Church structures and edifices are our idols and we are idolaters. We esteem the “works of our mighty hands,” as though God Himself built them. Lest we forget, the Lord was provoked to anger when the children of Israel made Asherah poles as symbols of worship (1 Kings 14:15). We have constructed church structures and edifices as symbols of worship, the very thing for which God condemned old Israel. We fail to see that God no longer “lives in temples build by [human] hands” (Acts 17:24). His only sanctuary today is the believer’s heart (1 Cor. 3:16). But try telling the average pew-warmer this. He views his church edifice and its “sanctuary” as holy places, and feels that he must go there in order to worship and make contact with his God.

However, his “sanctuary” is no holier than the building’s restrooms. In Protestant church structures, the table on which the bread and fruit of the vine (Lord’s Supper) are placed should not be regarded as a sacred article. It is as common as our dining room table. Our Catholic friends who bow down to a table before entering their pews are bending their knees to common, ordinary articles, and their priests are kissing a common, ordinary commodity when they kiss the table upon which the “Eucharist” is placed. None—I say none—of these things are holy. The water Catholics dip their fingers into upon leaving their “sanctuary” is no holier than toilet water and tap water.

All of this translates into idolatry, whether practiced by Protestants or Catholics. How in heaven’s name did we ever get this way? Most of the blame may be placed upon the shoulders of the professional clergy. They devise and invent and create and lead and we blindly follow. Are we no longer capable of thinking independently? Where have all the free-thinkers gone? Why have we succumbed to being robots?

Men seem to learn but little from history. Moved with pride, swept with unreasoning fears, in every generation there are those who spend their time and money to erect the same idols and to perpetuate the same errors of their sectarian forefathers. There has never been a human idol erected that did not betray God’s trust and eventually bring disaster to its erectors and their idolatrous followers.

The issue is whether or not we have built church structures and edifices and set them apart—sanctified them—as holy articles or entities. I say we have. If I’m correct, we are as guilty of idolatry as were the children of Israel who erected Asherah poles as symbols of worship. God told Israel in no uncertain terms, “Do not make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourselves, and do not place a carved [consecrated] stone in your land to bow down before it” (Lev. 26:1).

Protestants and Catholics have done just that! Catholics have not only set up “consecrated stones” in the form of church structures, but they have made idols and images and bow down to them. Protestants, on the other hand, have set up their elaborate edifices and crosses and view them as sanctuaries and revered designs. Oh, there may be a few exceptions, but the rule seems to be universal.

There’s an old maxim, “Our heart is where our money is.” If we will but consider the hundreds of thousands of dollars—yea, even millions—that are spent on church structures, designs, religious inventions, and edifices, and compare that amount to the few dollars we spend on seeking and saving the lost and feeding the genuinely poor, we don’t need a professor to locate our hearts. If this isn’t idolatry, I’ve lost my ability to reason.

“When I pastored a church in Indiana, a hot-shot pastor named Bob Harrington came from New Orleans to a High School gym to speak. Rural people turned out by the hundreds to hear him. He had stacks of books and tapes in back, and the first thing he did was to make an announcement as follows: ‘We will sing one song, then we will dismiss for a while as you go to the table in back to pick up books and tapes, then we will resume our services. But before that we’ll take an offering. Now I want you to give generously because we have some leaches and parasites here who will not give anything.’

“Honestly, that is what he said. At that point, my wife and I left the services. Isn’t it amazing how gullible people are and how quickly they will empty their bank accounts to a man who needs lots of money for his ‘ministry’?”—Lacy.

In the late 70s, I attended a one-night stand in a High School gym to listen to Mike Warnke. He had been broadcasting to the Christian community for years that he was once a High Priest in a Satanic cult. The gym was filled to overflowing, for he had made a big name for himself. He had made tapes, written books, and traversed the land as some great orator and evangelist. For some reason, before and after the one-night engagement, I entertained doubts about his credentials and integrity, for I have seen these hustlers swindle innocent but gullible people all of my life.

During the meeting, he asked everyone to get out of their seats and “stand up for Christ.” He wanted to get everyone “worked up” before his oration. He said, “If you do not stand up for Christ, you’re not of Christ.” He prodded everyone out of their seats except another brother and me. We had no intentions of falling victim to his ritualistic stage show or caving in to his rude coercion. I was too much of a non-conformist to bow down to his demand. Still am!

