Do Not Neglect Gathering Together

"And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 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." Hebrews 10:24-25

Hebrews 10:25 only means that Christians should meet together regularly (specifically for encouragement and spurring on to good deeds)—not that the meeting together has to be convenient for large numbers, or that it has to be in a building designated for that purpose.

The government is not causing us to ignore the preaching of the Gospel by their unlawful restrictions. You do realize that many countries do not allow you to build such buildings (which should not exist in the first place; Jesus did not give His Bride a temple to worship in because we are that temple)? Believers in these countries do the same as in Scripture and meet from house to house. "Traditional" does not equal "biblical". Your experience of "church" does not translate to the biblical standard. Your creed, confession, catechism, constitution, statement of faith, system of theology, etc., must be filtered through the Bible—not the other way around. The Bible must be your absolute authority!

If Paul taught the same things in every congregation (assembly; gathering), then why is there such a huge disconnect between what we read in the Scripture and what we have experienced in our various denominations?

If you bother to look into this, you will discover that these departures began with the Early Church Fathers. Let's look at a few:

• The "fellowship" was "the breaking of bread." They came together over a full meal. How'd we get to tiny cups and wafers/crackers/pieces of bread, etc.? The meal was the focal point of their gathering; not a sermon.
• Baptism was done immediately on the spot (not by immersion; circumstantial evidence obliterates this imposition upon Scripture from an eisegetical reading of Romans 6:3-4), regardless of whether their profession was genuine of false. Why? Because baptism, like circumcision, is a sign/seal of being in covenant with God; it is a witness/testimony for or against us. The Early Fathers created longer and longer delays as well as ridiculous reasons as to why it should be postponed, such as whether or not you were married.
• Membership required only one thing: the indwelling Holy Spirit. This has changed over the centuries to the point where joining a "church" (a building, which is often nothing more than a corporation) is like joining a club. Jump through these hoops, agree to this nonsense, and you are in.

Stop ripping random, isolated verses of Scripture out of their immediate context and forcing your ideological beliefs and subjective experiences upon them! You are to conform yourself and your beliefs entirely to the Word of God. The Bible never conforms to you or your perverse desires!

Do You Think It Is Okay For Christians To Be Cremated?

The reason I ask is because years ago I heard Christians discussing it and condemning cremation. Their reason? Jesus would not be able to "rapture" you. Putting the unbiblical doctrine of the "Rapture" aside, there are several flaws with these people's thinking. How many Christians were burned alive for their beliefs? Are you honestly trying to tell me that these extremely devout Christians will not be in heaven simply because someone burned their bodies to nothing? How many Christians were blown to bits and pieces in modern wars? Are you honestly trying to tell me that these Christians will not be in heaven because their bodies were in pieces and much of them could not be found? What about Christians who lost limbs? Do you honestly think they will be resurrected and still be missing those limbs?

Clearly your biblical understanding is limited and extremely askew. Jesus created your body from the dust, and if to dust you returned (as the body does when it rots), He can certainly re-create your resurrected body (which He will have to do anyway since your body will not exist after decades and centuries).

"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)

Yes, our body is a temple, but I am afraid many Christians lack proper understanding of this verse and, like many others, rip it out of context to force it to mean whatever their wicked heart desires it to mean in the moment. If our body is a temple, what does that mean if a mortar shell explodes beside us and rips our body to shreds? Are we any less a temple of the Holy Spirit? "Oh no! Johnny got blown to bits and pieces by a nuke! Guess he's not indwelled by the Holy Spirit anymore. We won't be seeing him in Heaven."

Who says cremation is a "pagan" practice? Pagans buried bodies, too, especially certain types of burials that we seem to mimic. Maybe cremation was the new practice because they needed to preserve land since burial takes up so much space. If you take every graveyard across the world and put them together, how much space does that eat up? Maybe cremation was the new practice to thwart plagues and the like (especially when they did not bury them 6 ft deep). If Christians died from plagues, and their bodies had to be burned so that others would not get infected from it, does that mean that person is lost to history and will not be resurrected and in Heaven?

If from dust we came and to dust we will return, does it actually matter how we return to dust? Something to think about.