The Church Is Essential for Discipleship 

Throwing out nonsense numbers like that isn't going to make anyone think you're trying to make an honest point.

Stop looking at man and religion and start looking to the Most High God. Christ said that “the Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth” Concern yourself with knowing who God is objectively. It’s very clear who he is when we are born again of the Holy Spirit. Many millions have a religion but have never been born again of the Spirit…. Like the Pharisees who were seen as the most religious people in Jesus day rejected the Spirit and like the Jews who were seen as God’s chosen rejected Christ so many today profess Christ and this doctrine and that doctrine but don’t have the Spirit of God alive in them. Don’t get hung up on that, don’t let that hinder You from truly coming to know the Most High God through the Holy Spirit!

So, how do these replies answer the question posted by @Thisrate6763? JPB

Nope, but then you're just trolling rather than making a valid point.

I didn't worry about conspiracy theories

I'd like you to face the 1,219,487 families that lost a friend or family due to covid. In USA alone 111,820,082 of recorded cases. You, and other ice-holes, are accusing one third of the country to be lying, seriously🤔?

I second this question. If church is essential to discipleship, why have TGC, Nine Marks, and other similar organizations recommended that affiliated pastors close their churches during COVID? It was said that only essential services should open. If church is essential to discipleship, local churches should not have closed. Apparently, during the COVID period, the church stopped being essential for discipleship, right?

@@joaomatheusbeck7664 Church is essential, but a building isn't.

@@HearGodsWord Review my comment and you will see that I am not referring to buildings. I am referring to the congregation of saints to worship God, hear his Word preached, encourage one another, and consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, according to the divine command: 23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 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 near (Hebrews 10.23 -24). It is obvious from the words of the writer of Hebrews that what the Holy Spirit has in mind cannot be accomplished through “online church”. My argument is simply this: assuming that the church is essential to the discipleship of Christians, why have TGC and other ministries encouraged their affiliated churches to close their doors? According to Christ himself, to be his disciple a person must be willing to lose the people he loves and even his own life: 25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and comes after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, he does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.' encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberately whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:25-35). This means that not even a virus can be an impediment for a disciple of Christ nor for the local church to disciple believers. Therefore, I ask again: assuming that the church is essential to the discipleship of Christians, why have TGC and other ministries encouraged their affiliated churches to close their doors? At the time I remember someone made a meme with 9Marks, stating that the tenth mark of the true church is... gathering together to worship God. And if I'm not mistaken, one of the leaders of 9Marks, after recommending the closure of the Church and criticizing Johnny Mac for reopening his church, this same leader was seen at a BLM protest, without social distancing, helping to spread the coronavirus even further. What is more important: the worship of God and the discipleship of Christians, or the BLM protests? Is the church essential to the discipleship of Christians or not? If so, why did they disobey the Scriptures and close their doors?