The one and only authentic church of Jesus Christ
Have “the gates of Hades” prevailed against the church of Jesus Christ, or do we have a whole lot of compromise, imitations, and iniquity marring the testimony?
Jesus once made a promise and declaration:
And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. – Mt 16:18
But what do we have today? Tens of thousands of sub-sects, divisions, denominations – pick your descriptor – of people who claim to represent the faith “once for all delivered to the saints” but who cannot agree.
Is this God’s doing? Is all well and as it should be in “Christendom,” or whatever you call the collection of Christians meeting and living today in the world?
To hear some of them talk, you might suppose it is. There are teachings suggesting such things as 1) Everything happens for a reason, or 2) God has a purpose in such and such. Or, 3) God is trying to teach you something in this. Or, God works in all things after the counsel of His own will, and what Satan means for evil, God uses for good.
These thoughts may be true, but they may also be assumptions built on a faulty premise that God otherwise approves of the state of affairs we live under.
But Christians, like sheep without a True Shepherd, persist and may imagine themselves living a normal Christian life.
Wake Up!
Is your life the best God can do? Is the state of Christianity today the best God can do? Is the testimony of Jesus Christ expressed through a majority of Christians today the best God can do?
If so, no wonder so many reject Christianly. If one were to assume all is as it should be, and God is smiling from heaven at the mixed messages, surely that person lacks not only faith and Bible knowledge, but even sound thinking ability!
But before we continue pondering this line of inquiry, let’s try and get clear on a few things:
Christianity is not a self-help program instituted by the Almighty God for the purposes of our self-aggrandizement.
It is not “about” individuals, though they are cherished by God, but intended to be “about” Jesus Christ and all this entails.
God has always wanted a people devoted to Himself, and to one another in love (Jn 13:35).
The church and life in Christ – individually and collectively – is supposed to be a restoration of a broken relationship with the Creator of all – God, through Jesus Christ.
It is to be an embassy of living stones, that gives glory to the one true God.
These “living stones” were written about and called also “living epistles” by Peter and Paul respectively.
Peter’s Testimony:
Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. – 1 Pet 2:4,5
Paul’s testimony:
“Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” – Eph 2:19-22
Among other things, the apostles, under the direction of Jesus Christ, sought to build this church of Jesus Christ to be:
Known by its fruit, not its doctrines, or teaching points alone.
A place of refuge for the repentant sinner to learn and practice holiness.
A hospital for the sick – emotionally broken, depressed, sad, weary, downtrodden.
The bride of Christ, whose members themselves are as brides to be, with their lamps full of oil.
A place of meeting God, where He actually presences Himself among His people.
And PROOF that God exists.
… that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. … – Jn 17:21
It is to be made up of people who are motivated first by LOVE (2 Cor 5:14) – a supernatural transcendent love that comes from God’s Spirit in them (Rom 5:5).
The Holy Spirit, by the way, is the center, and He is the Person of God, who stands as Christ as Head. He is in essence the glue that holds the whole thing together.
… in Him we live and move and have our being … – Acts 17:28
The “body of Christ” was not God’s plan to elevate individuals as solo entities unto the Lord. It was to be a body where we fit one into another, and put others first.
It was to be far more glorious than the greatest glory of the Old Testament times.
The Ministry of the Spirit
2 Corinthians 3:
3 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? 2 You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; 3 clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.
The Spirit, Not the Letter
4 And we have such trust through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Glory of the New Covenant
7 But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? 9 For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. 10 For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels. 11 For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious.
12 Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech— 13 unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. 14 But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. 15 But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. 16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Hijacked
Satan’s plan from the start was to subvert, pollute, divert, defile, and dilute the purity and potency of this reality.
He preyed on the natural vulnerabilities of humans, who sought a holy God and spiritual life with the natural faculties inherited from Adam.
The disagreement among those who name the name of Christ has become a mockery of what God wanted, and defies the apostolic commands to not be divided, but unified under one Holy Spirit.
Does this therefore mean Jesus was wrong and the gates of Hades did prevail? No, but the Lord knows man has his own will. And, man is a sinner being saved by grace through faith.
The New Testament also says man must abide in Christ, walk by the Holy Spirit, not sow to the flesh.
If men fail to do so, they open the door to evil spirits, and that is what happened in history in countless examples.
If they had stayed hidden in Christ, the devil would have had no place in them (Jn 14:30), but this they did not do.
As it is written, “let God be true, and every man a liar” (Rom 3:4). God is blameless, but men have let the devil in (1 Tim 4:1).
God Does Damage Control
Yes, some might say, but what about the fact that I know Jesus Christ is in my life?
Indeed He may be. That is because God is faithful, He said He would never leave nor forsake His own. People may enter by the Door, and be born anew. God is then committed to them.
He may thus encourage and answer prayer, teach us His Word, be in the midst of praise and worship, lead and guide by the deep intuition from the spirit within, and otherwise inspire.
But because God is faithful, this does not mean what we have is all He would do. Love suffers long, and is kind, and God is love.
He bears with us, but He, who changes not, still has the same eternal purpose to build His church, and have His bride ready for when He returns.
Inasmuch as she is not, God is not satisfied. So His presence and activity in our lives may be like that of a father who even if he has a disobedient or ignorant child (or ill taught, indoctrinated), he will not disinherit that one; he bears long with the child because the child is his own.
Thus, even if God does interact in our lives, that is not a blanket endorsement that all is well. We must guard against such presumption.
If all were as it should be, then we must assume all the division is His doing, all the mixed and contradictory teaching and practices are also His doing. He must approve of it all. You cannot have it both ways.
No, realistically, He works with what He has. He does what He can while still demanding faith in the unseen, and an honest heart to seek His will, and “love hopes all things.”
Yes, a likely conclusion among the nominal, the confused, the half-committed who still have God is He is doing damage control.
He knew it would be this way too, as Jesus said “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8)
Solution
Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Return to Me,” says the Lord of hosts, “and I will return to you,” says the Lord of hosts. – Zech 1:3
This is in keeping with the thought behind Jesus’ words, when He said “come to me.”
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. – Mt 11:28
This is a spirit-to-Spirit approach, and God desires truth on the inward parts.
It is a measure of the heart whether this works and bears good fruit.
A book’s worth of commentary beyond this could be written, but suffice to say:
God the Spirit originated the church.
God the Spirit gave the first Christians their ability, and testimony.
God the Spirit alone knows the spirit of the truth on all matters of doctrine, faith and practice.
God the Spirit would restore the faith “once for all delivered to the saints” – one local house at a time – if we would humble ourselves, pray, and desire nothing else above this quest.
It is His will.
Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. – 1 Jn 5:14
Seek the Lord while He may yet be found.
Accept no substitutes!
