Can We Be Too Close to Falsehood?

"Keep yourself far from a false matter; do not kill the innocent and righteous. For I will not justify the wicked. And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the discerning and perverts the words of the righteous" (Exodus 23:7-8).

God's law prohibits lying, and God Himself cannot lie (Exodus 20:16, Titus 1:2, Hebrews 6:18, Colossians 3:9).

But the above passage I quoted tells us not to go near a false matter.  That goes a bit further than not lying.

Some members stay with an organization that they know is preaching falsehood, thinking, "I am not personally lying, so it is not my responsibility".

Maybe.

There has to be a balance here.  We are commanded to attend services if possible, and in this Laodicean era you will be hard pressed to find anywhere a perfect Church of God fellowship that never teaches anything false, much less in your area.  I don't say you should leave an organization over small errors or mistakes.

But if it is teaching falsely on important matters, you may want to review your options in light of the above passage.

But if it is a small matter, stay unless a better option opens up.

Jesus Christ attended Sabbath services regularly (Luke 4:16), yet those services were largely based on the false teachings of the Pharisees.  This must have been frustrating for Jesus to hear false teachings in the synagogues every Sabbath and sit there.  Yet he did it for the sake of attending services on the Sabbath.

Likewise, to obey God and keep the Sabbath, we may have to sit and endure what we know are errors preached by the ministry.

Up to a point.

Philadelphians are those who go out.  The message to the Philadelphians hints at this.  Christ reassures Philadelphians that they will go out no more, in the kingdom of God.  Why would Christ emphasize this reassurance to Philadelphians unless Philadelphians, in this life, have often had to suffer "going out" of an organization?

"He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name" (Revelation 3:12).

Some may be staying in a false organization in hopes of promotion.  Maybe they can be ordained as a minister.  If that happens, they then can do more for God's work when and if they eventually leave.  But that promotion may never come, and in the meantime, the clock is ticking to end-time events.  Someone might become a leader of the fellowship they attend.  But that is not sure.  Also, if the whole organization has been compromised for years, if ministers have been selected and ordained and promoted to positions of power based on their loyalty to men rather than to God, what kind of organization would a new leader inherit?  How do you replace long-time compromised ministers with faithful ministers in the short time we have left to do a work?  Decades of unfaithfulness would have to be cleaned up and rooted out, and that would take a long time.  Starting a new group from scratch now rather than later might be a better option. You can start clean.

Christ preached that new wine should be put into new wineskins.  He did not try to reform the Pharisees but to replace them with the Church.

"No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear is made worse. Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved" (Matthew 9:16-17).

There are many factors to consider, and prayers are often needed for God's will to be made known.