God continues to speak to people by the Word in the Bible in order to open our understanding to comprehend His will. Luke 24:45. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed. Isa 50:4.
One of the things, that those who pray come to understand, is the truth about Bible teaching on the church. This includes the message of Heb 12:26-27. At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. The content of this Scripture shakes religious constructs.
A church in accordance with the original plan is the worst threat to the devil. That’s why he resists the restoration of the church to God’s original plan with all his fury. 1 Jn. 2:24-25. But God will give us the mindset that Caleb had: We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it. Numbers 13:30.
Read this whole text. It’s the only way for you to understand the teaching in it. I repeat myself in order to ensure that that the teaching will be down pat. After all, God’s vision of His church is in question here.
THE WAY TO THE BLESSINGS THAT WERE AT THE BEGINNING
God wants to restore His church to a clear, living fellowship with the Lord of the church, Jesus. The Holy Spirit leads those living Christians to a fellowship and work where Jesus is saving, healing and filling people with the Holy Spirit. Acts 2. He sends the believers to preach the gospel, help those who are suffering and to heal the sick etc. Mark 16:15-20.
The most important thing in human life is to have one’s sins forgiven and so become a child of the God of the new covenant. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins, Rom 11:27. This must not become overshadowed by other important Bible teachings.
Thanks be to the Lord! To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom… Rev 1:5-6. Thank you, Jesus! With your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom. Rev 5:9-10. So the church is a group of people who have been bought by Jesus’ blood; His kindom, whose purpose is spiritual only. Anyone who reads the Bible can understand what the true church is. The asnwer that the Bible gives is very simple: those who have become believers are God’s church. Religions, religious sects, denominations, chariteis and so on are not churches. The born again people in each local area form the local church of where they live. Thus the Bible mentions churches in the plural only based on the fact that there are believers in many local areas. = one city, one church. Tit 1:5. Two cities, two churches. Seven cities, seven churches. Rev. 1:11. But in the Bible, the church as a whole is remains mentioned in the singular, the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27) because Jesus is the only founder of the church.
The teaching on the being of the church is a subject that has become badly distorted among all of the human race. The majority have swallowed the lie that leads them astray, that the church is some institution established by man. That teaching has led people outside of original Christianity. And even though the matter of the church is not a question of salvation, its destruction is a serious fall. The Biblical fellowship (oneness) and love of believers has been broken by the establishment of denominations. This is why, Thus saith the Lord, Return, faithless people, I will cure you of backsliding. Jer. 3:22. Thus God calls his own back to all things good and right, such as the original ways of the church.
The teaching mentioned in John 17:21-23 that concerns us will happen: that all of them may be one. So we will all be perfectly one. We can’t see it yet but it will happen in this age. Otherwise Jesus’ prayer would ahve been mere empty words. But waking to reality and to fellowship will CERTAINLY happen! Mathew 25:7-12. It will happen by returning to the way of the Bible teaching talked of in this text. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. Jn 17:7. The church is going to be set back into the faith and truth of the apostolic time before Jesus comes back. Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. Acts 3:21. Heb. 12:7-14.
Genuine repentance includes the cleansing of the church of so-called ”great men” who raise themselves above others (e.g. church clergy, the bishopry etc.). There is only one great person in the church. He is Jesus, the supreme shephard. The time of the great prophets ended with John the Baptist. Math 11:17-14.
WHO BELONGS TO THE CHURCH
Only those who have been genuinely born again belong to the church, those who have been baptised by immersion in the name of Jesus after they believed. Acts 2:41. Genuine coming to faith is that you begin to live with Jesus. That’s when the truth of the church begins to open up. God wants to lead us to experience this way of blessings that they had at the beginning. So we understand that everyone who has come to believe belongs together in the same flock of God, ergo the church. No other way is possible because belonging to Jesus is the same as belonging to His church. Having ones’s name on a church register does not mean the person belongs to God’s church.
