Every time you quote Romans 16:16, “The churches of Christ salute you.” most people thinks that means that EVERY DENOMINATION IS APART OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. This is alright with me as long as the Lord approves. If He does not, we are plagiarizing His name and that of His bride.
A lot of times things that seem unable to be answered are easily seen when we use the scriptures to explain them. We often can look in the Old Testament and find what is called “types” which explain the New Testament teaching called “anti-types”. This language may be un-familiar to those who have not studied much, but to those who have they become a real tool to understanding what a lot of times seems hard to understand.
A “type” is a pattern, an example, it is always physical and tells HOW God intended to carry out His Will. The “anti-type” is the fulfillment of the type in that it plays off the “type” using its story-line to explain the “anti-type”. When God uses a “type” EVERY PART OF THE STORY MUST FIT. Today, we will use stories, types, examples to answer the serious student of the Word and leave all of us without ANY question as to the truth. This takes the argument by the gainsayer out of the discussion.
Adam and Eve were the first, on earth, to be married. You will need to read Genesis 2:15-25 Adam went looking for a help-meet, one like himself, with whom he could find compatibility, verses 18-20. He found none. God caused a deep sleep (operation) to fall upon Adam, He took a rib (a part of his anatomy-in this testament it would have to be physical) and made him a woman (help-meet, one to support him, love him and help him). And Adam said, ‘This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called ‘Woman’, because she was taken out of man’. Therefore shall a man leave his father (Adam did not have a physical father or mother), and shall cleave (be joined physically) to his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”verses 23-24 Question: how many women were Adam speaking of, how many operations did God perform on him, and who named his wife/help-meet? For one to qualify as the bride/wife of Adam would she not to have lived in the same century, area, speak the same language as Adam? Do we have any problems, yet? Have we made any progress, yet? This is the “type”.
When Christ came to the world, He came seeking “one like Himself-sinless, pure, without fault. Like Adam, he went among men (Adam among animals) and found NONE. God put Christ into the operation called the “deep sleep” which was death and took from Him apart of His being. He did not take a rib, He took BLOOD. It was not to purchase anything physical, it was to purchase something like Christ, spiritual. She had to be compatible, alike, of the same as Christ—she had to be sinless for God cannot sin and Christ is/was God!! The reason with Christ it was BLOOD is simple; the Old Testament had taught that “life was in the blood…for it is the BLOOD that makes an atonement for the soul.” Leviticus 17:11 Jesus purchased the church with His BLOOD; Acts 20:28. We have to be washed in His blood, Revelation 1:5, and are so washed when we are ‘arise and are baptized, washing away our sins’. Acts 22:16 We become ‘bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh (we are made sinless, we are compatible to Him) in this marriage ceremony called baptism. Ephesians 5:23-32 He then adds us to His family, the church, which, by the way, He has NAMED. Acts 2:38-47, Romans 7:4 and Romans16:16 Since Christ is God, He also calls her the Church of God, God being the name of a nature—Christ tells which being called God to whom she is married. How many women/churches? In what century did she begin? Christ was in the first century!!
