Are you a religious person?1
How did that work out for you during the "pandemic?"
What did you do instead?2
Was it fulfilling? Did it meet your needs?
If you were able to attend church, did you wear a mask? Did you "social distance?" Were the number of people limited?
Why?
Were you submitting to God, or to something else?
Does God ever submit to anything? Is He not able to protect what belongs to Him? Why did He forsake the churches that were closed during the lockdowns?
What are you doing? Why are you cowering in fear? What do you actually fear?
You of little faith.
Does your church have one of these flags?
What does this flag mean? What does it represent?
What is "tax-exempt status" and what is required to obtain it?
Who actually owns your church?
How is your church governed? What is its structure? Who is really in charge?
What are you actually a part of?
Does "The Constitution for the united States of America" guarantee freedom of religion? What about "The Constitution of the United States of America?" And, what about "The Constitution of the United States?" For whom? Everybody, or just some people?
Is there a difference between those three things in quotes?
What is THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA? Is it a sovereign government... or a corporation?
What about the STATE OF MICHIGAN? The State of Michigan?
CITY OF MIDLAND?
What is a State National? A State Citizen? A Federal United States Citizen (American)? A Territorial U.S. Citizen (British)? A Municipal "citizen of the United States" (Papist)? What are the differences, and why are there differences? Why is this significant? Which do you think you are? Which does the government think you are? Can you be more than one of them at the same time?
Is the name on your driver's license in ALL CAPS? What about your birth certificate? Voter's registration?
Will the NAME on your death certificate be in ALL CAPS? Why, or why not? What does it mean?
Some people know about this. Most don't. Do you?
It's time to do some homework. And, think for yourself!
All glory to God.
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UPDATE, September 29, 2021...
Updated as I have learned more things...
UPDATE, November 23, 2021...
Updated again with some more clarifications.
UPDATE, May 9, 2022...
1 Colin Thompson discusses this in perhaps a gentler way in his article, Why Go To Church? Please bear in mind that my wife had recently died when I wrote this post, although I still believe it is all valid and important.
UPDATE, July 31, 2022...
Please see this earlier post for my discussion about the alternative.
UPDATE, August 21, 2022...
Updates to my Authority post discuss details about the government questions, above.
This is the American peacetime flag. It is supposed to be flown over Post Offices and other government buildings, and was a common sight before the "American Civil War." You can read about it here and here.
I remember seeing gold fringe on the flag in the church where I participated in Boy Scouts when I was a teenager. I also remember it on the flag in the sanctuary of the church my family attended when I was a kid. I thought it was the way things were. I now know a gold-fringed flag is called the "National Colors" and is decorative only. In a courtroom, it gives the only notice that you are in a private Carpetbagger Military District COURT. You can read about the gold-fringed flags here.
Most churches are non-profit corporations. People incorporate them in order to claim tax-exemptions from the Internal Revenue Service / IRS (which are two separate corporations themselves, by the way). This is rather ironic because a church is not capable of operating in commerce and therefore has no 'income,' and without income it owes no taxes on that income that does not exist. It is all a big scam and is about money and control and ownership. Once you register something you give away ownership of it to the entity you are registering with.
Why did I call this post "Placebos?" Because I believe institutional churches do not really do anything, even though most people think they do. I have not attended church for seventeen (17) years, except one time after we came back from Jacksonville. I wanted to share what I had learned, but I could tell there was no interest.
UPDATE, September 6, 2022...
The Law required Israelites to celebrate the Passover in a particular way, and Jesus did that with his guys. The Passover predicted his sufferings and sacrifice, but those things would soon be over. With his "Last Supper," Jesus established an informal way for people to remember him and what he was about to do. They would be able to use simple, common provisions likely to be available during the future persecutions.
Most people have turned Communion into religious behavior. They apparently believe the practice will get them into heaven, but I have always found it to be empty ritual. I took part when I attended church, but I have not been there for many years and I do not miss Communion at all. I rarely even think about it.
Perhaps this is because the Holy Spirit used the idolatry of that ritual to drive me out of the institutional church for good. We had left the group we had been members of and began attending a small, conservative, traditional church. They served Communion about once a month, and it began to trouble me. After about seven months of this, I was led to take my whole family out during celebration of Communion. It was idolatry to me, and the Scripture I had read that morning was Ezekiel's vision of the Glory of the LORD leaving the Temple (Ezekiel 10; 11:22-25). The Glory of the LORD headed east in the biblical account, and so did we -- to where our car was parked. (Northeast, actually, but in my mind it has always been "east." Many of Midland's streets are on a 45 degree angle, and I am a "direction person" who did not notice Ashman Street changes direction at The Circle when I was riding in the car as a child.)
Since then, I have been free from the bondage of "going to church." As I said in the previous update, I took my wife back there on one occasion immediately after I was set free because I wanted to share what had happened, but nobody was interested.
It seems many people have been confused about this from the very beginning, according to the evidence in Paul's first letter to the ekklesia in Corinth. He admonished them about idolatry (1 Corinthians 10:16-22) and disrespectful behavior (1 Corinthians 11:17-34) while they had been eating in remembrance of Jesus. Apparently, they had not been getting it right. This is all we actually hear about the topic of Communion in the Bible, except what Jesus initially established with his guys.
The whole concept about bread and blood requires spiritual discernment, and John demonstrates most people do not understand this and cannot accept it...
"...Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” (John 6:47-58 ESV)
It is understandable people would want to do whatever is required to "live forever," but without the Holy Spirit they cannot understand. People cannot see the kingdom of God unless they are born from above.
Some people may look at those verses of the Bible and think it was "the Jews" who had this problem, but everybody has this problem. Jesus just expected the Jews to understand because they had been given the Law and the Prophets. He did find a few who understood, and they were all Jews...
After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him. (John 6:66-71 ESV)
Jesus certainly wants us to remember him and what he did, but what he really wants us to do is what he commanded. He commanded us to love God, love our neighbors, make disciples, and love each other. Those things will get results, ... results that matter.
UPDATE, January 25, 2023...
Some people may think I have a "spirit of anger" when I write or speak about these things, but I do not believe that is true. I did, in fact, have such a spirit cast out of me on Neptune Beach, so I recognize it is possible, but Jesus got angry at times. He drove out the money changers from the Temple and ripped the teachers of the law and Pharisees for being hypocrites.
Sometimes righteous indignation is appropriate and an expression of love. I've had this "pinned" at the top of my Facebook Profile for eight months. It is there to remind me to do what I have to do. That is why I gave it a green background color -- green for "go" or "proceed".
UPDATE, June 3, 2023...
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Corporations are chartered. When you charter your business or organization you are giving ownership of your entity to the entity you are chartering it with.
If you charter your church with the State of Michigan, then your church is a subsidiary or franchise of the State of Michigan, and the State of Michigan can tell you what to do.
The State of Michigan is a corporation. Its D-U-N-S number is 05-469-8428. It is a franchise of the Territorial United States of America, or whatever they are calling themselves these days. The Territorial USA is chartered through the British Monarch, and the British Monarch is a vassal of the Pope in Rome, despite claiming to be a "Protestant."
So, if your church is a "non-profit," it belongs to the Pope and is Roman. Rome is Babylon in modern form.
The Bible warns us to come out of Babylon.
Why are you a part of it?