Becoming a Member of The State Church

[Garland-Green]

When I became a Buddhist long time ago I decided to no longer be a member of the church and sent in a form notifying my local church of this. Controversies concerning same-sex marriage has since then divided the church and having debated this the church decided to have two views and that those two views are both to be allowed expression in the church. This is the heaviest weighing reason against becoming a member again. Lies and truth can't live side by side.

However there are other reasons also that I am considering. If the church lose members then the funding the church is receiving from the State per member goes to some other religious organization. By not being a member I am indirectly supporting other religions and the growth of these in Norway. The money the church receive per member goes toward paychecks for both liberal and conservative priests, and towards maintaining buildings and cultural heritage.

A new way and easier of terminating your membership in the Norwegian church has lead to 15.000 leaving the church in just four days.
So far this year the Norwegian Church has received 24.278 messages from people no longer wanting to be a member and 1.369 from people wanting to be a new member. (Source: 'Dagen' - a Christian Norwegian newspaper)

Do you have any advice to give me on this subject? I am praying about it.  

[cristobela]

Garland-Green

By not being a member I am indirectly supporting other religions and the growth of these in Norway. The money the church receive per member goes toward paychecks for both liberal and conservative priests, and towards maintaining buildings and cultural heritage.

So, even by staying, you are supporting the growth of other religions: what those liberal priests are teaching is not the truth of God. Would you rather have lies dressing up as the truth, alongside you, as if both were truthfully representative of God? or that the truth—once and for all—totally be divorced from lies (by allowing the elimination of the idolatrous place of worship teaching false notions of God)?

To continue supporting the liberal priests (lukewarm mixture, neither one nor the other) is worse than allowing something fully pagan to take root in the country, who is at least honest / truthful of its paganism from the inside out, and its hatred of YHWH's Way. It will not deceive anyone about YHWH. (edit: obviously you're not king / have authority over the place to ban paganism).

Consider the example of Jehu in 2 Kings 10:18-36 (the true worshippers of God prevented from congregating with the idolatrous, thus the true worshipers of God left the congregation, allowing God to gather all the evil / deviant in one place, without the righteous present, to destroy the idolatrous from the community—in a mass attack against them. Do not be unequally yoked to them if you don't want to come under the judgment our Heavenly Father sends against them. Judging by appearances, you would think this was establishing pagan religion [Baal worship] in the country, but in a round about way, it was a tactic to eliminate the evil once and for all—and it called for separation, the seeming destruction [loss of power] of YHWH worship, and the "apparent" establishment of pagan religion):

• 2 Kings 10:18-36 (NIV)
  
  18 Then Jehu brought all the people together and said to them, “Ahab served Baal a little; Jehu will serve him much. 19 Now summon all the prophets of Baal, all his servants and all his priests. See that no one is missing, because I am going to hold a great sacrifice for Baal. Anyone who fails to come will no longer live.” But Jehu was acting deceptively in order to destroy the servants of Baal.
  
  20 Jehu said, “Call an assembly in honor of Baal.” So they proclaimed it. 21 Then he sent word throughout Israel, and all the servants of Baal came; not one stayed away. They crowded into the temple of Baal until it was full from one end to the other. 22 And Jehu said to the keeper of the wardrobe, “Bring robes for all the servants of Baal.” So he brought out robes for them.
  
  23 Then Jehu and Jehonadab son of Rekab went into the temple of Baal. Jehu said to the servants of Baal, “Look around and see that no one who serves the Lord is here with you—only servants of Baal.” 24 So they went in to make sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had posted eighty men outside with this warning: “If one of you lets any of the men I am placing in your hands escape, it will be your life for his life.”
  
  25 As soon as Jehu had finished making the burnt offering, he ordered the guards and officers: “Go in and kill them; let no one escape.” So they cut them down with the sword. The guards and officers threw the bodies out and then entered the inner shrine of the temple of Baal. 26 They brought the sacred stone out of the temple of Baal and burned it. 27 They demolished the sacred stone of Baal and tore down the temple of Baal, and people have used it for a latrine to this day.
  
