Vol. XL October 1, 2008 No. 10

The One True Church

by Tom McLemore

The early restoration movement was a response to the sinful and reprehensible religious division which had developed over the previous centuries. Its leaders issued a call for believers in Christ to come out of denominations and to be one on the basis of the New Testament.

Understanding of this concept is diminishing, as evidenced by the widespread denial of the distinctiveness of the Lord's church. It is urgent and imperative that the true nature of the church of the New Testament be emphasized and that the only genuine basis for Christian unity be communicated. What is the nature of the one true church?

The One Jesus-built Church. Jesus promised to build it. Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus responded, “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). Jesus began to build it on Pentecost by saving people from their past sins. Peter claimed that it was the resurrected and exalted Jesus who was doing what they were seeing and hearing (Acts 2:32, 33). People heard the gospel, repented, and were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ in order to receive forgiveness. As the Lord saved these, he was adding them to the church (Acts 2:36-47).

Jesus continued to build his church as the gospel was spread and people responded to it. For example, read what had happened in Ephesus (Ephesians 2:8, 9, 20-22). Jesus continues to build his church today. The church Jesus was building in the first century is the church to which he adds those who are being saved today (Acts 2:41, 47). It contains the saved of all ages, i.e., all who are enrolled in heaven (Hebrews 12:22-24). Consider some very important implications of this. One cannot join this church. Men (humans) do not determine who is in it. The only way to be in it is to have been saved. (This is not saying that getting into it occurs before one is saved, or that getting into it results in being saved. One gets into it in the process of being saved and at the moment one is saved). The church is those who have been saved, and those who have been saved are the church. All who have been saved are in it; no one in it has not been saved. (This is not saying that all who are in it now will be saved eternally. Some will fall away. There are some who are enrolled in heaven now whose names will be blotted out. Revelation 3:5).

The One Family of God Church. The church is the household (family) of God (1 Timothy 3:15; Ephesians 2:19). One gets into God's family by being born/begotten into it. To Nicodemus, Jesus described the manner in which one is born/begotten again: “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.” (John 3:5). Paul verifies that this birth is baptism of the believer in Christ: “[F]or in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Galatians 3:26, 27).

These facts have important implications. A new Christian is a babe whose task it is to grow up. Once a person becomes a child of God, one is always a child. However, not all children of God will be saved. Some will fall away. Only those children of God who are faithful will be saved eternally. This is indicated by the fact that when a child of God sins, it is not required to be born if water and Spirit (baptized) again. If one could cease to be a child of God by becoming unfaithful, it would be necessary to be born again again!

The One Undenominational Church. The one true church never was, is not now, and never can be a denomination. No mention is made of denominations in the entire New Testament. The origin of denominations is neither Christ, nor the apostles, nor the New Testament. Denominations are not pleasing to God, not according to the will of Christ, and not the result of the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Being a member of a denomination involves more or less than being a Christian. Being a Christian does not make one a member of a denomination. It is not necessary to belong to a denomination in order to be a Christian or to be saved.

It takes no more or no less than being saved from past sins, i.e., than being a Christian, to be in the one true church. It is not possible to be a Christian and not be in it. It is impossible to be saved and not be a Christian. It is impossible to be a Christian without having been saved and being in the one true church. While it is impossible to be saved and not be in the one true church, one can be saved, can be a Christian, and can go to heaven without being a member of a denomination. It takes something additional and different to be a member of a denomination than to be saved, to be a Christian, and to go to heaven!

The One Church that is One on the Basis of One. Denominationalism is all about variety and multiplicity. There are many and various denominations. Paul, in Ephesians 4:1-4 speaks of one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God. When the writers of the New Testament refer to the sum total of all believers in Christ, they write of “the church” (singular); when they write of “the churches,” they refer to the local assemblies of members of the one true church. Jesus prayed that all who believed in him would be one. He planned to be Shepherd of one flock (John 10:16; 17:20, 21).

There are two senses of “one” that should be emphasized here: “one” in the sense of solitary–one and only, and “one” in the sense of unity. In denominationalism, people are in something that is neither solitary nor unified. In denominationalism there are various “faiths.” (compare Jude 3; Ephesians 4:13–“the faith;” cf. 2 Corinthians 13:5). In denominationalism there are various “bodies” (Christ, on the other hand, is not divided–1 Corinthians 1:13). In denominationalism, there are various “baptisms” (The one true baptism is immersion of believers for the remission of sins).

The perfection of the divine plan is manifested in the solitary and unified nature of the church. One true church (one body, confessing one faith, and administering one baptism) is compatible and conformable with true religion (one Spirit, one God and Father, and one Lord). Denominationalism (many bodies, confessing many faiths, administering many baptisms) is incompatible and irreconcilable with true religion (one Spirit, one God and Father, and one Lord).

Humans will call you to join their denomination. God calls you to be a Christian, his child (not a particular type or variety of Christian or child of God). If you will be saved from your sins, thus becoming a Christian (we have noted from Acts 2 and other passages how this happens), you will be a member of the one true church. There is no way that you could not be a member of it, because the Lord himself would be adding you to it. If everyone would answer this call, all religious division would cease. Whose call will you answer?

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