Why are the unsaved in the Church?*
Unsaved open in Church
Q: Someone I know posted this on social media and I want to comment on it without being rude 😔.
"Churches say everyone is welcome but they say no to gays. Christianity seems like hypocritical 'men and women' making me want no part in it!"
A: Two Points to address this.
ONE
What has Jesus said about lukewarm churches, idolatrous adulterous churches, & churches who let the unsaved in or seek them?
"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires" 2 Timothy 4:3
It is already here. Do not join them.
Jesus calls churches to repent and reform and confirm to truth as revealed in Scripture.
TWO
There's a few things here that need clarifying to clear up misunderstandings.
*Christians are to share the Gospel and call sinners to repent
*Lgbt people have no interest in biblical churches, so they do not desire to go to a real one.
*On rare occassion an unbeliever might randomly wander into a church and get saved hearing the gospel.
*Lgbt people do not want to hear the Gospel because it truthfully calls their sinful lifestyles sin.
*Unsaved sinners, lgbt or not, only want to judge God and His followers because they don't get their way.
*False converts and long time visitors are in churches & Jesus will separate them from among us in the end, if they don't get saved.
*As a general principle we do not invite unsaved into the church, due to various reasons, but... we might today in modern times invite them to a special event where the Gospel is the focus; Christmas concert, Resurrection Day service etc.
The church though in truth and principle is only for the redeemed. It is a place for God's people.
Churches in the past back to NT church never really had an open door policy. The unsaved typically never knew of nor found a Christian church. But on rare occassion a Jew mightve found themselves there to look into it.
The modern culture tried to just fling open the doors to anyone; and the reason isnt right. It is "for money", pew seats filled = money, and even for any one to gain attention, power, control and again money by holding a "pastor" job. Many in it for wrong motives [and when they dont make enough $ or fame they leave the pastoral career]. It's also why the current general state of the "Church" is far gone full of false converts and non converts. Some entire churches have no saved people in them.
Yet we know by the parable of the sower that there are false converts among the true converts. And in many cases only God knows if theyre saved; the others we can tell from the fruit of their lives.
Q: The unredeemed are welcome in the church right? How else will they become saved?
A: Jesus told us to 👉go into the world and preach the gospel. Not one time were we commanded /shown in Scripture to bring unsaved into the church. We need to know and follow Scripture. Primarily it is by obeying this command.
To clarify:
When I first came across this verse I was very perplexed in light of other Scripture verses (1).
“But if an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!” - 1 Corinthians 14:24-25
Paul, as he is instructing the church in Corinth, makes the assumption that unbeliing Jews might visit the assembly and gives an example of how a visitor would be convicted and desire to get right with God there; in the presence of believers and God. Right then.
Now this situation of course no longer happens as the sign gifts were temporary and to show the Apostles had been the ones with Christ and to the churches until the Scriptures were almost or fully completed. *We can see that [as example] even the Apostles lost the ability to heal later on. (2)
But this is someone coming in who got saved the first time they saw that [sign gift] and heard the gospel. Not some long term visitir being in the church acting like they belong there while they believe in a god of their making(3) and remain unsaved.
So today all we have is an unbeliever seeing the assembled of God and hearing the Gospel through the sermon.
So there's no prescedent for a random stragler coming into the church to visit and 👉stay long term. And 👉there's no teaching in Scripture to bring unsaved into the church. No direction that we are supposed to [as a practice] be purposely inviting the enemy into the Lord's place/the place of the Lord's people. Church is supposed to be for the redeemed. Darkness and light have no part together. However an unsaved spouse might come w their spouse and kids who are unsaved; as a family. And that makes sense.
Go into the world, preach, add to the local church, disciple.
So today an unbeliever might visit a church and see the assembled of God and hearing the Gospel through the sermon and get saved. Again there's no reason they should be allowed to keep coming if they don't get convicted & saved that first day. If they come back then a decon or pastor should meet with them and present the gospel and at that point they submit to God and obey the gospel (and become a member) or leave the church. Because they are livingbin rebellion. Even believers in rebellion of sin refusing to repent are removed from the church.
We do hope anyone regardless of their sins will be saved and join the church. But today if the unsaved are coming in they cause mass problems if they (as strangers) become long term visitors and "act as if they are among us"; get involved in any capacuty in the church as if a member. Esp if the pastor doesnt let them know they cannot. Because members may just assume that person is a Christian having been there so long, and it causes these problems.
Note false believers exist in the church. And ones who believe in a false god they think is the true one. [Making up a Jesus and God they prefer].
An unsaved "randomly coming into the local church" is not the norm. In the verse they were visiting. No unsaved person is a member of a church. The church is for the redeemed. We do not let satan and demon children into the training camp/army of God. Thats why the church is in the mess it is in today.
Its like 🤯 purposely letting an enemy into a training camp to spy and learn our details etc to go out and use against us to win a war. [To explain in war terms]. And allowing them to run amuck and cause endless problems.
