 The words of this title were spoken by Jesus in a prayer to His heavenly Father (John 17:17). Jesus teaches us with these words that truth is determined by the word of God. There is no such thing as my truth and your truth. There is only God’s truth as it is revealed by God’s word.
God has given us His word in the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16). The revelation of God’s word is complete (1 Corinthians 13:8-10; James 1:25; Jude 3) and furnishes us completely (2 Timothy 3:17; 2 Peter 1:2-4). Without it we cannot know the truth. Therefore, we must make every effort to learn what the Bible teaches (2 Timothy 2:15). We must love the truth, seek the truth and abide in the truth (John 8:31-32). If we do not, we will be deceived by falsehood, never find the truth nor experience life in the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:9-11).
1 Comment
 There are those who believe that the church of Christ is just one of many other denominations and that it was founded by Alexander Campbell in the United States in the 19th century but this is not what the Bible teaches nor is it consistent with the historical record of the church of Christ.
Jesus promised to build His church (Matthew 16:18). The first congregation was founded in Jerusalem by the inspired preaching of the gospel of Christ through the apostles of Christ (Acts 2). As the gospel went forth many other churches of Christ were established throughout the world (Acts 1:8; Romans 16:16; Colossians 1:23).  Many churches call themselves a Bible Church. They claim to adhere to the Bible, but they are not the church you read about in the Bible.
Most of them are accepting of denominational churches, largely made up of persons received from denominational churches and hold to the same doctrines as denominational churches yet refer to themselves as nondenominational (not affiliated with any denomination) when in fact they are interdenominational (drawing from many different denominations). The church of the Bible was undenominational (opposed to denominationalism). Christ built only one church and He did not want it to be divided into many different kinds of churches built by men (Matthew 16:18; John 17:20-23; 1 Corinthians 1:10-13; Ephesians 1:22-23; 4:4; 5:23).  I have many friends and family members whom I dearly love that belong to different kinds of denominational churches. Each of these churches profess to be Christian but such denominations did not come from Christ. The Bible does not mention any such denominations.
The Bible teaches us that Christ built only one church (Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 1:22-23; 4:5; 5:23) which consists of every Christian (Acts 2:47; 1 Corinthians 12:13). These Christians would congregate in various locations around the world. These congregations were not a part of different denominations but were all churches of Christ (Romans 16:16). There were not many different kinds of Christians. They were all just Christians and members of the church of Christ. |
AuthorRobert Dodson is the Preaching Minister for the Northwest Church of Christ. Archives
January 2023
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