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Investigate the church of Christ
INVESTIGATE THE CHURCH OF CHRIST
The church of Christ is composed of those who are being saved. It is not a denomination. When a person hears the gospel of Christ, believes it with all sincerity, soberly repents of his sins, confesses Christ as the Son of God and is baptized (immersed in water) by the authority of Christ, God forgives that person all his past sins and seals him with the Holy Spirit. Such is the person considered in the Bible as being saved and added to the Lord's church, the body of Christ. And such is the person rightly called a Christian. Please, confirm all these things in Acts 2:36-47; 1 Cor. 12:13 and Acts 11:26.
God wants you to investigate the church of Christ, the church for which Jesus shed His blood and died. Satan, the deceiver of man from the beginning has created several and various counterfeit churches many of which seem to look in some aspects to be the church of Christ. In denominationalism, Satan has tried to portray the kingdom of Christ as being divided against itself (Matt. 12: 25), but the truth is that Christ is never and can never be divided (1 Cor. 1:12,13). Heaven and earth shall pass away, but His word remains forever unchangable (Matt. 24:35; 1 Pet. 1:25). Like a counterfeit piece of money, which any reasonable person will reject, the Lord wants you to be careful that you do not get yourself stuck in counterfeit churches which exist in every place. Some of these counterfeit churches are very old and popular, while some are fairly new or young but popular too. Therefore, be careful!
Jesus Christ or His apostles did not start any denominations. And you don't read of a Roman Catholic disciple, a Methodist disciple, a Baptist disciple, a Pentecostal disciple or any sectarian disciple in your Bible. Do you? Also, Jesus Christ did not design His church to be shredded into denominations ruled by conflicting creeds. Even His apostles rose up boldly to expose and check those who Satan was using in their time to plant the seed of denominations. Please, read with sober reflection Jno. 17:20,21; 1 Cor. 1:10-13; and Rom. 16:17,18.
If we are sincere, it must be admitted that the Spirit of Christ is lacking in all professed believers who neglect the one divine pattern of Christianity set forth plainly in the New Testament and divide themselves into conflicting, and in some instances antagonistic sects. One sect is Methodist which operates upon a human- made constitution, another is Baptist, another is Catholic, another is Jehovah's Witnesses so called. You also have the numerous brands of the charismatic assemblies, and various brands of so called evangelistic groups. You count and count until you are fed up. This is wearisome to any God fearing, right thinking person who reads about true Christianity as demonstrated in the New Testament during the first century A.D..
The major instruments of division among believers are the creed books, constitutions or manuals of the various sects. Creed contradicts creed, constitution varies from constitution and doctrine conflicts with doctrine. Whereas, the prophet of old had said, "... the Lord is our law giver" (Isa. 33:22), and James also declared "There is one law giver, who is able to save and to destroy" (Jas. 4:12). Even though our God has given us the law in the Bible, people have neglected their Bible and become a law to themselves. The Bible is neither subject to revision or amendment because of its inerrancy. It is all sufficient for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness to equip the man of God for every good work (2 Tim. 3:16,17). However, every sect has written its own constitution, or creed according to what they felt was right in their own eyes, using the Bible to give it legitimacy.
The main and sure source of information for you to avoid being misguided is the Bible. Therefore, take up your Bible now and start your investigation of the church of Christ, because the Bible is the only book in this world in which "holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." Your feelings, your conscience, what the majority are doing or saying, what your parents or ancestors have been doing, what the leaders say, etc. cannot guide you into what is religiously right or wrong. The Bible, the Book of God is the only source of truth in all spiritual and moral matters.
Remember, when you use your measuring tape to measure an object you accept the result without questioning. Will you not accept whatever the Bible tells you in all moral and spiritual matters, even much more readily because it affects your eternal destiny? God has given all men the Bible to enable them to identify the true church of Christ, so they can be saved from being trapped in counterfeit churches which deprive men of the true hope of eternal life. Start today to investigate the church of Christ.
