If You Cant beat Em’ Join Em”

Even though what we call “the church” today is, in many ways, a man-made institution—an apostasy from the original ekklesia of Scripture—it cannot be denied that it adopted and propagated many of the moral and ethical teachings of the Bible. The church as an institution, though corrupted in origin and function, still served as a vehicle for preserving and promoting Judeo-Christian values that shaped Western civilization for centuries.

This man-made system built on hierarchy, tradition, and often corrupted theology till operated from biblical principles: teaching that lying is wrong, murder is evil, marriage is sacred, honesty is good, charity is necessary, and human life is valuable.

These values, formed the moral backbone of entire societies. In America, the influence of the church extended to laws, education, public morality, and social norms.

But here’s the tragedy: the institutional “church” may have had the moral code of the Kingdom, but not always the King.

Because Satan could not defeat the early disciples through persecution, he infiltrated and imitated. As the old saying goes, “If you can't beat them, join them.”

He inspired the creation of a counterfeit version of the ekklesia—one that wore the name of Christ but operated through worldly power, wealth, hierarchy, and tradition. This version became known as “the church,” and although it strayed from the purity of the apostles' doctrine and practice, it still carried echoes of truth. And those echoes—its moral teachings—benefited society for a time.

However, as this institutional church now collapses—plagued by scandal, irrelevance, hypocrisy, division, and compromise—we are also witnessing the collapse of the moral and ethical structure it once upheld. The rise of lawlessness, confusion about right and wrong, and the deterioration of family, gender, and community norms isn’t just political or cultural—it’s spiritual. This was Satan's plan from the beginning.

But here's what must be understood deeply: Satan never cared about our morals or ethics. He doesn’t fear good behavior. He fears transformed hearts, born again through faith in the true Messiah, living in obedience and filled with the Spirit. Morality without Christ is like a clean tomb—beautiful on the outside, but dead on the inside.

A person can live by every biblical principle—honest, faithful, generous, clean—and still be lost, because salvation is not earned by works, but comes only through being in Messiah (Christ). Paul said it plainly:

“I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.” – Galatians 2:21

That is the danger of mistaking the benefits of the church’s moral teachings for the reality of salvation. We must not confuse outward morality with inward transformation. The collapse of the institutional church is tragic for society, yes—but even more tragic is that many who trusted in its structure, its rituals, or its ethics never truly knew the Lord.

Now is the time for the remnant to rise—not to rebuild the system, but to return to the ekklesia—the called-out body of the Messiah, living as light in the darkness. Not by power. Not by institution. Not by traditions of men. But by Spirit and truth.