On the One True Church

And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart

and with all your soul and with all your mind.

This is the great and first commandment.

And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Matthew 22:35-40 (English Standard Version)

De-Bunking the Myth or De-Mything the Bunk

I want to be right. I REALLY want to be right! Heaven hangs in the balance and will be too wonderful to miss; and eternal separation from God is unthinkable.

            Because I am a sinner – a fallen creature living in a fallen world – my only hope of getting into heaven is found in God’s wonderful, indescribable, magnificent grace. But, I don’t want to be guilty of exploiting and testing God’s mercy – I want to be and do what God expects me to be and do. While I can’t EARN God’s salvation, I am certain there are conditions that attach to it.

            God’s love is unconditional; his grace is not. Paul writes to the Ephesians (2:8) that we are saved by grace (God’s part) through faith (our part, I believe).

            As proof that we have a part in our salvation,  I submit Jesus’ own words, “…No man comes to the Father, but by me.” Having the Spirit of God dwelling in me, and me being in the body of Christ, are conditions that attach to God’s grace. I can’t get into heaven without Jesus – no way, no how! It is through Jesus we have the ability to know God. I need to be vigilant and careful to have that kind of intimacy with God through his Son (John 17:1-3). That demands acceptance and obedience to the call from God.

            Can everyone be right about religion? That is simply not possible. James defines pure religion, by telling us that it is to take care of the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. That revelation establishes the standard for pure religion. Man’s definition of religion is often very different: one group claims pure religion demands a person has to sign off on the Apostle’s Creed; another says pure religion demands interpretation of the Bible in a certain way—Command, Example, Necessary Inference comes to mind. Another says the silence of scripture must always be interpreted as prohibitive while still another claims that silence is permissive.

            There are far too many widely varying differences and opinions concerning doctrine, worship practices, and other issues that have been addressed by theologians countless thousands of times over the centuries for everyone to be right in their individual understandings. That leaves us with the question, “Is ANYONE completely and totally right in his or her approach to theology? Is any one church the RIGHT church?” The perfect church would be the right church, but as someone put it so succinctly, the moment I become a member of the perfect church, it is no longer perfect.  It all has something to do with our being human, I suppose.

            Every church – and I emphasize EVERY church we find listed in the phone book is a product of man. Each of them may have been established with the most honorable of intentions (Reformation or Restoration) and may even strenuously deny its human origins. But, deny it or not, it is human, nonetheless. Even if a lineage could be traced back to a New Testament gathering, would exist so much human-driven evolution it would have little or no similarity to the original and would be unrecognizable to the Apostolic fathers.

            Each “tribe” has its own identity and history that is human in origin and is denominated by its very own evolved body of beliefs, credos and worship practices. It may be a quite large tribe with a general governing association, convention or universal organization that dictates policy and doctrines, or it may be a small individual church that is autonomous or independent. Whatever the case, each church is known for, or denominated by its own body of closely held beliefs and ordinances. Some groups call that body of beliefs and ordinances a creed, some call it a catechism, others call it a discipline. Our Amish and Mennonite friends call it their ordnung. Others just deny the existence of any creed at all. But deny it or not, there IS a creed – perhaps it is unwritten, but there is a creed.

            If one were able to investigate every church on every corner of our land, as well as in every town, city or village around the world, they would never be successful in finding the perfect church. They very possibly will find one that perfectly meets their needs or expectations, but it would not be the perfect church that Jesus promised to build and a short time later DID build.

            Yet such a church does exist, I am certain, and it is the one true church that is as Jesus planned and promised it. It has one head and that head is Jesus. God himself governs its population and membership. In Acts 2:47, we are told that the Lord himself brought the saved into the assembly. 

            After years of wrestling with scriptural, traditional, denominational and sectarian debates, discussions and theologies, I am now fully persuaded that the real and true church of Christ (as in the kingdom planned and built by God, bought and paid for by Jesus the Messiah) is not limited to a specific name or set of worship practices. It is not limited to the man-made churches we mentioned above. The REAL and TRUE Church of Christ today comprises every person who has been called out of the darkness of sin into the marvelous light of God’s grace regardless of where they gather to worship. I am convinced that the assembly of the called out is much broader in scope than defined by the human limits of fellowship imposed on it by human creeds written or otherwise.

            I am persuaded there are Christians in every denomination, worshipping at every neighborhood Christ-believing worship center around our world. Do I believe every denomination is right? No. Do I believe ANY man-made church is right? No. But I do believe that in every group there exits the possible presence of those who like in the church at Sardis (Revelation 3) have not soiled their garments. In fact I am absolutely certain of it!

            One of the saddest things I encounter on a regular basis is a beloved friend or group of friends who have been deceived into thinking that their faith community and it alone defines the true church that Jesus built.

            The One True Church is the collective body of the saved. They may gather in a variety of places, worshipping in a variety of ways, voluntarily submitting to a wide variety of traditions and ordnung, and still be part of the assembly that Jesus died for.

            An important key to understanding whether or not they are part of the redeemed and the household of faith is found in one of the Apostle John’s books: “By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother” (1 John 3:10).

                                                                                    Because I love you,    Roger