When you come to church, you receive blessings from the Lord that you cannot get anywhere else. God has promised that as His church gathers together, He will bless them in a way that is distinct from when they are on their own. Jesus promises that when two or three are gathered in His name, He is in the midst of them (Matt. 18:19–20). The Apostle Paul, speaking of when the outsider comes into worship, says that our prayer should be that he realizes what is always true: “God is really among you” (1 Cor. 14:25). In the book of Revelation, Jesus tells us that He walks among the lampstands, which are His churches (Rev. 2:1). 

1. Because the Bible commands it.
The first answer to that question is the most simple and basic one: because the Bible tells us to! In Hebrews 10, the writer tells his readers of the great privilege that is theirs. Because of Christ’s work, they—and we—have the awesome privilege to come into the Holy Place. He is referring to the Old Testament, where only the high priest was allowed into the Holy of Holies in God’s temple—and even then only once a year. The mind-boggling truth is that we as believers in Christ can come to the Holy God because of Jesus’ death. The curtain has been torn, and our Great High Priest has opened up the way for us to approach Him.
The writer of Hebrews then gives three applications, all of which begin with “let us.” Note that these are addressed corporately to God’s people:

“Let us draw near” (Heb. 10:22). Come and be cleansed by Christ and be forgiven.
“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering” (Heb. 10:23). Stay strong, don’t give up, keep believing this message of hope.
“Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works” (Heb. 10:24). You do not and cannot live the Christian life on your own. In your coming to church, be other-person centered.

The author then issues the command: “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” (Heb. 10:25).
The writer to the Hebrews places our going to church in the context of living out the Christian life—it is simply what Christians do. We go to church because it is for our own good and the good of others. Meeting together is how we keep pressing on as Christians in a world that can easily cause us to lose hope. The danger for the Hebrews and for us is that we neglect identifying with and participating in the body of Christ. It was unthinkable in the New Testament for a Christian not to go to church.
2. Because we are created to worship God.
There is, however, a deeper reason that we should go to church than just that the Bible commands us to. We go to church because of the nature of who God is. He is worthy of our worship and our adoration. The reason we exist is “to glorify and enjoy Him.” God is our Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer.
In the words of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, God is “infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth” (Q&A 4). Those who have been brought into a relationship with this God cannot but want to gather with others to praise Him. We were made to worship Him.
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Creation arguments can also be used to soften the ‘hard soil’ of evolutionary dogma—or to hold helpful discussions with a fellow Christian whose thoughts might be affected by (unnecessary and potentially faith-damaging) compromise with secular science. In either case, it is very important that we do this with gentleness and respect (1 Peter 3:15).

An atheist once declared: “I will believe in God if He turns my red house into a blue one”. He went to sleep that night as usual, but the next morning when he went outside, he noticed that the red paint on the outside of his house was now a deep blue colour.
In such an imagined scenario, what do you think would most likely happen next? I believe (and will seek to justify it from the Bible) that the atheist would probably not shout ‘Hallelujah!’ in newfound faith. Instead, he would most likely declare how amazing it was to see how the environment, cosmic radiation, chemical pollutants in the atmosphere, and perhaps some unknown natural process had effected this transformation in the chemistry of the paint.
If it achieved wide publicity, a multidisciplinary research team might even be assembled to study this unusual situation, perhaps leading to the publishing of scientific papers proposing a number of alternative theories. All of these, of course, would be restricted to purely naturalistic explanations.
The Rich Man and Abraham
Compare this with Jesus’ lesson about the rich man who after death finds himself facing the terrible torments of the underworld (Luke 16:19–31). He sees Abraham who is in the place of bliss, at the other side of an insurmountable gap separating these two very different regions. He asks Abraham to send someone from the dead to warn his brothers so that they can avoid that dreadful destination.
However, Abraham responds, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.” But the rich man counters, saying that “if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!” Abraham replies, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.”
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Through his sacrifice Christ brought the offer of reconciliation to the world, tearing down the dividing wall of hostility. Christ appointed his children as peacemakers; his children have now put to death their hostility (Romans 14:19). Despite their many blind spots, faults, and failings, it has been Christians, the new humanity, who have fought to end racism, slavery, inequality, and every kind of injustice throughout the world for the past 2,000 years. 

