Don’t Forsake The Synagogue
Assembling is an important part of being a Christian. There's a whole idea of "Koinonia" (Greek: κοινωνία) meaning "fellowship" which is more than socializing - its use by the New Testament only begins after the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost (Acts 2:42).
But in a time of unfaithfulness by the things that go by the name "church," and "Christian," where can you get "Koinonia" fellowship - especially in the true Spirit-empowered sense that the Bible gives the Greek word?
The book of Hebrews is of particular help in this regard. On the one hand it would appear to strengthen the institutional church, whether fallen or not by it's statement "do not forsake our own assembling together [Gk. episynagōgēn, ἐπισυναγωγὴν - from the word used for synagogue]."
Ironically, though, in the context of the book of Hebrews, the author wasn't just saying "don't stop coming to church," but by using the Jewish word for assembling (episynagogen), he was actually sending a message to the Jewish-turned-Christian believers who were being persecuted for their Christian faith not to return to the assembly that God had forsaken (Jewish Synagogues that had rejected the Truth) but to devote themselves to the true Synagogue.
The Jewish believers in Christ whom the author of Hebrews was addressing were being tempted to return to Judaism proper minus faith in Christ:
Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.
Hebrews 4:1
For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.
Hebrews 6:4–6.
Being a person assembling with Gentile Christians meant they were rejecting their whole cultural-religous heritage of being Jewish. Their identity as it existed for most of their lives was in jeapordy. The author of the book takes pains to emphasize that the fading glory of the Old Covenant and the faith-wrapped glory of the New Covenant which was costing them so much to encoruage them to perservere:
When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.
Hebrews 8:13.
In Chapter 10, you have the verse about not forsaking our own assembling together. In another article I have argued this is not about church gatherings in general, this is a call to assemble with the true church. Another way of saying this in light of Hebrews 10, if you can't find a Synagogue that holds to the truth, what do you do? How can you not forsake the True Synagogue? Hebrews 12 comes to the rescue.
I owe a debt to R.C. Spoul on this topic, who provided this insight to me. He states that in a True assembly, the believer is transported to Zion in heaven.
The author of Hebrews compares the old covenant assembly as being earth-bound to Mt. Sinai at the giving of the Law. Meanwhile the true Church assembly is in heaven itself, where they assemble with angels and departed saints made perfect.
"For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind,
and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them.
For they could not bear the command, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned.”
And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, “I am full of fear and trembling.”
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels,
to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,
and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel."
Hebrews 12:18–24.
This my friend, is the True Synagogue not to forsake. You don't get there by showing up on Sunday, you get there only by genuine faith. When the insitutional church becomes infaturated with itself instead of Christ ("you must be in HER!" rather than "you must be in HIM!"), when it's earth-bound-ness is made ultimate like the Old Covenant Sinai which has passed away that's when you know one of these Synagogues is not like the other. One of these assemblies is earthlike and passing and another is eternal in the heavens.
The visible institutional church of today, cut off from genuine grace, has made earth, sight, sound, smell, feeling, into the central mark of Christianity. I challenge you to attend the assembly this next Lord's Day. You don't need to be in a building or even house church. You can only attend with faith that comes from God himself.
Forsake not this Eternal Synagogue.
S.D.G.