One Church

Part 11
Among the ancients (Jacob as an example) and those of a not to far distant past, men paid monies, gave something of value when he asked for a woman’s hand in marriage. If a man had beautiful daughters his bank account was greatly enhanced, it was the way some families kept “soul and body together”. No man of stature would dare approach his future father-in-law without such a handsome fee. It was a way of assessing the value of the love he had for her. Christ bought His bride with His life’s blood. No higher price could be paid. Her value, in His sight, was without equal. This being true, Christ had as many brides as He had life’s with which to buy Her!! He married His bride before He created the heavens and the earth, but made an announcement of it to all mankind in Jerusalem, AD 33, at 9:00am on Sunday morning. Again, He married only ONE bride.
To make it so plain that none could misunderstand, Christ also called her His body. He did not mean to give some the understanding that it was some one else’s body, The bride’s body becomes the property of her husband upon marriage. “And He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have preeminence.” Colossians 1:18 I find that hard to misunderstand, but some do not, they think if it says ONE it is just kidding or that all religious bodies make up His complete body and their church is a part of that make-up. This may sound plausible until we come the verse which reads: “but now are there many members, yet but ONE body.” (emphasis mine) 1 Corinthians 12:20
In first Corinthians 12, all know Paul is discussing the relationship amongst the various and diverse members of the human body; does any think there is more than ONE body under discussion? He talks about the eye, hand, feet, head, ear, but they are ALL apart of just ONE BODY. (If you cannot see this, you are in need of serious help and this article may not help you!) “But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him.” 1 Corinthians 12:18 He concludes with the fact (undisputed by any and everybody) there is ONE AND BUT ONE BODY!! If this is not satisfactory and you want more proof, read Romans 12:4. “For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and members one of another.” How can that be misunderstood? In First Corinthians 12: 12-13 Paul writes: “For as body is one, and has many members and all the members of that ONE body: so is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free: and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” You cannot think this is describing everybody that has a body, it describes ONE AND ONLY ONE, it is that ONE that people must be baptized to be saved to enter!
Ephesians 2:16 reads: “And that He might reconcile both (Jew and Gentile) unto God by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.” I purposely left out what would make this verse satisfactory to the Devil and any denominational preacher IF the Holy Spirit had so done, they would have been agreeable. Christ made us reconciled to God in ONE body!! The body is His Church, He has only One, for her He paid the last true measure of devotion, His life’s blood, and for her He is returning!! I will cite the verse correctly: “And that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.” This verse defines, dates, and distinguishes this body from any other---Christ reconciled (brought two warring parties, God and the sinner) by the church that came into existence in the first century—no denomination started, then!!

 

Part 12
One of the hardest things some people have in understanding God is the question often asked; “is there really just ONE church”? Some people consider you and I bullies, cultists, egotists, and partially insane who think Christ is married to just ONE church, that only those in that ONE church have a chance of gaining that eternal home. They think God UNFAIR and we His children irrational and a little beside themselves who take His Word as our proof for this belief, after all “surely not ALL the people in ______ denomination are lost, are they?” These fair-minded, people loving kind are heard to say; “My cousin is a ‘good man’ and surely God will not send him to Hell just because he does not see the scriptures as you, will He?” I warn you our reply is often mighty disturbing. But, let me invite you into a conversation that occurred on this exact subject and you see the ploys of Satan and the answers to their questions.
“My best friend is a good woman, she has been in the Baptist Church all her life; if there is anyone who is better that she, I do not know them.” Answer: “Is she good enough to burn in Hell for eons of endless existence with you by her side?? Is she better than Jesus Christ, He was brash enough to claim, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life, NO MAN cometh to the Father, but by Me.’ He will died for you, He will call you in death; He said ‘He that believes and is baptized shall be saved’!! Do you not consider her life as one which every day calls Jesus Christ a liar? (Oh, I forgot that is unkind by those who do not study God’s Word and want to FEEL GOOD!!) Question: “Jesus would NEVER have been so unkind as to have said something like this, let alone have such come from His lips”!!, they contend. “My cousin just does not like the Church of Christ’ doctrine; are you sure you are justified in making the above statements, will you not run us away from the Church of Christ by making such statements, you are not much like Christ, are you? This seems so hard-hearted and judgmental”!! Answer: “Now wait a minute, you have picked on the best friend I have ever had in my life, Jesus Christ, you have called into question His motives, and you expect me not to defend Him?? When did your cousin get better, smarter, more qualified to know what MUST BE DONE than the written document called the Bible? How can you justify taking his word for something AGAINST the inspired Word of God? If he is that good, he will be too good to go to Heaven, Heaven is for the people Jesus had to die to save, that had to obey what Jesus said for them to do, and who considered it the greatest honor of their existence when Jesus added them to the Church of Christ!! Why should you be so concerned about every-ones feelings but Jesus, the God of Heaven and Earth?? Did this cousin you are so considerate of die for you? If he did, that is sad, his death will not make any difference in your soul’s station in eternity; but this Jesus—His death has made ALL the difference!! Are you sure you are choosing the right man to lead you into the shores of timelessness?? I recommend you follow the Man who created EVERYTHING”!!
“Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that findeth it.” Matthew 7:13-14 Question: “My cousin will not attend with me.” Answer: “Will they be with you beyond this life? “For it had been better for you not have known the way of righteousness, that, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.” 2 Peter 2:21. They will not be with you in Hell, either, your fate will be far worse than theirs, you cannot win by your standards, only Jesus can win.

