Is Your church an Adulteress?
“4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in [c]you all” Ephesians 4:4-6. Christ is, “. . .the head of the body, the church. . .” (Col. 1:18), “. . . for the sake of His body, which is the church” (Col. 1:24). Clearly the “body” and the “church” are synonymous.
Jesus cannot be an adulterer! Paul in Romans 7 describes one who is married and then marries another while her husband still lives as an adulteress (vss. 2-3). If you think yourself a Christian, then you are married to the eternal Christ and not free to marry another. “He is risen!” (Matt. 28:6; Rom. 8:34). Paul, concerned for the faithfulness of the saints at Corinth said they were deceived by the devil, their minds corrupted from the purity in Christ because of people preaching another Jesus whom the Apostles have not preached (2 Cor. 11:2-4; see Gal. 1:6-12). It is of Christ that the whole family in heaven and earth is named! (Eph. 3:14-15). I call myself Christian because I am a child of God, and why-on-earth would I want to wear another name? Why would I put any other name on the building where I worship the true and living God?
Paul in Ephesians 5:22-33 uses the marriage relationship between a man and a woman and parallels that to the marriage between Christ the husband and the church, His bride and said, “This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” (v.32). I am not married to Peter, Paul, to Wesley, to Smith, to Russel, to Luther or any other, are you? Answer by telling what name you wear? Are you a Christian Baptist, or a Christian? You may be deceived into believing they are one in the same, but they are not. Marriage as a union between one man and one woman (Matthew 19:4-6). The church is the one bride married to the One and only Groom, Jesus. I met Sharon Collins, we fell in love, we married and now she is Sharon Scarpino. Just the same the Lord’s church is His bride and carries His name, Christian, and the building proudly bears the name Church of Christ. Listen, if you call yourself by any other name, Baptist, Methodist etc., and at the same time claim to be His, you are an adulterer for the very idea of Christians having/wearing more than one name is offensive and unacceptable to the Spirit of truth.
Do not be mislead, it was man that has innovated, created, and changed the meaning of “church”. For this argument we turn to the “modern” use of the term “church”. Webster defines church as, 1. “a building for public and especially Christian worship”. When did the “public” get into the church? 2. “the clergy or officialdom of a religious body”. Who created the term clergy? 3. “a body or organization of religious believers” This would be true if you removed the word “Religious” and just left “Believers”. You may have seen the movie called “Sergeant York” about a troubled man named Alvin York who came to believe the Bible, was forced into the army against his beliefs. A major in his unit told Alvin that his petition as conscientious objector was not valid because “his church didn’t have a creed and was not an established denomination”. In the beginning Alvin’s “creed”, was only his Bible but after listening to the major, and reading a book given him, he combined the two in his mind, was convinced there was more than just the Bible. My creed is my Bible plus nothing, minus nothing! If your church has a creed, “what we believe”, other than the Bible your church may be recognized by the armed forces, and by man, but not by God. Creeds are foundations for division, for religious error that makes many churches. Unlike Joseph Smith Jr. and his 33 wives, or Brigham Young 53, Rulon Jeffs 19, Saleh al-Sayeri 58, or let us not forget Solomon and his 700 wives, Jesus has one bride, the one true church.
In 1989 according to the United Nations statistics there were over 23,000 as they put it, “competing and often contradictory denominations worldwide” (World Census of Religious Activities [U.N. Information Center, NY, 1989]). Each one calls themselves a “Christian church”. If that’s true that means one of two things: (1) Jesus is a lying, two-timing adulterer or (2) at that time there were 22,999 plus adulteresses, 22,999 calling Jesus husband. I don’t know about you, but I know Jesus isn’t lying because (a) Jesus never sinned (Heb. 4:15), (b) He is “the truth” (John 14:6), (c) He is God (John 1:1) and (d) God cannot lie (Tit. 1:2).
There is only one blood bought church that Jesus died for (Acts 20:28). Only one church to be received up into eternity (1 Cor. 15:24; 1 Thess. 4:13-18). When Jesus said to Peter, “…I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.…” (Matt. 16:18), the noun is singular. Anyone can read the Bible to learn what that one church looks like, what it must teach, and practice and know with certainty if what they call church is in fact the one true church or some perverted cursed church (Gal. 1:6-12; Rev. 2:1 – 3:6, 3:14-22). Membership comes only when one obeys the gospel. Christ founded His church on the day or Pentecost, 33 A.D and you can read in the book of Acts chapter 2 on that day Peter preached Jesus (vs.14-39) when they heard Peter’s sermon, “. . .they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (vs. 36-37). Peter’s answer, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the [k]remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (v.38). 3,000 souls obeyed, (v.41), and “. . .the Lord added [q]to the church daily those who were being saved” (v.47).
Every single conversion in Acts included faith and baptism. Samaria: Philip preached Jesus, “. . . both men and women were baptized” (Act 8:12). Philip preached Jesus to an Ethiopian eunuch, who then asked, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?”, “. . .And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him” (vs. 27, 35, 36, 38). This is what Jesus commanded one must do to be saved (Mark16:16).
What answer do you give to the question what must I do? Is your answer different from the Apostles? Is it, “ask Jesus into your heart”, “say a sinner’s prayer”? Neither is in your bible, so why teach it? In the Bible the formula never changed. I strongly encourage that you read the whole account for each example yourself found in each chapter referenced here in the following is a synopsis of each. Saul (Acts 8:18), the household of Cornelius (Acts 10:47-48), Lydia and her household (Acts 16:15), the Philippian jailer and his family (Acts 16:33), and Paul recounting his own salvation (Acts 22:16). Remember what Jesus said will judge us all? “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). If you have been taught a different message, get out and stop listening to men, listen to God.
Jesus did not shed His blood to purchase Charles Wesley’s Methodist church or John Wesley’s Wesleyan church. Jesus didn’t shed His blood to purchase Martin Luther’s Lutheran church or John Knox’s Presbyterian church or Joseph Smith’s Mormon, or the Catholic church under Boniface, or John Smyth’s Baptist church. How many brides / churches are there? One if you believe the word of God. “But now indeed there are many members, yet one body” (1Cor. 12:20). The Christians, “members”, are individuals who believed the gospel concerning Christ as recorded in His word, the Bible, and have obeyed Jesus’ command to believe and be baptized to be saved.
But One Body: “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body…” (1 Cor. 12:13). “. . .one body through the cross. . .” (Eph. 2:16). “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful” (Col. 3:15).
A careful open study of the Bible will prove but one church exists and shed light on the false teachers who have dupped so many with the modern-day mantra “Unity through diversity”. Stop! Think! Look up the word unity in you dictionary! Look up the word diversity! They are opposites! Jesus said, “For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I [a]should heal them” (Matt. 13:15). At the final marriage feast, He will present the Church as a pure bride to Christ at His coming (Revelation 19:7-9).
Are you ready? I pray you will respond to the Lord’s invitation today. What did the Lord Himself say we must do? Hear and Believe (John 6:45-47). Confess Him as the Christ before men (Matt. 10:32). Repent of your sins (Luke 13:3). Be baptized (Mark 16:16). Live in obedience to Him (Rev. 2:10).
To God be all the glory both now and forever more
In Love
David Scarpino