Everywhere we look there is a group that calls themselves "The Church." They may be "The Baptist Church," "The Methodist Church," "The Lutheran Church," or many more such names. Any of these groups, and probably all of them, would tell you that they believe in the Bible, God, Christ, heaven, hell, and a host of other things. Each of them are filled with good people, and are involved in lots of good works. So are: all of them "The Church;" some of them; or only one of them? The Lord said He was going to build His church: "And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). And, in His word, He says it is not to be a divided church: "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgement" (I Corinthians 1:10)When you look at the religious world, however, with all of its religious groups that call themselves "The Church," they are divided in hundreds of ways. Although they may agree that Jesus is the Christ, they disagree in a thousand other ways. So, they are not "perfectly joined together in the same mind" as the Lord wanted, nor are they "speaking the same thing." So, all of this religious division is not the Lord's will. Actually the Bible teaches that there is only one church. Paul said, in the book of Ephesians "There is one body.." (Ephesians 4:4), and that body is the church, for in Ephesians 1:22-23 it says: "And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body..." When we put all this together we see that: Jesus built one church, and it is to be of the same mind, and the same judgement, and not to have any divisions. How do we know, therefore, which is His church? All we have to do is go back to the scriptures and look for "the church" described in them, for that is the church that Jesus built. Any group that does not fit the description of the church in the New Testament is not the church of Christ. It is important for us to do so, for only those in His church will be saved, for God adds those who would be saved to that church (Acts 2:47). |