Fake-ianity – Counterfeit Christianity For Modern Man

fake false counterfeit church practices

“Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”
[2Timothy 3:5]

Fake-ianity? What’s that?

Fake-ianity is imitation Christianity… Christianity without meat, superficial at its best, counterfeit at its worst. Another name for it is “churchianity”. How do we know if we are involved in fake-ianity. Well, there are some very obvious signs. For one thing, it involves fake fellowship, fake worship, fake discipleship, fake communion, fake evangelism and a fake gospel…

Fake fellowship:

Sitting in rows, staring at the back of people’s heads – people who are supposed to be your spiritual brothers and sisters – and only talking to any of these “brothers and sisters” for a brief fraction of the times that you meet, and rarely going to one another’s homes to spend any quality time together like you would with your family members. So much for being “the household of faith” [Galatians 6:10].

Fake worship:

Playing “Simon Says” with a paid professional master of ceremonies, and calling it “not forsaking the assembling of each other” [Hebrews 10:25]. It is amazing how many people think this is how God wants to be worshipped.

Fake discipleship:

Having one guy – who has been indoctrinated by a seminary – teach everybody else, in large “sterile” groups without ever letting anyone interact and get to know each other or their gifts, talents and shortcomings and without letting anyone question or correct the big shot – the “untouchable” guy up front.

“The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?” [Jeremiah 5:31]

Fake communion:

Drinking a thimble full of grape juice and eating a crumb broken off of a cracker in some cavernous building that nobody lives in, instead of eating a real fellowship meal in one another’s homes where you might actually have an opportunity to get to know the people you’re going to be spending eternity with – the people your Savior said you’re supposed to lay your life down for [1John 3:16].

Fake evangelism:

Inviting people to fun “events” in your formal special-purpose buildings where your fearless leader tells everyone that Jesus loves them and “all ya gotta do is accept Him”. Forget about hell [Luke 12:5], repentance [Luke 13:5], and the fact that God hates the workers of iniquity [Psalm 5:5]. And forget about getting out of your comfort zone and actually sharing the gospel with people you meet out in the marketplace [Luke 14:23].

Fake gospel:

Telling spiritually dead sinners [Ephesians 2:1] that they have a free will to choose Christ when in fact God says their wicked sinful hearts are incapable of turning towards Him, until and unless He FIRST takes out their heart of stone and gives them a heart of flesh [Ezekiel 36:25-27]. The fake gospel declares that lost sinners are not as lost as God says they are. The fake gospel puts sinners in charge of their own salvation when in reality, Jesus is the author AND finisher of one’s faith [Hebrews 12:2] and the sinner is completely at the mercy of God [Titus 3:5] and without hope for all eternity unless God in His good pleasure decides to grant salvation [Acts 11:18] to the blind, deaf and dumb rebel.

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils” [1Timothy 4:1]

Why settle for fake-ianity when you can have the real thing?

That’s right! Not only can you HAVE the real thing, if you are a true believer in Christ, you are COMMANDED to worship God in spirit and in truth [John 4:24].

True Fellowship:

Meeting in one another’s homes, praying for one another (not according to some formal prayer list that you forget about after you depart from one another), bearing one another’s burdens (helping each other out like family members).

True worship:

Obeying God even when it is difficult, not just when it is easy. True worship is rooted in obedience to God according to scripture and praising God and thanking God even outside of the four walls of a church building.

True discipleship:

Making it your OWN responsibility to continually learn more about scripture and constantly sharing what God teaches you with others, not depending on some paid professional to spoon feed you whatever he feels like talking to you about.

True communion:

Having a real meal during which you break bread and share the fruit of the vine in remembrance of what Christ did for His Bride at Calvary and in anticipation of the coming wedding feast of the Lamb [Revelation 19:9]. You should certainly expect the marriage supper in heaven will include a whole lot more than a cracker crumb and a thimble sized glass of grape juice. You can be sure that the marriage feast at Canaan [John 2:9] included more than that and the “last supper” included more than that.

