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building God's people - not buildings
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                THE CHURCH - WHAT IT IS AND IS NOT

William Branham Message to The Bride Page

For the first fifteen hundred years of human history there is not the slightest indication of a building of any form in which to meet and worship God. Adam and Even communed with God in a relationship of innocence and holiness in the out of doors in the Garden of Eden. Enoch “walked with God” (Gen 5:24) without having a religious building to go to. Abraham, the great man of faith and father of all who live by faith, related to God in a wonderful and pure relationship, without a religious building. Jacob, the father of the twelve tribes of Israel, lived a long and rich life of intimate relationship with God without a religious building in which to meet and worship God. These early patriarchs and pillars of faith along with hundreds of thousands of God’s people for centuries never had any religious buildings. They lived in daily fellowship with God, relating to Him in the ordinary affairs and places of everyday life.
Then the children of Israel went to Egypt where they were slaves for hundreds of years. When they came out of the darkness of pagan Egypt, in their ignorance of not knowing how to relate to God in a personal way, God taught His people to relate to Him through the tabernacle. The tabernacle was a portable tent and a temporary means by which the people could be aware of the presence of God among them. Such a physical structure was only necessary because of Israel’s ignorance of God due to their many years in paganism. Those were dark and pagan days. We need to go back to the ways before Egypt, when people related to God in purer and more personal relationships.
Both the tabernacle and the temple were temporary structures for a limited time and purpose in the history and development of God’s people. They served as places for animal sacrifice for sin until Christ the final and complete sacrifice came. Even when the temple stood in Jerusalem as a place for sacrifice and offerings to God, most of the people lived a great distance away and they related to God daily without relying on a building in which to worship.
The tabernacle and the temple were temporary physical structures representing the presence of God until the actual reality of God’s presence came to dwell among us in Christ. God did not initiate the idea of building the temple. It came from David and Solomon and then God gave the detailed plans because this was what the people wanted (2Sam 7:1–7).
Now that Christ, the perfect, complete and final sacrifice for our sins, has come, we no longer need the tabernacle or the temple in which to offer sacrifices to God. God’s Word, the Bible, says we the people of God, believers in Jesus Christ, are the temples of God where Christ dwells by the Holy Spirit in us (1Cor 3:16, 2Cor 6:16; 1Pet 2:5).
The idea of having religious buildings throughout the land for people to go to find and relate to God comes from pagan Babel and pagan Babylon
  • William Branham Message to The Bride Page
    Babel
    Notice the similarities between Babel in Genesis 11:2–9 and churches today.
    The people settled in one place (Gen 11:2) instead of, “filling the earth” (Gen 1:28), and as the New Testament tells us to do, “Go into all the world and proclaim the Good News” (Mark 16:5). Christians are meeting together in the comfort of church buildings instead of going out into the world to confront sinners with the good news of forgiveness.
    “…come let us make brick…” (Gen 11:3).
    Here we see two things: 1) human resolve to do their own thing instead of resting in God and just doing what He tells us to do, which is usually easier and always better; 2) the people hunted in Genesis 10:9 and became the servants/slaves of Nimrod, making bricks for his city/kingdom (Gen 10:10). Today people are slaves of religious systems, working and paying for church buildings, etc. Many people are in bondage to man-made religion which is difficult versus Jesus’ way which is humble, restful and easy (Matt 11:28–30).
    “And they had brick for stone…” (Gen 11:3b).
    Babel was made out of man-made human products instead of God-made natural things; made out of the things of the earth instead of heavenly things. Babel is the product of the kingdoms of men versus the kingdom of God. Physical church buildings versus the spiritual body of Christ creates an attitude of material, earthly and passing values instead of heavenly and eternal values. There’s a mystery here. The mystery is that religious people who do not really know and follow God spiritually prefer to make physical man-made religious buildings instead of allowing God to dwell in them and live by His life within. We gravitate toward what we really are, mere temporary physical beings or eternal sons of God, the temporary kingdoms of men and this world or the eternal kingdom of God. The bodies of true Christians are the temples of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit (1Cor 6:19).
    “Let us build a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth” (Gen 11:4).
    People still erroneously try to reach God through physical towers, physical church buildings, sometimes with steeples reaching toward heaven like Babel.
    God is not found in a religious place any more than He is found anywhere else. (John 4:21) Jesus said, “…true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23) The Spirit     of God can and does reach people anywhere if hearts are open, honest and really ready to come to Jesus Christ for salvation.
    While people build and attend church buildings to find God, the Bible tells us of a better way. The better way is: “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27). God inside of you, not in a physical building. The same wonderful truth is taught in John 15:5 and Galatians 2:20.
    And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth” (Gen 11:4).
    Notice that this is in direct disobedience to Genesis 1:28 and Mark 16:5. This is an example of trying to establish central control over all mankind through the use of a central, religious building. The building was to be famous—there would be “nothing else like it”. But this is a man trusting in self instead of trusting and obeying God. Trusting in man brings a curse (Jer 17:5) but trusting in God brings a blessing (Prov28:25).
    “And from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth” (Gen 11:8). God cursed the Babel project by making different languages so the people could not understand each other. Their communication sounded like “babel” to each other. Just as God scattered the people abroad in Genesis 11 to fulfill His command (Gen 1:28) so He is using confused and imperfect churches to accomplish His great commission (Mark 16:15) today. However now in these last days God wants to do a higher and better work than ever before. God wants us to come to Him through the Living Lord Jesus, not a dead religious building.
  • William Branham Message to The Bride Page
    Church Buildings
    The Bible pattern for church meeting places is in the ordinary homes of believers (Acts 20:20; Rom 16:5; Col 4:15; Phil 2). The early Christians related to God in natural everyday living situations, not religious buildings like the pagans. Special larger meetings involving several home churches can meet in rented halls or buildings (Acts 19:9). Avoid religious property which leads to church idolatry.

