Finally, we found an Independent, Baptist church that let us partake in communion, and it didn't matter to them if we were baptized in a Baptist church, or not, just as long as we were saved, and baptized, which we are. We went to that church twice every Sunday, and also on Wednesday evenings, and when there were special church events, we went to those, minus Christmas/Halloween/Easter stuff. We don't partake in pagan holidays, so when those things are at church, we home church until those days are past. Often, we home church through the month of December, because of Christmas (Baalmas). We attended this church for a few years.
Does my not partaking in Christmas, Easter, Halloween and more confuse you? Lest you think I'm a Torah Observant, I am not. I don't keep the Old Testament feast days, because Christ fulfilled them. I don't keep the world's holidays of Christmas, Easter, Halloween, etc, because the Bible says not to. If this intrigues you, and you'd like to learn more, take a look in the left hand sidebar, under the section called "Holiday Truths." Nothing but facts are in there, so be ready for some hard hitting truth.
One day, the pastor started a new series, on Pre-Tribulation Rapture. Rapture is mid-tribulation, but I understand that most Independent Baptists hold to the error of pre-trib, and I don't hold that against them. I sat quietly and listened to the sermons. Pastor gave some GREAT scripture passages! It was so much fun! It was urging me and pushing me to study the Word even deeper. I wanted the rapture to be pre-tribulation. If there was something I was missing, or not seeing, then I was confident Pastor would show it to us in this series.
I went home after each church service, and studied the passage he gave in the Bible. However, as I looked at context, and parallel reference passages, I kept finding that even the passages he thought proved pre-trib were clearly showing evidence of mid-trib.
This was a great time to do a series on my personal blog (this very blog website you are reading). I started typing up my studies, then decided to just make each of my studies an article, and share them on my blog. Some of the articles had me so excited, that I shared links to them on my FaceBook page, inviting my friends to take a look, and let me know what they thought.
Little did I know that the pastor read my FaceBook page, and from some of the links I shared, he read my blog. He's a very busy man, with a good sized church, so I didn't think he'd have the time to read little ole my FaceBook or blog. I didn't see any problem in it, though. Sure, I have several articles up that show that I have some doctrinal differences from what he teaches, but I'm an individual. I don't know anyone in that church who agrees 100% with everything he teaches (and I'm still friends with several people who still attend there). I don't personally know anyone at any church I've attended that agree with their pastor on every detail. Frankly, if they did, I'd wonder if they were not thinking for themselves, or were in a cult. No man is infallible - not even pastors. Of course they are going to be wrong on some things. We all are.
Well, long story short, after being denied helping out in areas where the church was asking for volunteers, and being kicked off the church FaceBook page, with no reason given (I never posted there, I just used it as a Church Directory), we were eventually called to a meeting with the pastor. He basically told me to take down my blog, or find another church. Well, there are so many people I have been blessed to learn that got saved from something I've written on this blog. I told him that, and that this is currently part of my ministry for the Kingdom. He stood firm. If I didn't take down my blog, I'd have leave that church. So we left.
We LOVED that church, but if I'm not allowed to come to my own conclusions, from reading the Bible, and think for myself, then that's not a church I should be at, anyhow. It's a great church, and I wish them well.
We didn't know which church we wanted to visit, after that. Once, before finding the above church, we visited another biggish Independent Baptist church in the area. Unfortunately, they were Landmarkists/Lightly Briderists. I asked to speak with the pastor about that after services, but he was too busy, so an elder spoke with me. We went back and forth in the Scriptures, but nothing got resolved. We went to the evening service, and I brought a paper I wrote up, with a list of Scriptures, hoping that the pastor would take a look, and discuss them with me. I tried to give him the paper after evening church. He wouldn't look at it, wouldn't touch it, and didn't know what it said. He got quite mad at me, and seemed very offended that me, a woman, would try to discuss scriptures with him, a man, and a pastor. We never went back to that church, obviously.
Anyhoo, after being kicked out of the church we loved, I confided in a few friends, and one of them suggested I try finding and visiting a Family Integrated Church. I didn't know much about those churches, so I Googled them. From what I read, some of them sounded just right. In fact, we found one that we attended for over a year.
That was the second church I got kicked out of.
More on that, in the next installment...