First and foremost Critical Theory is, as its name implies, critical of something. But before we get into all of the details we need a little history.
Karl Marx, in his 1848 book, The Communist Manifesto, was critical of the social, political, and economic systems in his day. He simplistically divided the world into two artificial categories. The oppressors were the wealthy people who owned factories and businesses, in other words they owned the capital. The oppressed were the poorer people who worked for the oppressors in the factories and businesses. Marx envisioned a world where the oppressed would rise up in rebellion and take over the factories and businesses so that both groups would be socially, politically, and economically equal.
In addition to his writings on economics Marx was openly a disciple of Lucifer, writing many works in his praise:
“Heaven I’ve forfeited, I know full wellMy soul once true to God, Is chosen for hell”(“The Devil and Karl Marx: Communism’s Long march of Death, Deception, and Infiltration,” Paul Kengor, August 18, 2020.)
Marx taught that because economic and political systems were flawed they needed to be torn down.  He believed that these systems were rigged by the powerful and wealthy to their advantage, keeping the underclasses in subjugation. His solution was to stir up disunity and resentment in the oppressed so that they would rise up and tear down the existing system. The old system would then be replaced.
Marx’ society did not value freedom or equal opportunity, rather he envisioned a society of equal outcomes. No matter where you started out in life and no matter how much effort you put into your life, everyone ended up with the same amount of money, possessions, education, freedom, etc. To make this possible an all-powerful government would be established to redistribute all the resources necessary for life equally to everyone.
The problem that the Communists faced was that everywhere Communism was tried it was discredited as a violent, non-functioning, failed economic system, that brought the world nothing but servitude, genocide, and crushing poverty. And this makes sense because God designed man to be free and God designed an industrious and entrepreneurial economic system that included private property rights. As a result, the masses of people that Marx identified as oppressed never rose up, as envisioned, against the people and systems that he identified as oppressors.
To make Communism more acceptable it was repackaged in the 1930’s as Critical Theory. Like Marxism before it, the Neo-Marxists, teaching Critical Theory, seek to deconstruct and tear down all of the traditions and norms of society including systems of power: government, courts, family, religion, individual ownership, and private business. This time, instead of violent revolution, Marxist Philosopher, Antonio Gramsci planned for “a long march through the institutions… Socialism is the religion that must overwhelm Christianity. In the new order, Socialism will triumph by first capturing the culture via infiltration of school, universities, churches, and the media to transform the consciousness of society.”
This process was helped along by Saul Alinsky. In his book, “Rules for Radicals, Alinsky, a Marxist community organizer, laid out the steps necessary to successfully dismantle competing social and economic systems, making way for the Marxist system to be built in its place. This would be accomplished through the use of community organizers. He wrote, “In the beginning the organizers job is to create the issues or problems.” In other words, to dismantle a functioning but flawed system the organizer must sow disunity. Perhaps you have heard the Critical Theorist’s political maxim, “Never let a crisis go to waste.” The organizer, seeking to “create issues or problems” is taught to seize upon any crisis that can be used in disrupting the existing system. The goal is to create a class of people who see themselves as victims. The victims are taught to fiercely covet whatever their “oppressors” have: wealth, power, privilege, property, education, freedom, etc. so that they will tear the existing system down.
Critical Theorists are currently seeking to divide and exploit people by dividing them into many different victim groups. Perhaps you have heard of Critical Race Theory, or Queer Theory, or Post-Colonial Theory, or Fat Studies, or Disability Studies, or Gender Studies, or ageism, or economic justice, or racial justice, or environmental justice. I could go on but though their speech is as smooth as butter, there is war in their hearts (Psalm 55:21). The point is that they want to dismantle the foundations that society rests upon, including the concept of truth.
Interestingly, Alinsky dedicated his book to Lucifer, “the first radical… who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he won his own kingdom.” Lucifer rebelled against the God of truth, and Lucifer’s followers, Marx, Gramsci, and Alinsky, have continued in that rebellion. Objective truth does not exist. In fact, truth is defined as an artificial system, put in place by the oppressors, to keep the oppressed in line.
The new subjective “truth” is whatever advances the Critical Theory narrative. Perhaps you have begun to notice this double standard in regard to truth. When Critical Theorists riot, loot, occupy buildings, and burn, “creating issues and problems” their actions are reported as peaceful speech. In contrast, those who speak up against such behavior are condemned for hate speech and de-platformed from popular social media sites. Or perhaps you have heard that gender is just a social construct, meaning that you may choose your own gender. Or perhaps you have heard that both the family and marriage are social constructs, meaning that anyone or anything can be married; two men, two women, two men four women, a woman and a horse, or any other combination that you may want. Or perhaps you have heard that punctuality, knowledge, reason, loyalty, reliability, science, facts, math, evidence, productivity, virtue, freedom of speech and Christianity are all inventions of the oppressor class and must, therefore, be overthrown.