True evangelism:

Personally sharing the gospel wherever God puts you, right where you are at for that matter, not leaving it to the professional evangelists. Warning everyone you can – about God’s coming judgment and wrath – and pointing them to the only remedy for sin and damnation, the only Savior and God, the Lord Jesus Christ.

True gospel:

Telling sinners they are lost and without hope and completely at the mercy of a God who hates sin AND sinners [Psalm 5:5-6, Psalm 11:5-6]. Letting them know that they are totally unfit for a place as holy and sinless as heaven until and unless the God of that heaven grants them salvation through the power of the Holy Spirit and the preaching of God’s word.

And who really does things the “true” way? Not many, but there is a remnant – the true church, the persecuted church, the underground church, those who are true sheep and who are capable of discerning true worship from false, true fellowship from false, and sheep who by God’s grace can tell the true shepherds from the hirelings:

“This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which he spake unto them. Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.” [John 10:6-14]

Lastly, there are a lot of seminary professors who need to read Matthew 23:15, examining themselves in the light of Scripture to see if it applies to themselves:

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.” [Matthew 23:15]

Christianity was never meant to be a career, but a way of life, for both fisherman and tax collector, tent maker and physician. Church was never meant to be a business nor a building, but rather a coming together of like-minded, blood-bought followers of Christ, seeking to worship Him “in spirit and in truth” in the humbleness and intimacy of their own homes, not in some sterile building that only serves to insulate people from each other. But just as the governments of the world seek to dumb-down their citizenry to better control them, we see the institutional church wants dumbed down congregants who can be coaxed every week into keeping the machinery oiled, caring very little for the needs of the sheep – being preoccupied with maintaining the status quo.

So why don’t people just abandon fake-ianity? Well they either aren’t really saved, and thus have no hunger and thirst for the genuine things of the Kingdom of God (and so counterfeit religion is just fine with them), or else they figure it just costs too much… they’ll have to get too far out of their comfort zone and stop being pew potatoes and start reaching out the the lost and to their brothers and sisters in Christ. Or in the case of church leaders, they’ll have to get a job where they have to deal with people who might actually not like real Christians who want to live, talk and act in God-glorifying ways.

What Exactly Is A “Worship Service”?

Most conventional churches practice something they refer to as a “worship service”. It is nowhere described in the Bible but it is carried out every Sunday (or Saturday for the Sabbatarians) in just about every so-called Christian church around the world, except perhaps in some persecuted, underground churches and a few other churches that have broken away from the “status quo”. What most folks call a “worship service’ is a routine that is most likely patterned after the Catholic church or various ancient pagan religions.

The purpose of this article is not to offend the many dedicated pastors and elders who work tirelessly to serve their congregations, thinking they are doing what God wants them to do. But it is meant to get people to see the unbiblical nature of this very common practice that few folks ever seem to question – in order that the saints of God may learn a better way of “doing church”. If fact, I think it is safe to say that it is the desire of our Lord that church leaders not work so hard… when what they are doing is actually counter-productive to the health and spiritual growth of the flock. Instead, shouldn’t the most mature believers in any local body be delegating and disciple making and striving to provide an environment where fellow believers can best recognize one another’s needs and best make use of their gifts and talents?

So instead of mindlessly going down the same road week after week, lets stop the cart we are on, for just a brief moment, and stand back from the road and take a look at the “big picture” and not just all the “parts” that we seem to get so preoccupied with. Maybe, just maybe, many of the problems that church leaders and church members experience (bad doctrine, incorrect practices, being tossed to and fro, needs not being met, gifts not being utilized, feelings of isolation, etc.), are the result of worshipping the Almighty according to man’s ways instead of according to God’s way. So lets take a look now at this thing called a worship service…

An analogy of a “worship service”

Usually on one specific day of the week (typically Sunday) and usually in the morning, shareholders (church members) and chairmen (church leaders) gather at corporate headquarters (conventional institutional church) for a weekly meeting (worship service). Headquarters is usually a fairly good sized special purpose building that the shareholders have scrimped and saved to purchase for the sacred corporate ceremony carried out every Sunday. This building usually represents a huge investment in time and money – often vastly more money than is spent on evangelistic missions and any local evangelism efforts.

