If the Church of Christ is not exclusive, it is not unique!! If it is not unique, it has not real value. If is has not real value, men cannot be asked to give up all to follow Jesus. They may be justified in weighing the advantages of every other relationship and condition against Christianity and logically arriving at a rejection of the demanding life of commitment required by our Lord, without being faulted. But there is really no basis for such comparison, evaluation and judgment since the church is exclusive and without peer!! Its very uniqueness poses to all men the choice for or against Christ, with attendant blessings or blame; of being either in His spiritual body or out of it; or recognizing the distinction between A and non-A.
If one sweeps aside the biblical doctrine of the exclusiveness of the church, one would destroy the purpose of the church-to save the lost and be the magnet which draws every people who are drawn by God to His side!! If the church is common among men, merely a human institution, one among many; its purpose for continuing on this earth will cease!! There is NO denomination today that is in existence exactly like that which began their sect. Changes are inevitable and common among man’s faiths and therefore bring no certain surprises, yet the God who declared, “I CHANGE NOT” has never been found altering His doctrine from its first deliverance on the day of Pentecost, AD 33!! If the church is not unique among all prevarications of its denominational defectors, light will have been overcome by darkness!! Which other institution in this world is charged with the preaching of the gospel that it preached the first day of its existence other than the Church of Christ?? Who or what can convince us of a better order, teach us more truth, be found closer to the heart of God than the church for which His Son gave His life’s blood?? What church has its OWN HEAVEN prepared for its membership than the Church of Christ?? Paul wrote by inspiration of the Holy Spirit; “There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge will give me in the last day; and not to me only, but all they who love His appearing.”
As Eve was exclusively the wife of Adam so the Church of Christ is exclusively the bride of Christ. As Eve came, the only one who came, from the side of Adam; so the Church of Christ is the ONE AND ONLY bride that came from the side of Christ as He hanged on the tree of Calvary. As Eve was the only human being that was closest in age to Adam, closest in likeness, closest in perfection; so the Church of Christ!! As Eve was the most perfect, most beautiful, most desirous example of womanhood that EVER came into existence, so the Church of Christ. Jesus through Paul wrote; “she is bone of My bone and flesh of My flesh.” Name me the human institution that was bought by the blood of Christ and I will tell you of the institution that came from the side of our Lord, Acts 20:28. Name me any other human institution that was on the earth when our Lord’s evangels were here, and I will have something to BEGIN to compare with that great institution that cost the blood of the only begotten of the Father. Name me the other wife(s) that began the human race with Adam in the Garden and I can begin to name you the names of the other denominations to which our Lord communes. Tell me of the human church that has the AGE necessary, that was on the earth, that was committed to in Heaven before time began, that was purchased before she came into being; loved before she ever had name or voice, and I will begin to have something with which to compare the Church of Christ!!!, for there is nothing, NOTHING, like Her among the institutions of man, nor one worthy to be compared to Her. She is truly exclusive!!