You don’t believe this? While I could show you many examples, because this is the subject of an ongoing national debate that is infiltrating the church, the following is taken directly from the official Black Lives Matter website:
“We do the work required to dismantle cisgender privilege. Everybody has the right to choose their own gender by listening to their own heart and mind. Everyone gets to choose if they are a girl or a boy or both or neither or something else, and no one else gets to choose for them. We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure,.. We demand the defunding of law enforcement.”
Because the Critical Theorists in the leadership of Black Lives Matter have a catch phrase that everyone can agree with (of course black lives matter!) and because they cleverly claim that they are seeking Social Justice, many Christians are deceived. Social Justice sounds good but because it is really a Marxist term it is counterfeit justice. It opposes God’s true justice at every step, preaching a gospel of hatred against marriage, family, patriarchy, private property, free speech, binary genders, and much more, opposing truth and God’s created order. This amounts to reimagining the world in the image of the father of lies, Lucifer (John 8:44).
Alinsky was correct in connecting Lucifer’s rebellion and the necessity for sowing division in bringing down a society. Lucifer sowed rebellion, convincing Eve, “You shall be like God” (Genesis 3:5). Covetousness is breaking the Tenth Commandment of God. Desiring what you don’t have and feeling like a victim is the path to resentment: the perfect emotion to use in building the angry mob necessary for revolution.
Christians must never make common cause with those Marxist organizations seeking to sow division. In ‘Strength to Love” Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” And what does that look like in practice? Forgiveness. As Christ taught and as James urged his congregation, we must forgive others as God has forgiven us (Matthew 6:12). Christians must never harbor resentment or nurture hatred because of wrongs suffered (1Corinthians 13:5).
Sowing disunity cannot bring unity. Dwelling on hate will only produce hate. But remember, Critical Theory is all about criticism. The Social Justice that the official BLM organization seeks can never produce unity. They intentionally and deceptively use great sounding catch phrases like social justice, racial justice, and black lives matter to gain support for their cause. But they have redefined the meaning of these phrases. “Their paths are crooked, they are devious in their ways” (Proverbs 2:15).
In reality, they don’t want solutions. The Critical Theory end game is tearing down society so that another can be built on the ashes. If they have to foment a race war, recounting past sins and present failures to reach their goal they are willing to do so. They depend on the historical fallacy, re-litigating the historical sins of the past. They do this, not to build unity but rather to destroy. Remember: “The organizers job is to create problems.” They are not reformers seeking to “strengthen what remains” (Revelation 3:2), they are revolutionaries seeking to “destroy even the foundations” (Psalm 11:3).
And not surprisingly, like both Marx and Alinsky before her, BLM founder and avowed Marxist community organizer, Patrisse Cullors, worships Lucifer. Further, contrary to Deuteronomy 18:11, she has stated that she calls on the spirits of the dead victims of racism to give her supernatural guidance in tearing down the system. She reports that she has developed close relationships with the spirits of these people that she “never knew in this life.” She has gone so far as to admit that the chants, “Say her name” and “Say their names” are acts of worship. She stated that when she is able to coerce people to chant the names of her spirit guides she “pours out libations in the street” in worship, to gain “spiritual power and guidance” (The Occult Spirituality of Black Lives Matter, including video interviews with Patrisse Cullors, Melina Abdullah, BLM cofounder, and Nissy Tee).
In contrast, Christians, because we are unified in Christ, are instructed how to work together for true justice, seeing to it that racism and injustice of all kinds come to an end in our lives, in our churches, and in the world. As Paul taught:
“Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility…” (Ephesians 1:12-19).
Through his sacrifice Christ brought the offer of reconciliation to the world, tearing down the dividing wall of hostility. Christ appointed his children as peacemakers; his children have now put to death their hostility (Romans 14:19). Despite their many blind spots, faults, and failings, it has been Christians, the new humanity, who have fought to end racism, slavery, inequality, and every kind of injustice throughout the world for the past 2,000 years.
Christians should continue to follow the teaching of Christ, who entered into our world showing us the way to life: forgiveness, mercy, reconciliation, and peace. We should pursue Christ’s path of love rather than joining with Critical Theorists, whose goals include destroying Christ’s Church. Christians, of all people, are no longer strangers but are fellow citizens, members of the same household. As such, Christians should build up with the truth; not tearing down the culture by embracing the guilt and victimhood based on the Satanic Marxist lies of Critical Theory. To make common cause with Critical Theorists is to throw fuel on an arsonists fire; exactly what they want.
Richard Loper is a member of Chapelgate Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Ellicott City, Md.