The chairmen of the corporation frequently remind the shareholders to not forget to invest in this money-pit (I mean… the impressive headquarters building). In fact, based on the proportion of time and money spent, the support of the headquarters building is often given far more preeminence than the lost souls in the neighborhood and the needy in the local congregation.

When “worship” day rolls around, all shareholders (attendees) file neatly into rows of seats (pews) politely greeting other shareholders (parishioners or congregants) yet being careful to not go beyond superficial statements about the weather and such, so as not to disrupt the atmosphere of the upcoming solemn – and strictly business – shareholder meeting (worship service). The CEO (pastor) arrives and stands up at the podium (pulpit) in the front of the shareholders and begins a ceremony known as “corporate Simon Says”. This is an roughly an hour or hour and a half long activity where the CEO tells the shareholders what to say, what to do, when to sit, when to stand, when to sing, and steps aside occasionally to allow chairpersons (duly elected elders or deacons) and a few designated spokespersons to entertain the shareholders.

At some point during these weekly shareholder meetings the CEO requests visitors to fill out a small printed form (“visitor card”) so the chairpersons can contact the visitors during the week to see if they wish to become shareholders. The chairman then invites all shareholders and visitors to engage in momentary greetings and handshakes (pretend fellowship) by standing up and saying hello to all the people in the immediate vicinity around them, whose names they probably don’t know and whose names they probably will never know. This greeting process is conducted as rapidly as possible, so that shareholders do not have to wait for a reply to “How are you?” before moving on to the next person being greeted.

The anonymity afforded by this arrangement is a wonderful feature of these corporations, protecting shareholders and chairpersons alike from nasty things like accountability and involvement in the lives of other shareholders and from having to get too personal with any “visitors”. If the process begins to take too much time, the CEO will make a motion to the piano player or organist to start playing some music to get people to snap out of whatever state of friendliness they have gotten into… that is, if they have gotten too friendly and talked too long to any particular individual. If the corporation does not have a piano player or organist, the CEO will simply step up to his microphone and start talking about something (anything) so that the shareholders will not get too carried away with their pretend fellowship.

Thanks to the fake fellowship, the shareholders remember they are all part of one big happy corporate team, which makes a perfect time for the CEO to encourage shareholders to invest in the corporation. At which point a special container is passed around and the shareholders gladly deposit their investments (tithes & offerings) into the container.

Assuming the corporation is large enough to warrant specialized vocalists, the corporate entertainers (the choir) may be called upon at this point to do their musical routine to liven up the meeting and to make the shareholders feel like they are getting their money’s worth for the time and money they invest in the weekly corporate meetings.

The CEO usually spends about a half hour to an hour telling the shareholders what the corporate instruction manual (the Bible) says so the shareholders don’t have to read it and don’t have to figure out for themselves what the writings in the manual really mean. Also, it would not be good for the harmony of the corporation if shareholders found out that the CEO was wrong about something in the instruction manual. So week in and week out the CEO gives his spiel (pretend discipleship) where no one is allowed to ask questions or challenge the CEO, lest we rock the corporate boat or make the CEO look too mortal, or even worse… lest we have to rewrite the corporate bylaws (our 501c3 constitution or our unbiblical statement of faith).

