Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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(Today’s Book Installment)
The One True Church
Chapter 50 – The Glory of the One True Church
How can the New Testament church be considered the one true church when it experienced large-scale apostasy? And to put a finer point on that question, let’s be sure to acknowledge that this apostasy was so great that it eventually included abandonment of “the blessed hope” of the Second Coming (aka the coming of the kingdom of God) in that generation by those who succumbed to it.
In other words, with so many believers not believing in the Second Coming as occurring, how could the New Testament church be the spotless bride of Christ?
First, here are some reminders of the importance of the church as a bride worthy of the bridegroom – that is, the Lord Jesus.
John 3:29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom…
Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,
Ephesians 5:26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
Ephesians 5:27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.
2 Corinthians 11:2 For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.
The answer to the question above is that the apostles disciplined the church as well as they could, for as long as they could…and then the Lord Himself provided the final measure of discipline when He fully purified that church at its end. He did this by separating the wheat from the tares, the wheat from the chaff, the sheep from the goats, and the truly believing from the unbelieving at the Second Coming (aka the coming of the kingdom of God).
Matthew 25:1 “Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.
Matthew 25:2 Five of them were foolish, and five were prudent.
Matthew 25:3 For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them,
Matthew 25:4 but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps.
Matthew 25:5 Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep.
Matthew 25:6 But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’
Matthew 25:7 Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps.
Matthew 25:8 The foolish said to the prudent, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’
Matthew 25:9 But the prudent answered, ‘No, there will not be enough for us and you too; go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’
Matthew 25:10 And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut.
Matthew 25:11 Later the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open up for us.’
Matthew 25:12 But he answered, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you.’
Matthew 25:13 Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour.
By the time of the Second Coming, very few apostles were left. And so many Gentiles had joined the church that knowledge of the Old Testament was shrinking for the average church leader and member. As a result of these and other factors, the churches that came after the 1st century church would not only never match the 1st-century church – they’d never understand it.
That said, anyone who reads the New Testament can understand the one true church because its voice is fully heard there. Apostasy has no voice in the New Testament. Apostasy is only identified and condemned; it is never defended or accommodated.
The New Testament is the united voice of the apostles. They never gave up and never gave in. The only way the world could stop them was to kill them.
The church was a vehicle for its time – as was the temple before it, and as was the tabernacle before that. The vehicle for now and forever is the kingdom of God.
The New Testament closes the book on the one true church – the one that Jesus built. Churches that have come after it are man-made.
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