During his speech, he recounted all of his Satanic experiences. They were quite interesting, presented in a charismatic fashion, and heart-breaking. Many in the audience called out “Amens” and “Hallelujahs!” He had worked them up enough that it was time to pass the collection plate. I didn’t donate one penny.

I’ll shorten this story by telling you that a few years later, after he had bled his victims of all of the greenbacks he could hustle from them, an investigator revealed that his experiences were bogus and that he had made up his story to incite and bleed the Christian populace. It worked—at least for a few years, long enough for him to build a fancy mansion somewhere in Kentucky and fatten his bank account.

Thousands of believers were suckered. Thousands more are still being suckered by these fly-by-night orators and TV “evangelists” whose only gods are greenbacks, power, and control. I have never given them a dime, and never intend to. Today, in this age of advanced technology, you’ll find them splattered all over TV and the Internet.

As a side note, look out for those “churchy pledge cards!” Usually, they’re just another way of bleeding you blind so that the “holy edifice” idol can be even more embellished and revered. Instead, let the collection plate and pledge cards by-pass you and send your dollars to help feed the world's poor, as my wife and I do.

All of the above reminds me of those “who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain” (1 Tim. 6:5). Religious swindlers will have to bear the penalty for their corrupted ways. Listen to Paul again:

“Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the [eternal] kingdom of God? Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the [eternal] kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 6:9-11).

The Christian movement is so contaminated with rotten apples that the world looks upon us in disgust. In the meantime, we refuse to be ousted from our comfort zone. The cushions are too comfortable, and we delight in being spoonfed by hirelings who induce sleep by their stagnated food (“sermons”). We are stalemated with no hope of recovery unless we revamp the whole system and start over.

“When I contemplate that we can support a preacher and his family in Africa, India, and several other nations, where hearts are open and receptive to spiritual truths for as little as $50 per month, and we do not because we have a building project for which we must pay out hundreds of thousands of dollars, it breaks my heart. Then the scores of missionaries with whom I am personally acquainted who have been ‘called home’ from the mission fields because they could no longer be supported because of a building program, adds even a deeper sense of incredulity to this topic.”—Jack Outhier.

“In the nearly twenty years since, they have thrived in God’s life together as his people in the community. It has not been easy, nor has it been without challenge, but many of them talked of how their relationship with God really began to grow when they removed the crutch the institution had become. Not having everything planned out for them anymore, they had to listen to God and do the things he put on their heart. They saw their fellowship with each other grow and became available to unbelievers in ways they never had when they were so busy maintaining their structure.

“They saw some amazing doors open in the community. One man from the village was talking to one of the former leaders and said, ‘I feel like I can really talk to you now.’ By removing the baggage from the gospel that had alienated so many people, they found a new openness to share the gospel with others. True life is found in giving up, not in holding on, as we follow wherever God leads us.”—Alan C. Henderson.

“Eventually, the body turned political or corporate, ministry turned professional, and evangelism turned to marketing. We then had to go out and start all over again.”—Bob Chapman.

My whole point has been that our priorities are misplaced. We spend millions of dollars on our venerated structures and edifices—which, in essence, are our idols—and very little on evangelism and feeding the world’s hungry. I shall continue announcing from the mountaintops: We are as guilty of idolatry as were the children of Israel and the pagans of their day. I entertain no doubt but that my analysis is correct.

Please understand that once we have formally “placed our membership” with a church or denomination, we get caught up in all their projects and programs—including the spending of hundreds of thousands of dollars on sacred cows and idols (church structures and edifices). We feel obligated, if not compelled, to support those projects, programs, and endeavors—financially and otherwise—whether we agree with them or not. Pressure, in one form or another, is applied and we feel embarrassed if we fail to “contribute our share of the load” or check the proper boxes on a pledge card.

Because the Christian community in the aggregate has moved from compassion to project, “all hell has broken loose.” Satan is at his zenith when 85 percent of our “church contributions” is squandered on materialistic projects and programs and only 15 percent is spent on evangelism and to alleviate the needs of the world’s genuinely destitute.