    The Apostle Paul once spoke to a group of women who gathered to worship at a river (Acts 16:13)—similar to a park of our day.
    God wants you to relate to Him in a personal and vital relationship and with other believers in every day situations and homes of people. However, in the fourth century, Christianity became paganized under Rome and religious buildings became a way and place to worship God, and this wrong practice is with us to this day. Millions of religious people still think in terms of worshipping God at “church” buildings like the heathen Babylonians did.
    Beautiful church buildings create a false spiritual atmosphere, a man-made awe or reverence, created by architecture, stained glass windows, etc. It is a false religious spirit, not the Holy Spirit     of God. It is a substitute spirit for the Spirit of our true and living God. God wants you to relate to Him daily and moment by moment in a natural and living way through Jesus Christ.
    The Lord Jesus Christ didn’t have a preaching/teaching center and neither should we. Jesus never instructed anyone to build a church building and thus we have no basis for building them. Jesus rebuked Peter for wanting to build a religious structure. We should do as Jesus did and as he instructed us to do. We are told to go to people in the world to tell them the good news, not invite them to a church building (Mark 16:15).
    Meeting in a larger than home sized building is not wrong in itself. Paul met in a rented hall in Ephesus where there were several home churches. It is having institutional type church meetings, whether large or small and either in a house or in another building that is wrong because they tend to take the place of a personal relationship with God and with His people. It is sometimes good to have large Christian meetings where several home churches come together for a special teaching, celebration or other occasion.
    It’s the idea of God in a building at a physical address that’s wrong. We must know Jesus, walk with Him, and talk with Him everywhere and all the time, and going to a church building short circuits that personal relationship. Steeples, stained-glass, ornate designs and other architectural elements that make people think “God is here” are all false and need to be discarded. If a larger congregation needs a place to meet, and their own building is the only practical option, it should be no fancier than the members’ homes. God does not “live in the building”—it is a tool for the people.
    Another problem with large church meetings is that some “gifted” brother will come along and try to take control—Nicolaitanism. Every home church must relate directly to the Lord (Master) Jesus. Don’t let some religiously ambitious brother or sister control the church you attend. Go directly to Jesus. Christian apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers are proper and important (Eph 4:11–12), but they should not control the people as in Nicolaitanism, clergy ruling the people (Rev 2:6).
    The time is coming soon when institutional church buildings will either be controlled or destroyed by the end-time adversary of true Christianity. Now is the time to prepare by meeting together in homes.
    Jesus said, “…I will build my church…” (Matt 16:18). Jesus is doing just as He said He would do. Jesus Christ is building His pure and holy Church, His remnant people, who follow and obey Him, not the false prophets and false institutional church organizations and buildings of men. Don’t be a Roman Catholic, Protestant, Baptist, Pentecostal, etc. (1Cor 1:12–13). Be a disciple of Jesus Christ; follow and obey the Lord (Master) Jesus not a religious leader or a church building.
    Your body is the temple, dwelling place of Jesus by His Holy Spirit, not physical religious     buildings of men (1Cor 6:19).
    You are “in church” whenever and wherever two or more of you meet together in Jesus’ name. It is just as Jesus said in the following verse. “For where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst of them”. (Matt18:20).
    The word church is from the Greek “ekklesia—a calling out… assembly…” (Strong’s Greek Dictionary). We are called out of the world to be a people of God, following Jesus Christ and bringing others to Him; being a light for God in a dark world. We are a living church consisting of God’s called-out people, not an inanimate church building.
    The True Church
    Throughout all the errors and apostacy of church history beginning already in the first century God has had His pure and holy church, people not in the compromised religious institutions of men. It is one body, no divisions/denominations of men (1Cor 1:10–13). Christ alone is the Head of His pure Church (Eph 5:23).

    •  *excerpt from William Branham's teachings