I guess the first question is did Jesus lie? In Matthew 16:13-18 Simon Peter confessed Christ as the Son of the Living God:”Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God”. Because of this confession Christ countered with a statement that had never been heard, a statement that should have shocked anyone who heard what He said. “I say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock (statement of fact that I Am the Son of the Living God), I will build My Church, and the gates of Hell (death, both physical and spiritual, will not separate those in My Church from Me, anymore) shall not prevail against it.” Notice, Jesus did not say churches, in the plural. The sophistry of the day will retort; “all religious bodies make up the ONE church”. This might sound reasonable and plausible, the trouble is it is not true!!
Just because some confess they believe in Christ does not mean they belong to Him!! “Not everyone that saith Lord, Lord shall enter the Kingdom of God, but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then I will profess unto them, I NEVER KNEW YOU (emphasis mine): depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.” Matthew 7:21-23 This does not take a genius to figure this out!! Why did He command them to depart (flee from His presence)? It was as He said—you worked iniquity!! What is iniquity? The word iniquity is the word in the Greek anomos, nomos is Law, with the “a” at the beginning of the word, it means against, contrary, with no respect to. These people did a lot of what they conceived “good works”, the only thing they did not do was yield to the Will of the Father because they inserted their own!! (They wrote creeds, manuals, prayer-books, disciplines, church covenants, or just had a “FEELING” they were right!) In the Greek language there is a synonym to the word anomos, it is the word adikos, it means to presumptuously and wickedly assert YOUR will. The person who disallows the Will of the Father and replaces it with their own registers a contempt for the ‘Will of the Father’!! In Mark 7:6-13, Jesus spoke openly defining His statement(s) made on other occasions: “Well hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites (play acting, putting up a front),as it is written, ‘This people honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. In vain (it is useless and without value) do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God (you can only have ONE captain per ship), you hold (obey) the tradition of men…..Making the Word of God of none effect through your tradition, which you have delivered and many such like things do you.”
What is the Will of the Father? I thought you would never ask!! In John 7:16, Jesus defined it. “My doctrine is not Mine, but His that sent Me. If any man will do His Will, he shall know the doctrine (that is God’s doctrine, not man’s); whether I speak of Myself.” Where do you think one would find the ‘doctrine of the Father’? In the B I B L E, where else?? Where would you expect to find the doctrine of the Baptist denomination? Lutheran? Roman Catholic?, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and on and on??
They all would shout out, “the Bible”!! To that we retort; “FINE, TELL US WHERE IT IS IN THAT SACRED VOLUME?? You cannot even find their NAME in the Word of God, much less their doctrine!!
JESUS SENT HIS DISCIPLES INTO ALL THE WORLD PREACHING ONE MESSAGE,“He that believes and is baptized will be saved; he that believes not will be damned.” Mark 16:16. NO DENOMINATION TEACHES, THIS!!
