by Dave Brown
Ye often hear it said ...
“Get saved, and
then join the church of your choice.”
but Jesus said (Matthew 16:18) ...
“... I will
build my church...”
In the universal sense, the person who is saved is born (again) into the body of Christ, His church. If one does not meet the terms of salvation as given by the Lord, then it will do little good to “join” any local religious organization. In fact, it could be quite counterproductive if they teach that you are saved when, in fact, you are not. But let us suppose that you meet God’s terms of salvation and are added to the body of Christ (Rom. 6:3), there still remains a choice on your part as to which local religious group to affiliate with, if any. In the first century, those who were followers of Christ were easy to identify just by their claim. Not so today, since the vast majority of our religious organizations claim Jesus as their King. And yet, it is unfathomable to think that all of their contrary doctrines and practices are the result of His direction. The solution to this problem may not be as easy as it was in the first century, but it is still not difficult. It is first a matter of locating a group that makes the claim that they are following the Lord strictly according to the teachings of the New Testament, and then following up to determine for yourself that this claim is true. That would mean that book, chapter and verse could be found for the work, the worship and the use of all local church resources. It would also mean that the church was organized according to God’s plan (1 Tim. 3:1f; Tit. 1:5) with no organization greater than the local level.