Not a church goer.

[Berean]

Do you believe that a person who does not go to church can still be a Christian and be saved?

[Guest Butero]

2 minutes ago, Berean said:

Do you believe that a person who does not go to church can still be a Christian and be saved?

Yes.  I am not saying we shouldn't go to church, but going to church doesn't save you.

[Neighbor]

1 hour ago, Berean said:

Do you believe that a person who does not go to church can still be a Christian and be saved?

Good Question! There is indication of an answer within the inspired by God letter of Paul, to the  Christian Hebrews, about God's instruction  and encourgement in the matter.

From that particular encouragement from God via Paul's inspired writing I certainly see a very deep failure to heed  and to please the saint's master is being demonstrated in the  professing bond-servant that does not do as  the master encourages and commands.  

In general I think not attending corporate worship if physically possible reveals the very heart behind  the tongue that speaks and, indeed wags against the church bodies as often as an audience  can be found will listen to it. It wags  against the local bodies of Jesus  and refuses to submit to God and enter into His gathering places where the Holy Spirit is present among the saints.

The "habit" of not attending church worship gatherings seems  (to me) to be a refusal that makes God very sad if not quite angry. No servant can prosper in their missions (as a  professing servant of Christ Jesus) by angering their master. Generally angering and disappointing one's master generates a rebuke if not  a severe punishment from their master.

 I personally  think the deliberate  non attender of the Churches, the one that makes one excuse or another that God's local body is beneath him or her and does not serve God well is seriously deluded; perhaps even turned over to those self delusions by God to their suffering, and even eternal shame. Especially so, if the non attender feels it their mission to upset and  discourage other saints from attending corporate worship. Those  are not just a lazy saints, they are railers against God and the comforts manifested by the Holy Spirit at the corporate worship gatherings the local church service.

As for myself, I will rather attend  the poorest excuse of a church and become wonderfully blessed for it, blessed for the obedience if not the grandest of presentation of God's word, than to puff myself up ( as I have done) in my own pride trying to sell God the idea that He has not or cannot make a local body anywhere near to me that is good enough  for my presence. I will become gravely concerned that I am  not exhibiting the characteristics of a grateful servant, and that if I am not, the problem is with me, and that perhaps I am not saved afterall or that I am suffering under my own delusions.

Further, for that reason,  I will desire to have little or nothing have nothing to do with the proclamations of any person claiming to be a bond-servant of Christ that cannot attend and worship at a house of the Lord Jesus using as their excuse by their own thinking, that there is no good house of Jesus today. For that  is  a ministry of distraction, not born of my Lord, but instead of the evil one himself. 

Is such a person saved? Perhaps, but wow such a wayward servant!  I  do not want to suffer their countenance, nor their plight, as they rail against the local bodies of Christ Jesus instead of bringing encouragement to them, and to  other saints that do gather with the Holy Spirit present and praise God, and to partake in the memorial to Jesus.

My own guidance ( and rebuke to me when I raise up with my own excuses) is found for my benefit in  the letter to the Hebrews which includes the following excerpt:  

 For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.  Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?  But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.  For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,

“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
    but a body have you prepared for me;
 in burnt offerings and sin offerings
    you have taken no pleasure.
 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,
    as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”

When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), ⁹ then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second.  And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,  waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.  For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,

“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,”then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”

 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,  by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,  and since we have a great priest over the house of God,  let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.  Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.  And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,  not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,  but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.  Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.  How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?  For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.  Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. ³⁷ For,

“Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay;
 but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back,
my soul has no pleasure in him.”

 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

 

 

 

[p.rehbein]

Some folks are not physically able to attend Congregational Worship Services......has no effect on their Salvation.....IN FACT....those who DO attend said Services have a Christian DUTY to visit such people.

Some folks do not have a Church Group close to where they live that they can Fellowship with.  There may well be some type of Group close, but if that Group is not one the person agrees/identifies with, then they will not go.  As a member of the Protestant Church why would I attend a Catholic Mass if they were the only Church around me?  I would not.  Nor would I go to a Muslim Mosque or a Jewish Synagogue.