Joining Jesus is joining the church. The Bible knows no other way of joining God’s church. It has no concept of someone genuinely being a believer and then supposedly not belonging to the church. Acts 2:38, 41, 42. You belong to the church if you live with Jesus, i.e. you are in Christ, not Adam. Being in fellowship with believers is another matter. And God wants all of his own to congregate and work together. Heb. 10:25/Acts 2:41-42.
A Biblical fellowship is God’s will!
Every locality has just one group of born again people (John 3:3, 1 Pet 1:23, 2:9/Tit 1:5), which has been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 1 Pet. 1:19. This church that has been established by the cross, we can start to build in each local area, continuing from where the apostles left off! Everyone can begin to carry out the tasks and dreams that they have recieved from God as long as they have been checked against the Bible. All forms of service that God has given us can and must be carried out in this fellowship.
It is therefore good to take to heart His basic truth that THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN REDEEMED BY JESUS’ BLOOD ARE GOD’S ONLY CHURCH. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 1 Pet 2:9-10. This was written concerning all of us, who have been have been born again. 1 Pet 1:23. Thus WE belong to this ONE people of God, to the same congregation with all those who have been saved through all ages, for example, Peter, James, John and Paul etc; the first Christians. Acts 20:28, 26:18. One body! Eph 4:1-16, 1 Cor 12:27.
No one has been given permission to divide the one host of saints by founding new denominations etc; sects with membership registers, ”name plaquard churches”. Math 24:35. Heb. 13:8. Reve 22:18,19. That is why we don’t accept denominations/sects and don’t participate in their functions. We know that not one ”church” founded by people is a church at all. Albeit individual believers in them, as well, belong to the same God’s church with us and work with us to gather people to God. In that respect, we work together with all believers. But we mustn’t accept the deceptive teaching that institutions established by humans would be churches and that we would belong to different churches based on that. So called ecumenicalism is, in reality, acceptance of dispersion; an ecumenical mix of Babel religion.
HOW CAN YOU JOIN THIS CHURCH?
Joining Jesus is the same as joining His church, the body of Christ. 1 Cor 12:27. So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. Gal 3:26, 27. Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Acts 2:41-42. So it isn’t possible to join this church like joining a worldly charity organisation or religion by puttin your name down in the register and then you belong to the church, take your name off and you no longer do.” This is not how the Bible teaches it. Man cannot join another to God’s church. And neither can man excommunicate another from the church. Separating someone from the fellowship (because of sin) is another matter. With regard to that, the Bible teaches: Expel the wicked person from among you. 1 Cor 5:13. But either excommunicating or joining someone to the church is exclusively God’s work. Now that we understand the being of the chruch, we can understand this, too. Having your name in a church register or removing it does not relate to belonging to God’s church. Rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Luke 10:20. The next step for people who have united with Jesus, who have been baptised by immersion in His name, is to enter church fellowship and be blessed into it. According to Bible teaching, only people who already belong to God’s church, who have become believers and are Biblically baptised, can be blessed to join the fellowship of a local church! So we understand that the fellowship and belonging to the church are two different things. There is no such thing as a Christian without a church. Those erraneous concepts must be dispelled from our minds.
NO NEW CHURCH
The Bible contains no example of or teaching that any new churches with new names had been established in the apostolic time. It is an error to believe that Paul supposedly went from one local area to antoher establishin new churches. Paul did not establish a single new church but the congregation that was founded on the cross spread to new areas. Note the word, ”spread”. It is the key to this. One, eternally indivisible congregation of God spread to new areas by Christians preaching the message of salvation, the sacrifice on the cross on our behalf and about the risen Jesus. People became believers, repented of their sins and got baptised and so they became the church in their own area. Acts 2:38, 41. They began to meet as the church of their locality. And every local chruch confessed with the mouth of all their believers that we are a part of the ONE church of God that Jesus founded on the cross. John 2:19-22. We do well to repeatedly emphasise this. So the apostles didn’t establish new churches. People who were led by the Holy Spirit were chosen for different roles from among the believers, eg. Tit 1:5, Rom. 12:4-8, Eph. 4:11-16. Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.” 2 Tim. 2:19, 1Cor. 3:11. They didn’t accept that any locality should have two or more churches even though there were multiple meeting places according to need. 1 Cor 1:10-13 and 3:4-5. We should be doing things the same way; Helsinki has the Helsinki church, Turku has the Turku church, Tampere has the Tampere church etc. Rev. 1:11-20. So the question here is not about advocating a new church, on the contrary: the point is getting out of the new ones and back into the oldest one.