 

Part 13
Jesus said, “Upon this rock, I will build My Church..” Matthew 16:16-18 There are many who claim to love the Lord, but because of this clear statement, declare Him a liar!! By agreement of nouns and verbs, there can be only as many churches built by Jesus Christ as there rocks, yes or no? Did Jesus mean to say what He said or did the apostle record His words incorrectly? How many rocks were there upon which Jesus said He would build? If there was ONE rock (statement of truth), there then can be only ONE church, yes or no?
No other church ever started with a pronouncement by God, the Father!! What an introduction!! It was not done in secret, nor under the cover of night, nor as a whisper campaign, god, the Father declared what man would have never confessed; “This, is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, HEAR YE HIM”!! Matthew 17:5 What was the rock? The Greek uses a word that would describe something so large and gigantic, it would be un-moveable. It would be the basis upon which Christ would build? Peter had just confessed Christ as the “Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus responded, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar Jonas, flesh and blood hath not revealed this to thee, but My Father which is in Heaven.” What did this statement mean: it meant Jesus would be the NEW lawgiver, the NEW high priest, the NEW sacrifice, the NEW SOVERIGN LORD that was to be worshipped, and His authority and IT ALONE was all that had to be adhered to, no other law or testament was to be obeyed.
That upon which a house is built is usually called a foundation. The foundation has to be prepared. It has to close, that is it has to meet on all four sides. It has to be planned. No man ever built a house that he first did not set down and pre-determines its purpose. No house ever came together by accident. That which Jesus built was planned, prepared, did not come into existence by a mere co-incidence, nor was it built as it went. Jesus emphatically DID intend to build a NEW church when He started the Church of Christ, in AD 33, in the city of Jerusalem!! He NEVER intended to put a patch on an old garment. Christianity was NEVER intended to be another sect of Judaism. With denominationalism, this is not the case. No denomination that I know about was planned, prepared for before it came about, and was altogether an accident in coming to be. Most denominations I know about came about trying to reform another denomination that already existed!! They were an accident, not a planned development. Constantine did not intend to bring about a new church at the Council of Nicene, he was trying to bring the Church of Christ under his control so he could salvage his kingdom, and He knew there was only ONE church that should exist. The faithful church did and never allowed this to be true!! Martin Luther did not plan on bringing into existence the Lutheran church; he meant only to reform the Roman Catholic. King Henry VIII did not intend to bring about the Episcopalian denomination; he only wanted to marry Anne of Bolin. The Pope said “No!” Henry said, “Watch me”. John Wesley was not trying to bring into existence the Methodist church; he was trying to put some life in the old Episcopalian church in which he was a priest. The Separatist movement of the late 1500’s never intended to start a new denomination, all they wanted was to worship God as they deemed proper in England where the King of England reigned supreme and would only allow his denomination to exist.
No other church started in Jerusalem!! All the Old Testament prophets prophesied that the church was to start in the city of Jerusalem. Isaiah 2:2-4, Micah 4:2.

 