  28 So Jehu destroyed Baal worship in Israel. 29 However, he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit—the worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan.
  
  30 The Lord said to Jehu, “Because you have done well in accomplishing what is right in my eyes and have done to the house of Ahab all I had in mind to do, your descendants will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.” 31 Yet Jehu was not careful to keep the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam, which he had caused Israel to commit.
  
  32 In those days the Lord began to reduce the size of Israel. Hazael overpowered the Israelites throughout their territory 33 east of the Jordan in all the land of Gilead (the region of Gad, Reuben and Manasseh), from Aroer by the Arnon Gorge through Gilead to Bashan.
  
  34 As for the other events of Jehu’s reign, all he did, and all his achievements, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?
  
  35 Jehu rested with his ancestors and was buried in Samaria. And Jehoahaz his son succeeded him as king. 36 The time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.

We don't preserve the truth by looking to government as the solution (even Jehu failed God), nor by mixing with lies. Money is not our Savior, nor is money the One preserving true worship. God is the One. Do not congregate with the defiantly disobedient. Nothing good will come out of it.

And clearly, even after that "en masse attack" from God at the hands of Jehu (which today could be in the form of ISIS—someone who is not 100% faithful to everything that is written but is definitely in favor of destroying idolatry from the country), YHWH continued to send more attack and dwindled their numbers when His people refused to be 100% towards Him. The solution to preserving the truth of God never will be compromising with the truth, but separation, and being 100% faithful to what is written.

Remember this is Samaria—the half-pagan kingdom / the northern kingdom of Israel. They never got 100% faithful to what is written, which culminated in attacks from Nebuchadnezzar, and their exile to Babylon, symbolically removed from God's presence since they wouldn't be an accurate representation of everything He stands for. And exiled as well for allowing idolatry in His Name (the golden calves in Bethel and Dan, done in honor of YHWH, not any other God—still idolatrous. Even when we do it to honor Him, if it breaks His Commands, then He is not pleased).  

[Garland-Green]

cristobela

You are of course right. If I apply to be a member again I would be supporting something presenting itself as something having Yahweh's blessings. Something which ought to be different from the world and its "truth".The conservative priests should leave as well since the synod failed to do what God wanted them to do - preserve and present His truth, not their own "truth", and I should not enable them to stay, but encourage them to go.

Thank you. This was what I needed to hear and it has put my mind at ease.  

[CherieBunnie]

Garland-Green

When I became a Buddhist long time ago I decided to no longer be a member of the church and sent in a form notifying my local church of this. Controversies concerning same-sex marriage has since then divided the church and having debated this the church decided to have two views and that those two views are both to be allowed expression in the church. This is the heaviest weighing reason against becoming a member again. Lies and truth can't live side by side.

However there are other reasons also that I am considering. If the church lose members then the funding the church is receiving from the State per member goes to some other religious organization. By not being a member I am indirectly supporting other religions and the growth of these in Norway. The money the church receive per member goes toward paychecks for both liberal and conservative priests, and towards maintaining buildings and cultural heritage.

A new way and easier of terminating your membership in the Norwegian church has lead to 15.000 leaving the church in just four days.
So far this year the Norwegian Church has received 24.278 messages from people no longer wanting to be a member and 1.369 from people wanting to be a new member. (Source: 'Dagen' - a Christian Norwegian newspaper)

Do you have any advice to give me on this subject? I am praying about it.

I don't think you should worry about it either way. This isn't something that affects the true body of Christ, because the true body of Christ is supported by God. It will always exist, even if persecuted. And we know that in the end of times, it is prophesied that we will be persecuted. If you don't feel that specific church is staying true to God's word, then don't support it. If it falls into decline, that is God's willl. If they were staying true to God's word, God would support them. I would say, just let it go, and trust that God will take care of the people who truly follow Him.