that the New Testament model of small, independent churches meeting in homes is very resistant to being coopted by outside groups (like the government). It is my belief that within my lifetime the Bible will be officially declared hate literature here in the United States. Once that happens there will become officially sanctioned (read neutered) translations (an American Vulgate) that Christians will be expected to use. Some denominations will resist but all will be brought under the caring wing of the government in due time. It happened in Rome just like it did in Nazi Germany and, unless God intervenes, it will happen here. Of course God doesn’t need to intervene if we, the family of Christ, would just do what we are supposed to be doing in the way we are supposed to be doing it.
Remember what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: “Do not be surprised when the world hates you for it hated me first.”
Chapter 1: The Church is Not the Body of Christ
Thesis: Church redefines the true Christian identity.
Chapter 2: The Church is Not the Gospel
Thesis: Church, like all false religions, propagates a progressive salvation as opposed to a one-time finished transformation.
Chapter 3: The Church is Not the Assembly of Christ
Thesis: The church has no real history or doctrine that connects it to the Gospels or the Book of Acts. It changed the work “ekklesia” to “church” in order to erase 300 years of history between Christ’s assembly and the institutionalization of the Christian faith.
Chapter 4: The Church is Not God’s People
Thesis: The church is temple worship and salvation by church, not a family operating as a living body. It restricts worship to a time and place, and redefines worship as the obtaining of progressive salvation rather than the practice of love.
Chapter 5: The Church is Not the Elect of God
Thesis: Church redefines biblical election, and makes salvation a matter of choosing a preferable authority for submission. It replaces the only head, Christ, with many mediators who claim to have authority over salvation.
Chapter 6: The Church is Not the Kingdom of God
Thesis: God’s kingdom is not presently on earth as the church claims. God’s kingdom is future. The church is not an overseer of God’s kingdom.
Chapter 7: The Church is Not a Light for God in This World
Thesis: The church presents itself as society’s moral compass as a deliberate ploy to draw people into the church where they will be indoctrinated into a strictly “confessional” religion.
Chapter 8: The Church is Not the Bride of Christ
Thesis: The bride of Christ doctrine connects the church to its Gnostic origins.
Chapter 9: The Church is Not Founded on the Word of God
Thesis: The foundation of church is built upon world philosophy, not Scripture. “Sola Scriptura” is a lie.
Chapter 10: The Church is Not the Love of God
Thesis: Church orthodoxy necessarily excludes the ability of the individual believer to love.
Chapter 11: The Biblical Alternative
Thesis: The ekklesia family functioning as the true body of Christ is the only way to revival. It is a focus on individual gifts cooperating together for a common cause, not a top down salvific hierarchy.