There is a periodic variation to the format of the corporate worship services. Typically once a month, a special event is included in the corporate meeting agenda. A “pretend meal” is served. This is also known as corporate “communion”. This pretend meal consists of corporate cubes of bread – washed down with corporate shot glasses filled with precisely metered samples of corporate grape juice. Everyone is very quiet and solemn during this ritual, thinking that this is how their supreme CEO in the sky wants them to behave on his behalf, when in truth, HE uses words like “Father” to describe himself and what he really wants, is for His children to know each other as if they were brothers and sisters, which might actually require that they visit each other’s homes and have real meals together… on a regular basis. Sounds awfully “quaint” nowadays does it not? Probably stifles “growth” too, right? After all, if the shareholders actually got to know each other, they probably wouldn’t like each other and wouldn’t come to anymore “shareholder meetings”… oops… I mean “worship services”.

The shareholders know precisely when their corporate meeting ends… The CEO recites a few solemn sounding sentences (many CEOs like to use Numbers 6:24-26 for this purpose), and the shareholders sing the corporate song and then file out of the corporate building making trite comments to people whose names they may or may not know and whose houses they have never visited and whose problems and concerns they know nothing about and probably care nothing about since such information is of no real value to the bottom line – the perpetuation and prosperity of the CORPORATION!

Finally, the CEO or some other chairperson turns off the heat or AC and then shuts off the lights, ensuring that shareholder funds are not squandered on keeping the shareholders too comfortable otherwise they may end up staying too long and have meaningful conversations that might lead to real relationships, which would probably cause all kinds of havoc for the CEO and chairpersons… they might even end up without a job (at least one that draws a paycheck from the shareholders) if the shareholders got too friendly and too independent from the chairman.

And so ends a typical “worship service”.

Somehow the shareholders never get around to studying their corporate instruction manual (the Bible) on their own, especially regarding ecclesiology, else they would have learned that they were never supposed to form a corporation and never supposed to play “corporate Simon Says” each week. But rather they were supposed to conduct their meetings like family reunions. Their ritualistic meals should have instead been patterned after the kinds of dinners they have with intimate friends. But, just like in chapter 4 of the book of Genesis, we don’t really want to be our brother’s keeper, unless it is easy to do so and unless we can do it “our way”. But it is never easy to do so, if we wish to really “worship” God the way He commands and desires us to worship Him. Just as husbands and wives may prefer to love their spouses the way they want rather than the way the spouse wants to be loved, likewise, the sin nature in believers wants to worship God the easy way. But this is how God wants to be worshipped:

“If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” [1John 4:20]

“Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” [1John 3:16-18]

What is really “worshipped” during these typical “worship services”?

What happens at these gatherings usually consists of people putting into practice the commandments and doctrines of men, man-made ritual, and the flesh – and its desire to feel it has done its religious duty… none of which has anything to do with what Christ was referring to in John chapter 4 about worshipping God in spirit and truth:

“YE WORSHIP YE KNOW NOT WHAT: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipper shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” [John 4:22-24]

Do you really think that God is happy that His children are singing lovely songs and listening to a “great sermon”, and yet they hardly know anything about most of the people around them in church? What are believers supposed to do when they gather together? How about: doing things that engender meaningful relationships, such as the things we see mentioned here in scripture:

“Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” [Gal 6:2]

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” [Col 3:16]

“And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.” [ Acts 2:42-47]

If I have stepped on toes or incited a riot, good! That is usually what it takes (i.e. a lot of prodding and cage rattling) for Christ’s sheep to get back on track to where they are really supposed to be when they are far off track.

“My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace.” [Jer 50:6]

“Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.” [1Cor 1:1-2]

We are to shun the profane rituals of the world and its religiosity and man-pleasing pomp:

“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” [2 Cor 11:3]

In fact, by *properly* adhering to the “regulative principle” of worship, Christ’s bride should find itself acting a whole lot different from the world, not only when they gather together to break bread and fellowship, but also when out in the world among those who are unsaved. Also Christ’s bride should not be satisfied with the superficiality of “churchianity” (i.e. counterfeit religion). But there is MUCH to unlearn for those of us who have been in that system most or all of our lives. Old habits die hard! May God richly bless YOU as you seek to worship Him in spirit and in truth!

SEE ALSO: