So with all the so many 'churches' in existence today, can we prove what churches are truly His Churches and which ones are pretenders? This is a matter of great importance. The world's religions push an ecumenical theme where all churches are accepted and should get along. This is a belief from Hell itself and will be used by the anti-christ and his prophet one day in uniting the world. A true Christian should have no part in this! It is the Devil that has brought all the confusion and intermarriage of belief. It is time more people stood up for Truth!
Churches that are 'My Churches' cannot join in with Billy Graham and have an ecumenical evangelistic campaign side by side with pretenders. 'My Churches' cannot accept the baptisms of infant sprinklers, works salvation preaching, pretenders. 'My Churches' cannot join hand in hand with those assemblies that have not Authority from on High, do not preach the doctrine of Christ, and hold no areas of separation from an ungodly world.
Due to a 'Fundamentalist' movement from Bob Jones and the like, 'My Churches' did join hands with the unscriptural, and sadly, most still cling today to the error of those before them. We proudly proclaim we are 'Fundamentalist', when it was the fundamentalist that sought to unite the 'My Churches' with the pretenders on the grounds of a few shared beliefs. Most Baptist churches and schools have a 'Christian Flag' that they pledge to, that was birthed by a Methodist and embraced by all protestants as a means of uniting 'My churches' with pretenders. (We should only pledge our allegiance spiritually to our Saviour and not "to the Christian flag AND to the Saviour..."...that was free.)
We have allowed protestant teaching to become our foundation in our Christian schools through Abeka, Bob Jones, and similar curriculum. In them you will read of the Wesleys, Luther, Calvin and the Puritans as our spiritual forefathers and to whom we owe our allegiance-Wrong! There were Baptist who stood for truth to whom we owe a great deal of gratitude today. Men like Isaac Backus, John Clarke, Obadiah Holmes, and Shubal Stearns were men who stood for truth in the face of persecutors who believed like Luther, Calvin and the Puritans.
Can we prove this? Are the 'My Churches' so different than the pretenders? At one time there was a great gulf between the two, but due to a lack of knowledge in Biblical Doctrine, our Baptist Heritage, and the teachings of most Christian school curriculum, the gulf between the two has been greatly diminished...all part of Satan's ecumenical plan. Marks of this tragedy is seen in a belief in pastoral absolute (pope) rule or plurality of elders teachings, open and close communion accepted, alien baptism accepted in the church, 'empire building' ministries that 'rule'-I mean greatly influence smaller churches, etc.
1. The 'My Churches' can be identified today in studying history. As stated before, if your church can trace its history back to a man-it is pretending to be a church. Consider the following:
a. Catholic church had its beginning with Constantine in the 4th century.
b. Lutheran church had its beginning with Martin Luther in 1520.
c. Episcopalian church had its beginning with Henry VIII in 1534.
d. Presbyterian church had its beginning with John Calvin in 1536.
e. The Congregational church had its beginning with Robert Brown in 1580.
f. The Methodist church had its beginning with John Wesley in 1740.
g. The Church of Christ had its beginning (ironically) with Alexander Campbell in 1827.
Of course we do not even mention men like Joseph Smith, Mohamed, or Mary Baker Eddy to name a few. The 'My Churches' began with the speaker of that phrase-Jesus Christ!
2. 'My Churches' will have doctrinal unity. The New Testament church today will believe the same doctrines as the first church. They will have continued in the 'apostles doctrine' and faith. Doctrine is of great importance. If a church holds to false doctrine, has held to false doctrine, and has ignored teaching of Truth-they are merely pretending to be a true church. This is why areas such as discipline, the ordinances, doctrine, and our commission is of great importance.
Can a church go wrong and then repent and be right? Definitely! Can I prove it! We shall see...
