The Church of Christ is exclusive—the special and only realm of the saved on earth—and it cannot be otherwise!! The Bible teaches there in One faith, Ephesians 4:5. This is to distinguish it from the Judaic faith that existed before the “faith once delivered” became a reality!! There are not TWO faiths, Jewish and Christian, says inspiration—there now exist only ONE!! This faith has “ALREADY, ONCE AND FOR ALL been delivered” by the apostles of Christ, received from the Holy Spirit, as the Holy Spirit directed their writing and speaking!! They did NOT at the time it was spoken BELIEVE, understand, or approve this message, themselves!! Acts 2:47; 11:17 There is no other religious document that can make this claim!! Every religious creed book, manual, prayer book, catechism, written begins with the dead give away: ‘WE BELIEVE’!! The writings of inspiration started off with a doctrine the apostles DID NTO believe!! Exclusively, the faith “once and for all and evermore,” Jude verse 3, delivered, written, received by the apostles of Jesus Christ, makes a claim to authenticity that no other doctrine book, creed book, or testimony of faith can claim. This exclusivity is further evidenced by the fact that it had to be written DURING the lifetime of the apostles to whom Jesus handed the KEYS to His kingdom, Matthew 16:13-20; 18:15-20; Mark 9:1 after He empowered them with the Holy Spirit in baptismal measure on the day of Pentecost, A D 33, at 9:00 am, that Sunday morning unlike the writings of Islam that did not come about until 300 years after Mohammed died!! Jesus had told them: “In the regeneration (the period called “being born again”), when the Son of Man shall set on the throne of His glory; you shall set upon 12 thrones….” Matthew 19:28
This faith that was “once and for all delivered” was clearly delineated and therefore fully recognizable, identifiable, and never contradictable even though NO writings went before a REVIEW BOARD or DOCTRINE BOARD before they were sent into the entire World!! Paul did not get Peter’s approval for what he wrote and spoke by inspiration, neither Peter, Paul’s!! In fact Paul had been preaching this “faith once delivered” for about 10-15 years BEFORE he and Barnabas met with Peter, James, and John. Galatians 2: 9. What a mess we would have been if the Gospel had had to await the Pope, John Calvin, Martin Luther, John Smith, Joseph Smith, or Ellen White’s or any other’s “lying testimony” as approval before it could be sent into ALL THE WORLD!! Paul, in fact is on record as stating his gospel had been preached to “every creature under heaven” Colossians 1:23 and never checked by human eyes, certifying unto his readers that he received his message “not from man, neither was taught it by man, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.”!! Galatians 1:12 The apostles “conferred with NO MAN, NO POPE, NO RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE, NOR THEIR MOTHER’S RELIGION. Paul received his message FIRST-HAND, got his message from the Boss, Himself IN THE FIRST CENTURY!! Find any denominational preacher, church, or holy man who can make such a claim!! They would have to be 2,000 years old!! If this is not exclusivity tell what it is?? This is both historically and Biblically accurate.
If men devise other religious systems apart from “the faith once delivered,” they have not succeeded in producing a NEW faith; they have succeeded in producing NO FAITH!! If faith comes by hearing the Word of God, producing “a” faith that is separate and apart from, different than, not according to, making distinctions from, separate from the ONLY INSTRUMENT THAT SHOULD PRODUCE FAITH, Romans 10:17, they have not produced the FAITH THAT WAS PRODUCED IN THE FIRST CENTURY!!
