Think on These Things

August 2001

Contents:

1. The Nature of Our Lord's Church

2. Of Current Interest

3. Becoming a Member of the Lord's Church

4. Ye often hear it said...

The Nature of Our Lord's Church

Do not be deceived, Jesus is building His church on the rock of faith that Peter exhibited: “Thou are the Christ, the son of the living God.” Mat. 16:18: “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it.”  This church is spoken of as existing after the events of Acts 2 (5:11, 8:1-3, 9:31, 11:22-26, 12:1, etc., etc.).  Churches sprang up wherever the gospel of Jesus was heard and obeyed (Act 13, 14).  There was no sanctioning authority for these churches — when people obeyed the truth and determined to work together in obedience to the truth, they were a legitimate church in the local sense of the word.  Thus, in the bible we often read of “home churches” or churches that met in members’ houses, especially when they were in small groups.

The word church in Mt. 16:18 is singular, and thus refers to no single local church (as opposed to Rom. 16:16 and most other places, where local congregations are being discussed).  We can call this the “church universal,” as opposed to the local church.  While local churches are required to be organized (1 Tim. 3:1f; Tit. 1:5f), there is no organization specified for the church universal.  This displays the obvious wisdom of God and the sublimity of the scriptures.  It is totally impossible for mankind to conceive of a religious body that is not centrally organized.  And yet, that is exactly what the bible teaches.  For, unity is brought about by common obedience to the truth, not by any central organization contrived of mankind.  Indeed, anyone who can open his eyes can see that the centralized organizations that control religious organizations are corrupting in their nature and ultimately self-serving.  In most cases they freely admit to not being the organization of the church universal, admitting guilt of the sin of 1 Cor. 1:10 — that of dividing the Lord’s body by denominating.

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Of Current Interest

The goal of this page is to promote morality and justice in our society (Prov. 14:23).

Homosexuality.  It is difficult not to get alarmed when our nation’s largest teacher’s union seems compelled to get some curriculum into the public schools that negates the sin of practicing homosexuality by convincing our young people that it is just “an alternative life style.”  Consider God’s statement to his people (Lev. 18:21-24) “Neither shall you give any of your offspring to offer them to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God; I am the LORD.  You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.  Also you shall not have intercourse with any animal to be defiled with it, nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it; it is a perversion.  Do not defile yourselves by any of these things; for by all these the nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled.”  I have included the context here to make a strong point.  Look at where God placed this sin — right along with child sacrifice and bestiality.  “It is an abomination.”  Read further and see that this was one of the main reasons for the Canaanites being “cast out” of the land, or as it says, “the land spewed out its inhabitants.”  Consider Sodom and Gomorrah.  In both cases God consumed entire populations. 

The New Testament is equally clear (1 Cor. 6:9-10) “Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor {the} covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”  What could be clearer than that?

There is no room for a Christian to hate, fear or wish to do violence to those who practice homosexuality.  But we have to maintain our right to teach the truth on this subject, and we need to be exercising that right without fear.  For, practicing homosexuals are exercising their rights, and are extending them to unbelievable limits.  No nation can last when its people have the attitude that this just does not matter.

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Becoming a Member of the Lord's Church

Consider the universal church as we discussed it on Page 1, and ponder this question: is one saved by being a member of the Lord’s church? or, is one a member of the Lord’s church by virtue of being saved?  Consider that the church universal is often called “the body of Christ,” e.g., Col. 1:24: “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body (which is the church) in filling up that which is lacking in Christ's afflictions.”  So when we get “into Christ” we are, by biblical definition, in His church.

But in Rom. 6:3f, Paul talked about the rebirth that Jesus had commanded as essential to salvation in John 3:5f.  Paul asked rhetorically: “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?  Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”  This rebirth, accomplished at the point of baptism, not only saves us but also puts us into our Lord’s body, his church.  You cannot have one without the other.  All who are saved are at that point added to the Lord’s church.    So, the church does not save, but when the Lord saves, He adds you to His church.

But this still leaves us with the responsibility of associating ourselves with a legitimate local church.  This task is greatly simplified if our search is constrained to only those who have obeyed the gospel plan of salvation.  If they are teaching the whole truth from God’s word, and if they are indeed practicing it by not going beyond that which is written (2 John 9), then they have the same attitude as those who have been saved according to God’s plan.  The burden of proof is on them to demonstrate to you that all that they practice and preach is not from men but is based on the revealed will of God.  Since this revelation can only be found in the bible, it is quite simple to validate.

We expect some to still be quite skeptical of this approach.  Having grown up with the denominational model, this should surely seem strange.  But let me assure you that there are groups of Christians all over the world who are practicing religion with no guide other than the bible.  And they are united by that alone.

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Ye often hear it said ...

Ye often hear it said ...

“Get saved, and then join the church of your choice.”

but Jesus said (Matthew 16:18) ...

“... I will build my church...”

In the universal sense, the person who is saved is born (again) into the body of Christ, His church.  If one does not meet the terms of salvation as given by the Lord, then it will do little good to “join” any local religious organization.  In fact, it could be quite counterproductive if they teach that you are saved when, in fact, you are not.  But let us suppose that you meet God’s terms of salvation and are added to the body of Christ (Rom. 6:3), there still remains a choice on your part as to which local religious group to affiliate with, if any.  In the first century, those who were followers of Christ were easy to identify just by their claim.  Not so today, since the vast majority of our religious organizations claim Jesus as their King.  And yet, it is unfathomable to think that all of their contrary doctrines and practices are the result of His direction.  The solution to this problem may not be as easy as it was in the first century, but it is still not difficult.  It is first a matter of locating a group that makes the claim that they are following the Lord strictly according to the teachings of the New Testament, and then following up to determine for yourself that this claim is true.  That would mean that book, chapter and verse could be found for the work, the worship and the use of all local church resources.  It would also mean that the church was organized according to God’s plan (1 Tim. 3:1f; Tit. 1:5) with no organization greater than the local level.

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