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"Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the
way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life,
and few there be that find it." (Matt. 7:13-14).
The world calls these words of Jesus, "narrow mindedness." That's because the denominational industry preaches a humanistic religion of comfort which winks at most sin and attaches no guilt to anything man does. The broad road to hell is being traveled by multitudes who have been told by denominational hirelings that there is nothing they must do to be saved and that God will save all denominations. But that's not what the New Testament teaches. The church of the New Testament is the only one which Christ will save. (Eph. 5:23). That may sound "narrow-minded," but that's the plain truth of God's word. The church of Christ is the greatest institution on earth and encompasses all the saved of the earth. It was purposed from eternity (Eph. 1:3-12) and the Son of God himself promised to build it. (Matt. 16:18). Moreover, its value was demonstrated when Christ gave his life-blood for it. (Acts 20:28) And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all. (Eph. 1:22-23). There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. (Eph. 4:4-6). And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. (Col. 1:18). The New Testament church is the body of Christ and Christ has only one body or church. Denominations do not constitute his body. They are counterfeits — man-made institutions devoid of any spiritual or saving benefit — and constitute plants God never planted. As such, they shall be rooted up and cast into the fire at the last day. (Matt. 15:13). The body of Christ — the church — is not a monstrosity of warring members teaching contradictory doctrines. Ask a Mormon, a Methodist, a Baptist, a Pentecostal Holiness, a Catholic or a Presbyterian what to do to be saved or how to worship God and they will give differing answers. Does anyone honestly believe Christ is the author of such confusion and contradictory teachings? To believe and/or teach that all denominations comprise the one church of the New Testament is sophistry gone to seed and defies all logic. Christ has only one body — the church — and that's the one found within the pages of the New Testament. It takes Baptist doctrine to make a Baptist, the Methodist Discipline to make a Methodist, the Catholic's Catechism to make a Catholic and the Presbyterian Confession of Faith to make a Presbyterian. But it takes the New Testament without addition or subtraction to make a Christian — a member of the church Jesus built. Christ has only one body. The New Testament is also characterized as the "house of God." (1 Tim. 3:14-15). That means the church is God's family and God has only one family. It's blasphemous to even intimate that God has children outside his own family — the New Testament church. All Christians are God's children, but God has no children outside his family. One who has children outside his own family is an adulterer and to say that God has children outside the church of Christ is to charge him with adultery. God has only one family. The New Testament is also called the "temple of God." (Eph. 2:19-22). God's temple is his dwelling place and the only place where he will accept man's worship. It is he who determines the acceptable place and form of worship. That is not the prerogative of men. That principle is illustrated in the Old Testament tabernacle and later in the temple Solomon built. It was there where God figuratively dwelt among his people and it was within the temple where he accepted Israel's worship. The principle is the same in the New Testament church. As the temple of God, the church is the place where God dwells among his people and accepts their worship. Denominations do not constitute the church of Christ. Therefore they do not constitute God's temple — he has only one. Therefore, their worship is vain because they teach the doctrines of men. (Matt. 15:8-9). Denominations are no part of the church for which Jesus died. They are not the "branches" of which Jesus spoke in John 15:5. When he said, "I am the vine, ye are the branches," he spoke to his apostles and referred to individuals as branches — not denominations. His words in John 15:6 make that crystal clear. "If a man (not "denomination", JCB) abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered..." Christ has only one church and denominations are no part of it. |