Some people do not go to Congregational Worship because they believe it was not a practice in the Early Church.  In this instance, they are wrong.  However, it is also necessary to note that during those times there were precious few buildings set apart as a place of Worship.  The vast majority of Congregations met in the home of a Believer.  In my opinion, the Church at Jerusalem had a separate building because the Congregation there was quite large.  Some hold that it was in the home of a wealthy Believer who had a large home.....but, goodness......HOW LARGE WAS IT?

Anyway........there is ample Biblical evidence that Believers should (if at all possible) to attend Congregational Worship!  Christians should never be about the Edification of Self, but, rather, the Edification of the Church!  And by Church, I mean the Body of Believers!

So, to answer the real question in the OP........Saved?  If they have done what Scripture says to be saved, then... Yes.  Sanctified?  That's a whole 'nudder question......

God bless.......

[Realist]

 

1 hour ago, Neighbor said:

The "habit" of not attending church worship gatherings seems  (to me) to be a refusal that makes God very sad if not quite angry

Even if you go to a "church" some denominations say that if you are not a member of their particular"church" you are not saved.

BTW p.rehbein-How does going to a corporate worship gathering at a local corporate church sanctify you?  Is there a bible verse for that so I can study.   Thanks.

Edited April 4, 2018 by Realist

[walla299]

On 4/3/2018 at 3:49 PM, Berean said:

Do you believe that a person who does not go to church can still be a Christian and be saved?

Could be, although if someone is truly born again not "wanting" to go to church to be with other believers seems a bit strange. Out of character for a believer because we need each other. Different than, say, being stuck in an area with no churches or only dead ones. That happened to me on many occasions while in the military, and it was not an enjoyable experience but the Lord was with me through it.

[Melizza]

8 hours ago, Berean said:

Do you believe that a person who does not go to church can still be a Christian and be saved?

I think it’s important to have a community for fellowship and networking once you are saved. Scriptures tell us that one can have ones back if the other one falls. I also think that we have to know and realise that the “church” is JESUS himself and that we take him everywhere we go, in our hearts and in Spirit.

[Neighbor]

7 hours ago, Realist said:

 

Even if you go to a "church" some denominations say that if you are not a member of their particular"church" you are not saved.

BTW p.rehbein-How does going to a corporate worship gathering at a local corporate church sanctify you?  Is there a bible verse for that so I can study.   Thanks.

Hi,  and welcome to Worthy Christian Forums.

[p.rehbein]

8 hours ago, Realist said:

 

Even if you go to a "church" some denominations say that if you are not a member of their particular"church" you are not saved.

BTW p.rehbein-How does going to a corporate worship gathering at a local corporate church sanctify you?  Is there a bible verse for that so I can study.   Thanks.

Thanks for asking.  Pretty sure I mentioned them, mayhaps I did not.  Read the accounts in Acts where Peter and Paul "laid hands on and prayed over" folks for them to receive the Holy Spirit.  As well, read 1st and 2nd Timothy where Paul states that he "laid hands on, and prayed over Timothy." 

My statement about the Church setting was simply showing ONE way people can be saved and sanctified at the same time.  A person can sanctified in any setting as long as Sanctified Believers "lay hands on and pray over them" in my opinion.

So, read the Book of Acts and 1st and 2nd Timothy, and you should have the answer to your question.

God bless

[Hidden In Him]

12 hours ago, Berean said:

Do you believe that a person who does not go to church can still be a Christian and be saved?

I certainly hope so, cuz I'm sunk if not, LoL.

In my opinion, a church that is not operating in a full array of genuine spiritual gifts is not manifesting true New Testament Christianity (1 Corinthians 12:8–10, 1 Corinthians 12:28).

Does that mean the people in that church do not belong to God? No, of course not. But trying to hold believers accountable to church attendance while ignoring far more weightier matters has a way of making me not all that concerned about people's judgments as to what believers are and are not supposed to be doing.