The Church

As I mentioned earlier, my spiritual journey shifted into high gear the moment I realized that the Scriptures refer to the Church—rather than to the Scriptures themselves—as “the pillar and foundation of the truth” (1 Tim 3.15), and “the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way” (Ep 1.23); and that the Church has the authority to expel unrepentant Christians and the power to “bind and loose” (Mt 18.15-18).

The problem I faced was trying to reconcile the doctrine of an authoritative, truth-filled Church with the existence of more than 30,000 Christian denominations who all teach different doctrines, follow different practices, and disagree on their understandings of the nature of the Trinity and the Incarnation of Christ; the role of good works; the proper place of Mary and the Saints; the right approach to Scriptures; the definition and means of salvation, justification, sanctification, glorification; the meaning, method, and timing of baptism; the substance of the elements of Communion; the proper understanding of atonement, original sin, mortal sin, venial sin; predestination versus freewill; imparted versus imputed righteousness; lordship salvation versus free grace; efficacious versus prevenient grace; total versus limited depravity; conditional versus unconditional election; premillennialism versus postmillennialism versus amillennialism and on, and on, and on, et cetera, ad nauseam, ad infinitum…

Is it possible, I wondered, that all these different doctrines can be correct?
Maybe doctrine is irrelevant and the differences don't matter?
Or maybe only certain doctrines are important and the rest is just academic?

Or perhaps Christ established more than one church?

Further reading showed me that Christ said “I will build my church,” not “churches” (Mt 16.18), and that “there shall be one flock and one shepherd,” not 30,000+ flocks (Jn 10.16). So, I had to conclude that Christ did not establish dozens, hundreds, or thousands of churches; He established one church, which is His one body.

But if the Church is the “body of Christ” (Col 1.18,24), and all the tens of thousands of denominations in this world are part of that one body, can all their disparate beliefs and teachings be valid? Is it acceptable to have conflicting and contradictory doctrine within the one Body of Christ?

St Paul wrote that “if anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!” (Ga 1.8-9)

He told Timothy to “command certain men not to teach false doctrines,” and that “some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.” (1 Tm 1.3, 4.1)

He wrote that, only under the "unity of faith," and in the "fullness of Christ," will we "no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.” (Ep 4.11-16)

He told Titus that an elder in the Church “must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it,” and that Titus himself “must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine.” (1.9, 2.1)

Christ told his disciples that “the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you,” and that “he will guide you into all truth.” (Jn 14.26, 16.13)

God Himself said that “I the Lord do not change” (Mal 3.6), so what reason did I have to believe that His doctrines—the means by which we attempt to understand Him, worship Him, and live a life of devotion to Him—will change, develop, evolve?

Doctrine clearly does matter, but which doctrine?
Can we divide doctrine into essential and non-essential?

I remembered where Christ said during His temptation in the desert that man is to live by “every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Mt 4.4), and in the Sermon on the Mount where He said that, “until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 5.18-19)

I began to ask myself: if Christ is the Truth (Jn 14.6), can there exist in His Body any falsehood?

The answer, or course, is: NO!!

The belief that the Church is the body of Him in Whom there is “no variation or shadow of turning” (Jam 1.17) absolutely excludes the possibility of contradictory or conflicting doctrine.

So, from reading all these passages, I was able to determine that Jesus established one church, in which all doctrine matters and does not conflict, and which contains the full truth as revealed by God. And if Christ has kept the promise He made in Matthew 28.20, then that Church must still exist.

How then could I possibly accept the notion that every body of Christian believers is a part of that Church? Two confessional bodies that hold contradictory beliefs can't both be true. One of them has to be wrong. Ten thousand worship communities that confess contradictory beliefs can't all be true. Nine-thousand, nine-hundred, ninety-nine of them must be wrong.

Given Christ's promise that the Holy Spirit would guide His Church in "all truth," I could only conclude that those worship bodies that are wrong can not be the Church. For me to claim otherwise would be to call Christ a liar.

If it's true that there are thirty-thousand Christian "denominations" in this world that all hold different beliefs, then there can be precisely one that is the true Church.

That, of course, led me to the million-dollar question: which one?

Could there be a Church that can claim to have been founded on Pentecost, and that all the evidence points to as having preserved the faith—including doctrine, practice and worship—of the Apostles, unadulterated, unmodified, unaltered?

Well, as I said before, I believe I have found a church that does in fact answer that description.

So, if this church is the Body of Christ and the Pillar and Foundation of Truth—and I have every reason to believe that it is—what excuse could I possibly come up with to justify not joining it immediately?

There isn't one.

Now, I'm not afraid to admit that I'm anything but the sharpest knife in the drawer; I've been mistaken once or twice in my life. So if anyone thinks they have a better answer, I'm all ears.

For further reading:
The Church is Visible and One