Part 14
What describes a thing, where it began, in what year, what name it wears, and who was present when it began will satisfy the honest heart about which church to belong!!
All of us use this as a means of recognizing persons, countries, and societies making sure those societies are not clandestine. If I wanted to verify the genuineness of any product, person, or thing I would use these criteria, would I not? That being true, these criteria will identify the ONE true church Jesus Christ brought into existence and eliminates all those begun by man!!
As stated last week, the Church of Christ is the only church prophesied in the scriptures. This may seem cultish to some, egotistic to others, and ridiculous to even more, YET, the proof of such a statement will satisfy any truth-seeking soul. Isaiah 2:2, Micah 4:2, Luke 24:47-49, Acts 1:4-6 all teach this fact. Zion in the scriptures is the hill country around Jerusalem. The church started in Zion (to prove this to yourself, read the cited scriptures. Any church that did not start in Jerusalem then, is NOT the Bride of Christ, which He named the Church of Christ!! Not only did she start in Jerusalem as prophesied, she came in the right century!! Jesus stated: “there are some of you that stand here, that shall not taste of death until you have seen the kingdom come with power.” Mark 9:1 The church Christ started had to have started in the lifetime of the apostles!! This truth is inescapable. The fact is that all of the apostles were alive when the church came down from God out Heaven except Judas who had killed himself when his plot to stop Jesus from dieing was foiled. All the apostles belonged to the Church of Christ; NONE belonged to any of today’s denominations!! Fact: no denomination existed while the apostles were on the earth, the Roman Catholic under the emporer Constantine did come into existence until 313 AD. It is 200 years too late to be the church Christ started!! All the apostles were alive, except Judas, on the day of Pentecost, AD33, at 9:00am that Sunday morning!! Constantine had not even been born, Martin Luther (Lutheranism) was not the figment of anyone’s imagination, Charles Wesley (Methodism), John Smythe’s (Baptist) great-great-great-great grandparents were still 229 generations away from arriving on the planet, so the same with Ellen White (7th Day Adventist), Charles Russell (Jehovah’s Witness), John Knox (Presbyterian), peeping Joe Smith (Morons,sic, or Later Day Saints) and you can go on to name the others!!
Since none of the church originators were alive when the apostles were on the earth and NONE of their denominations existed, how could anyone take them seriously, follow their doctrines, and belong to them INSTEAD of the church that actually began in the first century, the sad thing is denominationalism DOES NOT EVEN CLAIM to have begun in the first century!! (The Baptist may claim John the Baptist started their denomination, but they lie about a lot of things!!) History verifies the existence of the Church of Christ in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and on, show us ONE place it mentions the originators of any denomination in the 1st century!! “In vain, do they worship Me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” Matthew 15:9 “Beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and after vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and NOT AFTER CHRIST.” Colossians 2:8
In order to have a different church one must have a different doctrine they teach!! Every denomination has that DIFFERENT doctrine, NO it is not found in the Bible; they have to write their own Bible or creed book to support their damnable lies. In this, they compete with the Lord Jesus for the souls of men!! They are fools!!

Part 15
“And the law shall go forth from Zion”. Isaiah 2:4, Micah 4:2 Here is the sounding of the death knell for any denomination. Since no denomination even CLAIMS to have started in Jerusalem, without any other argument offered, this one argument dismisses all the claims they could ever have for being the original church Jesus started!! How important is this claim to have begun in Jerusalem? In the book of Galatians we have Paul and Peter at odds as to the doctrine of circumcision. Galatians 2:1-21 There was a sect of the Lord’s church that tried to make physical circumcision a part of the plan of salvation. Their doctrine was ‘he that believeth, is baptized, and physically circumcised, shall be saved’. They wanted physical circumcision a part of the preaching of the New Testament Church so the Jew would leave them alone, thinking the Church of Christ to be just another sect of Judaism!! This would cause the Jews not to take a stand against the Lord’s Church. This was intended to be taught in every Gentile congregation the apostle Paul had started.
Peter, the first apostle to preach the gospel to the uncircumcised Gentile, had not had them physically circumcised. Galatia had predominately Gentile members. Peter had been worshipping with the Church of Christ at Galatia where most of the male membership was Gentile. Suddenly, a group of the brethren came from Jerusalem preaching this new doctrine. They must have had a lot of power behind them for when they came Peter dis-associated himself from the Gentile brethren making pretense that he agreed with their doctrine. When the apostle Paul saw the hypocrisy of Simon Peter, he “withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.” Galatians 2:11 If this had been allowed, the gospel of Christ would have lost the support of Deity!! PHYSICAL CIRCUMSISM, YOU SEE, WAS THE SIGN Christ gave Abraham that would cause every male born of his seed to remember and know that the promise Christ had given Abraham was true and genuine. If physical circumcism was still demanded that would mean the Messiah had not yet come. If not, why not: if the Messiah had come the reason for physical circumcism was over!
For some strange reason (unknown to those who do not study the scriptures) Paul and Peter were directed to return to Jerusalem. The why was not given in Galatians. Jesus had directed while here with the disciples; “if any of you disagree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 18:20 This makes it rough of Peter being the first Pope, but Jesus had foreseen problems arising and directed how to resolve them!! Coupled with His directive that all new doctrine was to be preached FIRST in Jerusalem, to let this go and not be stopped, this would not only be a NEW doctrine, but a contrary doctrine. This was taken in hand, the Holy Spirit ‘bade Paul and Peter to return to Jerusalem’ for what was the ONLY council to ever be held under the auspicious of the Holy Spirit. There could be no others, the apostles were dead and gone and they alone had the seat on Thrones to rule and judge-legislate-hand down and bind upon mankind, for the Master!! Matthew 19:28
Now, in Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit takes charge, Acts 15, and Peter, Paul, and the whole church gets a letter, handwritten by James the step-brother of Christ, solving the whole problem. Those “angels from heaven” (Jews who were teaching something other that what the apostles taught) were soundly defeated in promoting error as truth. Any NEW doctrine had to be first preached in Jerusalem. Denominationalism has NEVER BEEN taught, first in Jerusalem, it was first preached where it began!!