(4) THE TRUE CHURCH OF GOD The Bible teaches that Gods people will obtain immortality or eternal life (see Romans 2:7). With the understanding that Gods church is made up of people, then we would find eternal life only through Jesus (see 1 Timothy 1:16-17; 1 John 1:1-2; John 1:1-4, 14:6), and by disconnecting ourselves from Jesus, we have no chance for eternal life and salvation. Whereas with the understanding that Gods church is a denomination, then we would find eternal life through the denomination, and by disconnecting ourselves from the denomination we believe we have no chance for eternal life or of salvation. As you can see, all these scenarios involve the issue of our salvation! The Bible does indeed teach that we must be saved (see 1 Timothy 2:3-4). With the understanding that Gods church is made up of people, then we would individually find our salvation by connecting ourselves directly to Jesus Christ (see John 3:17; Isaiah 45:22; Acts 2:21, 4:10-12, 15:11, 16:30-31; Romans 5:9-10) and in separating ourselves from Christ, we are lost. Whereas with the understanding that Gods church is a denomination, then we find our salvation by connecting ourselves to the denomination, and in separating ourselves from the denomination, we believe we are lost. Now let us put all of these points together. With the understanding that Gods church is made up of people, then we would individually find our rest, become part of Christs body and true church, find our eternal life and salvation, by going directly to, and becoming connected directly with, Jesus. Thus our eyes are directed upward, and our attention becomes centered and focused upon Jesus. He becomes the object of our love, adoration and praise. Jesus becomes our All-in-All, His life becomes our best and all absorbing theme to contemplate on. Hence our desire to please Him becomes paramount, and His will and commands become our delight to follow and obey. And by continuing to behold Jesus day after day, our very lives and characters are more and more changed into His perfect image, and our desire to lead others to also join with Jesus and find salvation in Him enlarges more each day. But by leaving, separating, disconnecting and breaking ourselves away from Christ, then we no longer have any rest; we are no longer part of His body or true church; we no longer have any assurance of salvation or hope for eternal life; which means that we are lost. But with the understanding that Gods church is a denomination, then we would find our rest, become part of Christs body and true church, find our eternal life and salvation, by going directly to, and becoming connected directly with, the denomination. Thus our eyes are directed downward, and our attention becomes centered and focused upon the denomination. It becomes the object of our love, adoration and praise. The denomination becomes our all-in-all, its history becomes our best and all absorbing theme to contemplate on, and our desire to please the denomination becomes paramount. The will and commands of the denominational leaders becomes our delight to follow and obey. And by continuing to behold the denomination, our very lives and characters are more and more changed into the imperfect image it reveals, and our desire to lead others to join with us in the denomination grows more each day. But by leaving, separating, disconnecting and breaking ourselves away from the denomination, then we believe we will no longer have any rest; we believe we are no longer part of Christs body or true church; and we believe we no longer have any assurance of salvation or hope for eternal life; which means we believe we are lost. The most serious consequence to those who believe this way, is that their denominational leaders can be as corrupt and wicked as the devil himself, their denomination can even apostatize from the truths of the Bible and exchange these for the doctrines of hell, and yet it would not matter one bit! Why? Because you believe that your denomination is the true church of God. So even if you can be shown evidence that reveals your church to be controlled by the Devil himself, it would not shake your blind faith in the denomination in the least! This is because you believe that your church is going through to heaven, and that by your remaining connected to it your ticket to heaven is thus assured, but if you would be separated from it, you would be lost!
Posted on: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 04:24:12 +0000
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