Paul’s missionary calling
Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. Acts 26:16-18.
This was the missionary calling that Jesus gave Paul and, at the same time, to all of us. Math. 28:19,20, Mark 16:15-20. It means that a person who has become a believer and been Biblically baptised has come out of Satan’s power into God’s church and from Adam into Christ and has thus come into the church. Rev 1:5,6, 5:9,10, John 3:3, Acts 2:38,41, Gal. 3:26-28, Rom. 8:9. Missionary work is the church’s main task.
BAPTISM
In the beginning of the church, everyone who became a believer and had had their sins forgiven, was baptised by immersion in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ…” Acts 2:38,41, ”So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.” Acts 10:48, 22:16, Col 3:17. In the beginning of our church, no one was left unbaptised. That is how it should still be.
Baptism is something that God blesses. We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. Rom. 6:45,5,11. The old life of sin was buried in the grave of baptism and we began to live in Jesus’ resurrection.
THE LOCAL CHURCH
Those who have been baptised after becoming believers, form the local church in each locality. It was set in order (not established) to function on the basis of the apostles’ teaching. Acts 2:42,42, Eph. 2:19-22, 4:11-16. The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you. Tit. 1:5. Notice? First there was a chruch and then it was set in order. And the borders of the local area were the borders of the church. eg. Rev. 1:11-30. And Bible teachings have been set for the spiritual boundaries of the church. ”Those who accepted his message were baptized, and (so)… were added to their number that day…” Apt 2:41.
May this be repeated as many times as it takes for it to be understood: all gentuine Christians within a particular local area, who have been baptised, belong to their local church on the basis that they belong to Jesus. A practical fellowship and coming together as a Biblical church can only begin with confessing this. The Bible does not teach ”ecumenicalism” in the sense of a fellowship of believers ”across church borders”. The Bible teaches us to build the fellowship without church borders. This is what we do.
THE CHURCH IS ONE
Jerusalem had ONE church with tens of thousands of members. Acts 21:20, 2:41, 4:4,32, 5:13-16. Even so, the one church in Jerusalem only had one body of elders. Acts 15:4, 21:18. But this one church already then had multiple meeting places where the ONE and same apostolic teachhing was received. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship. Acts 2:42, 1:13-15, 12:12, 1 Cor. 1:10, etc. The same principles should apply to the end: one church, one city. Two churches, two cities. Seven churches, seven cities. Rev. 1:11-20. etc. Tit. 1:5, etc. And one local church can have multiple meeting places according to need but the meeting places are not churches. In the beginning, the church met a lot in private homes. It was a good system. But they didn’t consider the homes as churches, only meeting places. So it isn’t Biblical to establish, for example, ”home church movements” or a ”home church”. May God protect His own from doing that, which is what every other divisive movement has done. 1 Cor 1:10-13, 3.3-11.
THE FOUNDATION
Paul preached the gospel, thus laying a foundation in people’s lives. I laid a foundation as a wise builder… For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.1 Cor 3:10,11. That’s how the ”church of the living God” was born in Corinth, amongst other places, formed from people who had become believers. It happened when ”the Corinthians, who were listening, believed and were baptised.” Acts 18:8, 1 Cor 1:2, Acts 2:41, !thes 2:14. They were placed on the foundation, Jesus.
The group of people who are saved is the new covenant temple, the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27), whose degradation has always been a serious sin. Don’t you know that YOU yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.1Cor 3:16,17, Eph 2:19-22, heb 3:6. So we are the ”living stones” mentioned here. 1 Pet 2:5. Every living stone sings eternal thanks to the Lamb. In Rev. 21, we are told the angel promised to show John ”the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” Rev. 21:19. And he showed John ”the holy city, Jerusalem”. So ”the bride” is the same as the Lamb’s wife, i.e. the church, the new Jerusalem built from living stones, a city that sings eternal thanks.
