I was reading Malachi this morning when a couple verses stood out to me. Malachi 1:10 says, "O that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar!" I had underlined it before, but as I read it again it gave me pause. Is God really interested in closing the church doors?
We are excited about opening church doors. We're glad when a new church is opening, and I pray for them to do great things in pointing people to Christ. But God wasn't happy with his church in Israel. The temple had become a haphazard place where people weren't offering God what was right; they were offering Him what was left. (that's a play on words see? right/left)
The bottom line is that God starts showing them that they were offering leftovers to God. At one point he even says, "Try offering that to your governor and see if he takes it." As a Marylander, I know that since our governor has taken office he hasn't been satisfied with what we were paying so he started collecting more. God never raises his fee. He never increases a tax. He simply wants us to offer our part with as much integrity as He offers his.
I guess this text would be my argument for closing churches, because in some cases God is for closing the doors.
--Ben
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