What is the "True Church?"

by Mark McCrary

Years ago, I lost a dog - Cale. She ran away one day during a violent storm. Naturally, I searched everywhere for my dog. I placed flyers all over the small town I lived in. Finally, after about a week, I received a call from a man who said he had my dog. I drove out to his house and knocked on the door. The man opened the door with a smile and said he thought he had someone who wanted to see me. He opened another door and in ran the dog. The dog was excited to see me. It was a wonderful moment, but there was just one thing wrong: It wasn't my dog. He looked just like Cale, but the problem was he was a he, and Cale was a she. No matter how much he looked like my do, he wasn't my dog.

There are literally thousands of different churches in the world today - and that is just among those claiming a "Christian" heritage. And, these churches are divided on numerous doctrinal levels - often teaching conflicting doctrines, yet all claiming to be the church of the Bible while accepting conflicting others with whom they disagree strongly. One may ask when examining them, "Is this what God intended? Are all pleasing to the Lord? Is there one church that is right opposed to all others?

If there is a true, pure representation of what Christ intended His church to be, it would certainly be found in the pages of the New Testament. In looking for a church that pleases God, we would do well to set all churches today aside (even the Douglass Hills church) and just go back to the one in the New Testament. What was IT like? What did IT do? What did IT believe? As the true church, it alone becomes our standard. As the true church, it alone becomes a reliable measure for us as we search for the Lord's church today.

First, what where they - the early church - like? The Greek word translated "church" was a word used for an assembly - the called out. The church, therefore, is the people of God. It is not an organization separate and apart from the people. One of the fallacies of the Roman Catholic church - and so many others - is that they view the church in just this way: people join the organization which exist as a separate entity from the people. As you consider the epistles of the New Testament, they were written to the churches of various cities (Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, etc.). Were these written to an organization, or to people? The obvious answer is people. People are instructed. People are edified.

We must also understand it is His church. Jesus told Peter in Matthew 16:18, "And I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church..." When you own something, you alone have the right to make decisions about it. Regarding the church, Christ alone has the right to determine what it will be and what it will do - not men.

Second, what did they do? There are three things we see the church of the New Testament doing:

1. Preaching the gospel (1 Thessalonians 1:6-8) - both individually and working together with the church, they had the responsibility to go out and teach others about Jesus Christ;
2. Teaching the saved (Ephesians 4:11-16) - once people came to the Lord, the church was God's primary means of instructing them and giving them spiritual fool by which they could grow;
3. Assisting needy saints (Acts 2:40-47; 4:32-37) - while the primary concerns of the local church are spiritual, we also see the early church taking care of the needs of needy saints. Their concern for one another as family caused them to care for one another both spiritually and physically.

We see churches in scripture with leadership (elders/bishops/pastors) that guided the local church (1 Timothy 3:1-8; 1 Peter 5:1-4). There were times (1 Corinthians 5:1-6) when churches had to withdraw themselves from Christians who refused to walk as directed by the Lord. Such occasions were not pleasant, but they were necessary to help save the wayward brother while maintaining the purity of the local body.

Finally, what did they believe? While volumes could be written about this (and have), let us briefly state what is revealed in Acts 2:42, "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine..." What was "the apostles' doctrine?" The word "doctrine" means "teaching" - so the "apostles' doctrine" was simply the teachings of the apostles. The inspired apostles guided the early church by their teachings (Ephesians 2:20), and the early church drank in their instructions. The early church was not guided by men's creeds, advice or feelings. They were guided by those who were lead by the Holy Spirit, who revealed the mind of God to man (1 Corinthians 2:12-16; 2 Peter 1:19-21; 2 Timothy 3:16-17). They were commanded not to go beyond what had been revealed (1 Corinthians 4:6), and to make certain that "whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus..." (Colossians 3:17; 1 Peter 4:11). Their final authority was always God's word. In light of that, what we fail to see in scripture are local churches that believed various things. In fact, Paul stated clearly in 1 Corinthians 4:17 that he taught the same thing in all churches. The various local churches didn't teach differing doctrines - they were united in what they taught.

Churches today do a lot of religious things and seemingly good things; many may get things "mostly" right, but just like with Cale, "mostly" right isn't good enough when it comes to Christ's church. We are either His or we aren't.

At the Douglass Hills church, our goal as a local church is nothing less than to pattern ourselves after the local church of the first century. This is our overriding philosophy. That does not mean we have perfected it, and it certainly does not mean we are perfect, but it does mean we view ourselves as different - not better, but different. We reject those calls that say every church is okay with God, because Christ only established His church. We must humbly realize we are trying to follow a different path that must be followed if we are to be pleasing to Him.