We do know there are false converts who are members and that means unsaved among us; parable of wheat and weeds.
For clarity I got counsel from a (solid biblical) pastor friend on this bcuz the idea of making a doctrine out of that verse when the church was horribly persecuted and people found were being executed etc was 🤯 to think we let anyone and everyone into the church...who is not claiming to be the redeemed. Why allow the enemy in? Our job is to GO INTO THE WORLD to preach then add them when saved... not be lazy and bring unsaved in and think its pastors job to reach these people. Preposterous & why the church today is in extreme shambles.
With that said. He noted,
"It says go into the world and make disciples baptising them in the name of the F. S. and H. Spirit. The church building is open to every unbeliever but the “Church Body” the believers is only for those who have put their trust in Christ and follow His teachings. We evangelize lost people (gays lesbians etc any unbelievers) who have not come to a saving knowledge of Christ in the hope that they will.
A church that preaches the true undiluted gospel will either see them saved or they will leave and find another church that embraces them in their sin.
It is true we preach to those who are lost and when a genuine conversion takes place we disciple them by teaching them what we know. We go out to Evangelize and come in to worship. That’s the biblical model."
So that clarifies. There is a clear difference in solid biblical churches. Either they call the unbelievers to repent and be added, or ensure they as non members are not allowed in any leadership nor serving role or activity in the church cuz theyre not members. That is only allowed to members who are redeemed. And as a side note is one reason pastors meet with the believer when they want to join the church either as a new convert, or came from another church (with a letter of prior membership). They interview and counsel the believer, get to know them... and possibly have a "let us get to know you a while to ensure you are saved" vetting period before adding you to that congregation. This is because the pastor is responsible to God for the spiritual walk of every believer he is shepherding at that congregation. And cannot add anyone not having a real conversion testimony and showing fruit that proves they are saved. It is too dangerous.
But note also if we were in a persecuted country like China they would not allow an unsaved (possible spy) to know where they meet. Just like many of the Churches in NT Bible times.
So there are things to consider here. We cannot be flippant about who is allowed in the church and in membership, because of the ramifications.
For those lgbt the difference is their sin is clearly a visible one - by how they look, act, dress and who they come in with. In that situation the decons may need to intercept at some point, and the pastor should be reaching out to them if they didnt get saved in the service that week (and they come back). He should be meeting with them right away to 1. Answer questions they might have about Christianity and the gospel, and discuss why they came to visit, 2. let them know we want them to embrace the truth today. Be clear thst we are a church that preaches truth and do not allow open wickedness in the church; we use church discipline and do kick people out who live in sin -because we love and care about them.
Most won't stay because they do not want salvation God's way; reject truth. They will seek out false churches with false preachers to embrace their sinful lifestyles.
Many have access to solid sermons on tv since the 50's, and all can easily access them and the gospel today internet via the internet. There's no real reason an unsaved person would randomly come visit a church unless they have a false saklation or they were turning to Christ. We need to help both.
As for the true believers, we worship and serve God, and will be ushered into eternity where only the redeemed are forevermore.
Let us make sure to share the Gospel with everyone we can while we can; both to lead others to Christ out of love, and to be good and faithful servants to Christ our Savior. (4)
Related Resources
What is the Gospel
Clarity and guidance on Lgbt
Get equipped to evangelize
Sermons on the topic(5)
Open all links in a new browser window so you can return to this page...
Footnotes:
(1) slew of verses (coming soon).
(2) Debunking modern Charismaticism
* Strange Fire
* Sermons on Charismatic Chaos
*Verse discussed re Tongues
https://www.gty.org/library/topical-series-library/102/speaking-in-tongues
*Clarity from prev msg
https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/1873/the-truth-about-tongues-part-3
Apostles gifts ceased as did the early churches.
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(3) Typical false beliefs about God that people follow, whether in the local church or not, (which means they're idolaters): Everyone goes to Heaven, good people go to Heaven, those who do good works go to Heaven, God is love and never judges, etc.
(4) Sermons related
* Confronting sin in the church
https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/80-155/confronting-sin-in-the-church
*Sexual purity in the Church
https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/80-25/sexual-purity-in-the-church
*Disciplining sin in the Church
https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/1824/immorality-in-the-church-part-2--disciplining-sin-in-the-church
*The Impotence of the False Church
https://www.gty.org/library/blog/B160113
*The Danger Facing the Church
https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/1299/the-danger-facing-the-church
*The Dead Church
https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/66-11/sardis-the-dead-church
* The Lukewarm Church
https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/66-15/laodicea--the-lukewarm-church-part-2
https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/66-14/laodicea--the-lukewarm-church-part-1
* When God Builds a Church/ Unsaved not in it.
https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/1250/when-god-builds-a-church
*Evangelize the World
https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/TMU185/~/~/about
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(5) Get Equipped to Share the Gospel
<<<Return to Believers Resources
Related Resources
Self Examination
Footnotes:
*Christ's call for Reformation, Jmac @t4g
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