If ever you hear the Father’s call to come out of man’s institutional church to follow Christ alone, you’ll no doubt be accused of “forsaking the assembly of the brethren”. That’s found in Hebrews 10:25.

It reads: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the custom is with some; but encouraging one another … (Hebrews 10:25 Darby)

Ministers and church-goers assert that the Sunday morning worship service is the very “assembling” Paul wrote about. That’s preposterous of course, because when Paul wrote Hebrews, there was no such thing as a Sunday morning worship service. Rather, at the time believers assembled together in and by Christ and lived in community with one another.

Thus assembling together is a spiritual thing. And a relational thing. To illustrate the point, though at this very moment I am alone, I am nevertheless assembled to Christ and thereby everyone who is in Christ. Many are the times I’ve been alone when the Spirit called me to pray for a brother or sister, who after the fact I learned was in crisis at the time. Lest that sound far fetched, consider the words of Paul to the Church at Corinth:

Although I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit … (4) When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus … I am with you in spirit, along with the power of the Lord Jesus … (1 Corinthians 5:3-4 BSB)

It is Christ who assembles us, not a building, a minister, or a coming together on a designated day or time. The key to understanding Hebrews 10:25 is the word “forsaking” which in the Greek, means to desert. In context, Hebrews 10 concludes with a warning for those who have gone back to their former lives of sin, thus verse 25 is for those who deserted the faith and abandoned the community of Christ.

Still, let’s have some fun with this assertion. If the passage means what ministers say it does, aren’t the Baptists forsaking assembling with the Presbyterians? The Methodists with the Lutherans? Where the Lord’s prayer in John 17 was for our unity, there sure is a lot of division, isn’t there? And didn’t Paul fault believers for their schisms and factions saying “your meetings do more harm than good?” (1 Corinthians 11:17-18) Is a believer obligated to attend an assembly that celebrates division, one that Paul says is harmful? And what is it called when the church service is over? Dis-assembling? If we’re not supposed to forsake the assembly, then surely dis-assembly is a sin! Obviously Paul intended we should go to church and never leave! Boy! The Marthas in the congregation will love a never-ending potluck!

A more serious thought that occurs to me is this: Church on Sunday is called a “worship service” which ministers claim is for God. Whereas in Hebrews 10:25 Paul says our assembling together is for “encouraging one another”. I encourage you – you encourage me – that’s the way it’s supposed to be. But if during a “worship service” only the minister speaks, how do we encourage one another?

Obviously then, Hebrews 10:25 is not about Sunday morning church services. So what’s the answer?

The Lord often teaches me by asking questions about the scripture(s) that are commonly misused to keep believers in bondage. Accordingly, the following scriptures are posed to help understand what it means to assemble together.

Jesus said: And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will assemble my church. (Matthew 16:18)

About that Peter wrote: As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:4-5)

With that as the basis in scripture, here’s a few questions:

Q: What is being assembled?

Q: Who does the assembling?

Q: What is the assembly made of?

Quite simply, Jesus is assembling His church from all who come to Him.

Q: When believers do assemble (gather) together, how does the assembly function?

Paul writes: What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret. But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God. Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged, and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets. For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. (1 Corinthians 14:26-33 ESV)

When believers assemble (gather) together, everyone is welcome to share their portion of Christ. No one dominates or rules over the gathering, rather, everything is done in concert with the Holy Spirit.

Q: In keeping with the teaching of Jesus and instructions of His apostles, are Sunday morning “worship services” a Biblical “assembling of ourselves together?”

I’m afraid that we’ll have to answer that one for ourselves. For me, there remains one final question:

Q: If “worship services” do not function as established by scripture, is not the entire service a forsaking of the assembly?

Considering the word function as it applies to the assembly of the brethren is a useful thought exercise.

In the episode Fun with Numbers, I mentioned my background as a professional business system analyst before I retired and devoted my life to Christ. When I first hired into the aerospace industry, I worked for Quality Assurance which exposed me to military standards and specifications as the basis for audits and inspections I was responsible to conduct. It was in studying the word “assembly” that the Spirit reminded me of Military-Standard-130N, entitled “DoD STANDARD PRACTICE for IDENTIFICATION MARKING OF U.S. MILITARY PROPERTY”. In it, the word “Assembly” is defined as::

A number of parts or subassemblies or any combination thereof joined together to perform a specific function and subject to disassembly without degradation of any of the parts.

Assemblies are intended for a function. In fact, there are a considerable number of scriptures that speak to the various functions to be performed when the brethren assemble together.

For example, Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 describe an assembly where believers encourage, teach and admonish one another. Hebrews 10:24 speaks of provoking one another unto good works. 1 Corinthians 14:26 speaks of sharing the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are but a few of the ways the body functions when it assembles.

Mil-Std-130N also provides this definition:

Part. One item, or two or more items joined together, that is not normally subject to disassembly without destruction or impairment of designed use.

Practically speaking, a part has little use by itself. It is only by assembling individual parts together that they have purpose. And where an assembly is designed to accomplish a specific function, not only must the individual parts be fitted together as designed by the engineer (who is our Creator), the assembly must be turned on (or empowered by the Creator) to fulfill its function.

But if as in most churches today, the service is largely conducted by a paid, seminary trained professional pastor (or hireling) before an audience of believers who only observe the proceedings, then the gathering is NOT in fact a working assembly. Rather, the gathering is for all practical purposes no more than an ad hoc collection of loose parts, rendered useless by the failure to join them together and turn them on (or empower them).

It is my belief that man’s institutional religious system is responsible for forsaking the assembly of every brother and sister who submit themselves thereto, for the simple reason that dominating over and monopolizing the gathering prohibits the brethren from coming together to function as God intended.

Those who have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying are well to leave the religious institutions of men to follow Christ alone. For those of us who have left the comfortable but misguided masses to travel the solitary road of following Christ, there is sweet fellowship in the gathering of 2 or 3 for breaking bread in Jesus name. The Lord is faithful to gather with us in humble fellowship and far better is the bread of Christ, than the pharisee yeast-ridden loaves of men.

As Jesus said in Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

What Godly man would ever claim that the humble gathering of 2 or 3 brothers, together with Jesus, is forsaking the assembly?

Clearly there are none so blind as the blind who lead the blind.