WHAT IS THE ONE TRUE CHURCH? By CBN.com

THIS IS PART OF A LETTER SENT AROUND TO VARIOUS CB CHURCHES, and VILLAGE MISSIONS, IN 1970 AS THE RESULT OF THE ELDERSHIP RULE--WHICH THE LETTER THOUGHT MISGUIDED.

What is the One True Church?

By CBN.com 

CBN.com -- The one true church is the universal body of believers everywhere who have given their hearts to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. That is the only true church (see Ephesians 1:22-23, Colossians 1:18).

The Bible teaches us that we must maintain the unity of the Spirit (see Ephesians 4:3) until we come into unity of faith (see Ephesians 4:13). In other words, spiritual unity is something that all Christians can have. Complete unity of knowledge is something for the future.

The fact that there are many different denominations reflects a lack of knowledge in the church. In many instances, it also reflects pride. People are unwilling to meet together with others and submit their concepts to the body of Christ. And many denominations have come about because of doctrinal error. What begins as a beautiful and fresh revelation of God often degenerates into lukewarmness and then into fighting what God is doing.

Many times those who claim to know God persecute those who really do. It becomes necessary for the Lord Himself to come back with a fresh revelation to break through the solidification of the orthodox believers. This happened in Israel. Israel had lost sight of the Lawgiver in their exaltation of the Law. They killed Jesus, who was the manifestation of God, in the name of their law.

In the Middle Ages, when the church had gained political as well as religious power, it began to grow corrupt. Then a reform movement came about through Martin Luther and others, who were persecuted severely by the church. Later on, Lutherans began to persecute Calvinists. Then Calvinists began to persecute Anabaptists, who brought out truth from God on baptism.

Still later, Baptists persecuted Pentecostals, who brought out a different truth about the baptism in the Holy Spirit. There have been succeeding waves of truth that God wants to restore to the church. These revelations of truth have been the seed for some of the major denominations which many times began as despised and persecuted sects.

The new Christian needs to find a fellowship of believers who love the Lord and who believe the Bible. There are Episcopal priests who love God with all their hearts, who are filled with the Holy Spirit, who serve Jesus, and whose churches are beautiful places of worship. In some Catholic churches born again Christians could feel at home. There are Baptist churches where members love God, Presbyterian churches where the members love God, as well as Methodist, Assemblies of God, Nazarene, and Holiness churches and many others where the members love God.

When you are looking for a church home, the first thing to do is to ask the Lord to guide you. Ask Him where He wants you. Find a church that is true to the Bible, one where the people love Jesus Christ and serve Him as Lord. Are the doctrine, teaching, and practice of that church in accordance with the Word of God? Do the members try to live out the doctrine they profess? If you find those characteristics and a warm fellowship, the church may be for you

CHURCH BELONGS TO GOD NOT TO MAN

1CORINTHIANS 1:2

to the assembly of God which is at Corinth; those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, both theirs and ours:

It is God's church even in Corinth, "laetum et ingens paradoxon" (Bengel). This city, destroyed by Mummius B.C. 146, had been restored by Julius Caesar a hundred years later, B.C. 44, and now after another hundred years has become very rich and very corrupt. The very word "to Corinthianize" meant to practise vile immoralities in the worship of Aphrodite (Venus). It was located on the narrow Isthmus of the Peloponnesus with two harbours (Lechaeum and Cenchreae). It had schools of rhetoric and philosophy and made a flashy imitation of the real culture of Athens. See Acts 18:1ff. for the story of Paul's work here and now the later developments and divisions in this church will give Paul grave concern as is shown in detail in I and II Corinthians. All the problems of a modern city church come to the front in Corinth. They call for all the wisdom and statesmanship in Paul.

2 to the assembly of God which is at Corinth; those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, both theirs and ours:

th'/ ejkklhsiva/ tou' qeou' th'/ ou~sh/ ejn Korivnqw/, hJgiasmevnoiß ejn Xristw'/ #Ihsou', klhtoi'ß aJgivoiß, su;n pa'sin toi'ß ejpikaloumevnoiß to; o~noma tou' kurivou hJmw'n #Ihsou' Xristou' ejn panti; tovpw/, aujtw'n kai; hJmw'n:

Verse 2 The church of God

(th ekklhsiai tou qeou). Belonging to God, not to any individual or faction, as this genitive case shows.
In 1 Thessalonians 1:1 Paul wrote "the church of the Thessalonians in God" (en qewi), but "the churches of God" in 1 Thessalonians 2:14. See same idiom in 1 Corinthians 10:32; 1 Corinthians 11:16,22; 1 Corinthians 15:9; 2 Corinthians 1:1; Galatians 1:13, etc. Which is in Corinth (th oush en Korinqwi). See on Acts 13:1 for idiom

That are sanctified (hgiasmenoiß). Perfect passive participle of agiazw, late form for agizw, so far found only in the Greek Bible and in ecclesiastical writers. It means to make or to declare agion (from agoß, awe, reverence, and this from azw, to venerate).

 It is significant that Paul uses this word concerning the called saints or called to be saints (klhtoiß agioiß) in Corinth. Cf. klhtoß apostoloß in Acts 1:1. It is because they are sanctified in Christ Jesus (en Cristwi Ihsou). He is the sphere in which this act of consecration takes place. Note plural, construction according to sense, because ekklhsia is a collective substantive. With all that call upon (sun pasin toiß epikaloumenoiß).

Associative instrumental case with sun rather than kai (and), making a close connection with "saints" just before and so giving the Corinthian Christians a picture of their close unity with the brotherhood everywhere through the common bond of faith. This phrase occurs in the LXX (Genesis 12:8; Zechariah 13:9) and is applied to Christ as to Jehovah (2 Thessalonians 1:7,9,12; Philippians 2:9,10). Paul heard Stephen pray to Christ as Lord (Acts 7:59). Here "with a plain and direct reference to the Divinity of our Lord" (Ellicott). Their Lord and ours (autwn kai hmwn). This is the interpretation of the Greek commentators and is the correct one, an afterthought and expansion (epanorqwsiß) of the previous "our," showing the universality of Christ.