For It is written:
“Then you will call upon Me and go And pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, When you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, And I will bring you back from your captivity…” (Jeremiah 29:12-14) “Serving Our Father…To Make Disciples Of Our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ”
Dear Friends, Are you seeking God? All of us have many spiritual & moral questions in life? Always seeking for answers…asking God, yet sometimes having no response.
In these modern days, many confusions, frustrations & disappointments are seen because many tried to answer these questions, even speaking in behalf of God. In their search for answers, denominations were born, each to their own interpretations & traditions, forgetting about the ORIGINAL PATTERN handed down by Christ to His Apostles in the 1st Century (2 Timothy 1:13-14, 1 Corinthians 2:11-16, 2 Timothy 3:16, Titus 2:1-15, Colossians 1:28, Hebrews 8:5, Ephesians 4:4-6).
When the finality of God’s instructions for His children (The New Testament) was completed following the death to the last Apostle, still may gradually started to fall away from the truth, changing God’s Plan. The Apostles prophesied this great apostasy (1 Timothy 4: 1-3 & 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, 2 Timothy 4:3-4, 2 Peter 2:1-3). Departures from the truth gradually occurred Centuries after Centuries of finding God’s answers to our questions in life & the deep desire for our Creator.
We are blessed that we have God’s Word; The Bible, God’s ONLY Instructions & Authority in matters of Religion & Christian life. Although many changes & apostasy occurred, the Word of god “Lives and abides forever” (1 Peter 1:23, 25) . Even though there was FALLING AWAY from the truth, God provided the means of RESTORATION. He gave us a Divine Pattern to follow.
Therefore, the distinctive plea of the churches of Christ is a plea for religious unity based upon the Bible. In a divided religious world, it is believed that THE BIBLE is the only possible connecting factor, THE TIE THAT WILL BIND MOST, if not all God-fearing people in the land to be one “IN CHRIST” (Ephesians 1:3-14; 3: 1-7; Colossians 2: 11-12; Romans 6:3-11; Galatians 2:20; 3:27; John 15:1-11; 8:31).
This is an appeal to go back to the Bible… to the simplicity, originality & purity of New Testament Christianity.
It is our plea to SPEAK WHERE THE BIBLE SPEAKS & BE SILENT WHEN THE BIBLE IS SILENT in all authority that pertains to the religion having confidence & faith in the completeness & sufficiency of the wisdom & knowledge of God revealed in the Bible.
Members of the churches of Christ do not conceive of themselves as a new church started near the beginning of the 16th century or in the days of Reformation & Protestantism or even from where the great apostasy started 150-318 AD as kept by the oldest & largest church in Rome.
Rather, we PRAY for A RETURN to that SAME CHURCH which was ORIGINALLY ESTABLISHED on the Day of Pentecost following the death, burial & resurrection of Jesus Christ, in 33 AD… Christ’s original Church (Matthew 16:18, Acts 2).
The SAFEST, SECURED, LOGICAL, REASONABLE, & RATIONAL WAY to follow Christ is to follow THE ORIGINAL CHURCH, where ONLY JESUS CHRIST is the head (Ephesians 1:22), the founder (Matthew 16:18) & not any other man-made denominations or new churches today. Let us be WARNED by Jesus Christ Himself, saying in “The Last Day”:
“Not everyone who says to Me, LORD, LORD, shall enter the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, LORD, LORD, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done may wonders in Your name?
And then I will declare to them, I NEVER KNEW YOU; DEPART FROM ME, you who practice lawlessness!” (Matthew 7:21-23)
From this passage, Our Judge in the Last Day is revealing that many religious people will not enter heaven. Being religious is not enough, but being religiously RIGHT & OBEDIENT to God’s will or instructions found in the New Testament, The Law of Christ (1 Corinthians 9:21, 13:10; Romans 8:2; Galatians 6:2; James 1:25; 1 John 3:4; Isaiah 2:1-3) is very important during Judgment Day.
For it is written, Jesus said: “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My Words, has that which judges him-The Word that I have spoken will judge him in the Last Day” (John 12:48)
Therefore our friends… Our goal must be that Church…nothing more, nothing less… just basic New Testament Christians as they were in the first century relying on the perfect plan of God His IDEAL CHURCH found in the bible which is absolutely ON SOLID GROUND and knowing if we do just what our Lord commanded, we know that our SALVATION BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH (Ephesians 2:8) is ASSURED.
In the churches of Christ… YOU WILL FIND YOURSELF SURROUNDED BY IMPERFECT PEOPLE DESIRING TO PLEASE PERFECT SAVIOR. It is our prayer to inviter you & your family to seek God our Father… And find Him “IN CHRIST”.