The Undenominational Church

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Throughout the world are congregations of Christians who have obeyed the commands of our Lord with regard to salvation. These Christians are organized into local congregations (Titus 1:5), having no central government and no earthly headquarters (John 18:35-36). Each congregation is independent, taking the New Testament as its sole authority in religion (1 Corinthians 2:1-5; Gal. 1:6-12; Ephesians 3:1-11).

The members of the Lord's church in the twenty-first century, believe the exact same things that the first century Christians believed, and by doing the same things they did, they become the same thing —  Christians (Acts 11:26; cf. Isaiah 62:2).

 The Lord's church was established on Pentecost day, A.D. 33. And as we read in Acts 2, every saved person was added to the church by the Lord Himself (Acts 2:47). Thus, the church is composed of folks who have "obeyed from the heart" the Lord's plan of salvation (Romans 6:17-18; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4; Romans 6:1-8; Ephesians 5:23).

 God's word is similar to a seed planted (Luke 8:11). This seed produced Christians in the first century, and will produce Christians in the twenty-first century (1 Peter 1:13-25; James 1:18; cf. 1 Corinthians 4:15). Twenty centuries have passed since the beginning of the church, but we still have the same truth (John 17:17) that will judge us on that last day (John 12:48). We still have the same church unchanged in name (Matthew 16:18), doctrine, organization, faith, and practice.

 The Lord's church does not use any creed other than the inspired New Testament (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 John 9), nor does it add any doctrine or commandment of man (Matthew 15:9; cf. Colossians 2:18-23; Revelation 22:18-19). The only plea of the Lord's church, is the plea for unity — not unity in diversity, but for unity based on the righteous standard revealed in God's Word (Psalm 119:172; John 17:; Ephesians 4:1-6) The Lord's church pleads the merit of no man — only the merit of Christ's shed blood and of His holy Word (Romans 5:6-9; Ephesians 1:3-7; Hebrews 9:11-14; 1 John 1:7).

 Dear reader, will you not this day study the above statements along with your Bible (Acts 17:11), seriously and prayerfully consider them, and then become obedient to the Lord's teaching regarding the New Testament church (Romans 6:17). May the Lord bless you as you think on the Scriptures provided in this study.

 —Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets

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