JESUS IS THE ONLY FOUNDER OF THE CHURCH.
By His work of salvation, He established his own church in three days. ”Jesus answered them, Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days. They replied, It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days? But the temple he had spoken of was his body.” Jn 2:19-22.
THE FINISHED CHURCH
The church was finished by the end of the apostolic period, about 100 AD. All the Bible Scriptures had been put together by then and were at the disposal of the church, 66 books. Also, all the doctrines concerning church practices, teachings, ministries (so-called church offices) etc. were done. But most importantly, everyone understood the being of the church as ONE body of Christ. 1 Cor 12:27. ”One body”. Eph 4:4.
No one has been comissioned by God to establish new churches. The Bible does not teach that. That is why we cannot participate in man-made religions. It is written into the form of the ”one church”: …not giving up meeting together…Heb 10:25. The teaching means tha we must have A PLACE FOR GROWING in a local church fellowship, from where we can go into action in accordance with the Holy Spirit’s lead and the support of the church’s prayer. This is the God given teaching that prevents division and is for our best. It must now be applied. And it doesn’t necessarily mean just one meeting place but the local church can meet in as many places as the number of members requires, as long as none of the meeting places separates itself from other believers in the area to become a seperate sect.
The church as it was at the beginning is given to be an example to all Christians in all ages all over the world. 1 Cor 1:10.13, 3:1-11, Heb. 13:8,9,13, etc.
The Biblical Christian fellowship and work on the principle of one church is the absolute will of God! If anyone teaches otherwise, they have not yet understood Bible teaching.
EVERYONE IS CALLED TO JOIN
In additon to individual believers, all the denominations founded by men can join the church system laid out in this text. HOW? They must stop their solo act and all the teaching that separates believers from each other and renounce the principles of division. For example, all name plaquards and membership registers must be removed and then they should confess that their work is to be within the fellowship of the ONE church of God. They went out from us, 1 Jn 2:19. Should those who have left not return? So When they have decided to do God’s will, they can make a public announcement something like this:
”We now commit ourselves to seeing things the way God sees them, that there is only ONE church in our local area that has been redeemed by Jesus’ blood, meaning all of us who have become believers in this locality and who have been Biblically baptised. You are welcome to the fellowship of your own church. Heb 10:25.
We no longer agree to use unbiblical names for the church, because the church belongs to God. Notice the ownership:
– ”To the church of God in Corinth” 1 Cor 1:2, 2 Cor 1:1.
– ”Do not cause anyone to stumble… or the church of God”. 1Cor 10:32, 11:16, 15:9.
–”nor do the churches of God.” 1 Cor 11:16.
– ”Or do you despise the church of God?” 1 Cor 11:22.
– ”how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it.” Gal. 1:13.
-”For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus.” 1 Tess. 2:14.
– ”you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God. ” 1 Tim. 3:15.
It is Biblical to call a church according to its local area, for example, 1 Thes 1:1. But humanly invented name plaquards on meeting places are elements of division that every believer must remove from their lives so that they would no longer work in subjection to them.
We are not Lutheran, Pentecostal, Baptist, Adventist, Free Church, Ecumenical etc. -ists or from those. We are not Catholic or Protestant. We are just God’s children redeemed with Jesus’ blood.
We have come out of sects and all membership register religions.
In every local area in Finland, as well, we should initiate the church function and work in accordance with the apostolic model laid out here. We must procure a meeting place that is for all the believers in the area. And when Biblical church functioning has been started, no new ”chuch” can be established in that area. It would be the beginning of division all over again. 1 Cor 1:10-13, 34-37.
Each and every one must confess and seek the church fellowship depicted in this text. It is God’s will!
Our common task is to bring people together into the faith and doctrine that the first Christians were i;, into Bible teaching. Acts 2:41,42. “Gather to me this consecrated people, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice.” Ps 50:5. That is the end time message. Joel 2:16.
This is God’s vision of His own Church.
With blessings,
Weijo Lindroos
