And it shall come about, when the LORD your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, that you shall place the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. (Deuteronomy 11:29)

Then all Israel, with their elders and officers and judges, stood on either side of the ark before the priests, the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, the stranger as well as he who was born among them. Half of them were in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel. (Joshua 8:33)

John 4 is difficult to understand without knowing the OT. In this passage, we meet a Samaritan woman. She wants to know which one is the right place to worship God. We need to read the OT to know about Samaria and the Northern Israel. Why did God give the Israelites the detailed instructions concerning the sacrifices and the feasts? Why was God angry at Jeroboam, the son of Nebat? Why did God accept the sacrifices of Abel and not those of Cain?

Many Christians think that a worship happens in a building or a designated place on Sunday. They are proud of themselves that they attend a worship service every week. They attend a church service as a religious ceremony. However, they do not feel connected to God, so they always invent new ways to worship Him. God does not accept our worship just because we keep a form of a worship. Unless we are one with Christ, God does not accept us. If a person is united with Christ, he/she naturally does what God wants because of the Holy Spirit and the Word. In a public worship, God’s words are the most important element.

The Reformation is known as the reformation of worship. The Roman Catholic church, which was greatly influenced by human philosophies, went astray and worshiped men, not God. Therefore, it became a new religion, not Christianity. However, the Protestant church has also gone astray and became like her sister.

I’ve been to many different churches. And I find it disgusting that so many ministers speak at the pulpit to please their audiences. They speak jokes and stories that make others happy. Most of them merely give advice on a moral living. When morality becomes the focus of Christianity, you don’t need to stay in Christianity. All other religions encourage people to be good to one another. God showed me for the last seven years that even the Reformed churches have become completely useless. How much more will God pour His wrath on other churches who treat God’s words like trash? God gave us the Three Ecumenical Creeds and the Three Forms of Unity, but they follow false doctrines and shepherds. And the Reformed churches have taken the false theories such as the Covenant Theology and the Active Obedience of Christ (AOC). People put their hope in their ministers, but God did not choose them to do the third reformation. It is always God who does the reformation. But people reject God’s reformation.

In the OT era, the place where worship happened was important because of the Ark of the Covenant. As we have read in the Book of Ezekiel, the Ark leaves Jerusalem (Ezekiel 10). The Israel nation, Jerusalem, and the temple were only shadow of the real kingdom of God that is coming. It may appear that those in the kingdom of Judah worshiped God in the right way because of the temple in Jerusalem. But God was not pleased with them. Worshiping God is not about the law but the heart of flesh. Christ made this very clear. Even though Christ fulfilled all the law on the cross and freed us from the curse of the law, He was born under the OT system. Theologians and ministers insist that Christ kept all the law perfectly because of this. But this passage tells us that He is not what they believe.

You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. But a time is coming, and even now has arrived, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (vv. 22-24)

If the AOC is right, Christ should have encouraged this woman to worship in Jerusalem (but it was impossible because she was a Samaritan) or to wait until He dies. Although the Bible does not tell us, we can only conclude that the woman and people in her village stopped worshiping God in the Mount Gerizim after Jesus taught them about true worship. It is clear that Christ did not see the new covenant as the continuation of the old covenant. We often forget that Christ enabled true worship of God. Psalm 22:22 tells us that Christ is not only in the receiving end of worship but also in the giving end. The Father accept only what is from Him – Christ and the Spirit. Christ washed us with truth and redeemed us with His blood. Then He sent the Spirit to His people. That has always been the Father’s will. Those who were born and died before Christ also worshiped God and their prayers and worship were accepted because of their faith in God, who promised to send Christ. All saints, whether they were born before Christ or after, have this faith.

We, who are united with Son through the Holy Spirit, are not judged by where we worship. I said a few times that the church era is ending. I do not belong to a visible church or go to a church on Sundays. But I do worship God on Sundays. I do not doubt that people judge me because of this. God does not dwell in a building. And God does not appear only in a place where the worship happens. God is everywhere. And most importantly, God is always with His saints 24/7. He always listens to prayers of His children. Even when I was away from a church for more than 10 years, God called me in 2017. He never said that I was breaking the law by not going to church on Sundays. Instead, He sent me to different churches to see why God was angry at them. There are many Christians around the world who worship their churches, not God. Therefore, God will burn all churches as He burnt down Jerusalem, the high places, and the temple.

Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him. (1 King 19:18)

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 12:22-24)