And there's the problem ... Is there to be only one Church or many? According to Scripture, Christ wanted us to be one (John 17:22-23). We are all as a Church to be of one mind and to think the same (Philippians 2:2; Romans 15:5). There is only to be one "faith" (Ephesians 4:3-6), not many. For the Church is Christ's Body and Christ only had one Body, not many. Also, since the Church is Christ's Bride (Ephesians 5:29), can Christ be married to more than one wife (essentially a spiritual form of the the sin of polygamy)? No, Christ can only have one wife (i.e., one Church, not many).
Sorry to be frank, but that post is gibberish.
One universal church means one body of Christ, one Bride, which includes every believer of all time. Christ wants unity and love, not worldly uniformity. There is one faith that trusts His sacrifice, instead of religious rituals and works.
Look up to Him, NYer. Not down below.
The Church headed only by Jesus Christ is made up of all his sheep not just any named church. Jesus addressed this jealousy with his Disciples when they came to Him about a sect using his name to cast out demons etc. Jesus didn't say you go tell them ask Peter first or for them to stop.
I've posted this question before as well. Under who's authority was Paul? The authority of Pater as first Pope as some call him or called by Jesus Christ? What does Paul say? There were in fact MANY churches as well as many written accounts of The Gospel as Luke states.
There was no succession to Peter as there was no succession to the Apostles rather we are all as believers Jesus disciples. Not one of the Apostles is mentioned going into the Temples and start acting like the Aaron Priest {Old Testament ritualistic priest trying to justify by law} of the day. Rather the Disciples and Asposles were preachers much the same as what you would see outside of the Roman Catholic church. Their focus was not on repetition of rituals or laws upon laws of mans doings. It was a simple and straight forward message preaching The Good News of Salvation through Jesus Christ.
Jesus gave specific Gifts to His Apostles beyond that of The Holy Spirit which all believers are taught and lead to truth by. That has been quite evident in the past 2000 years. Many of the gifts they held including the ability to raise one from death remained with them and did not follow thereafter. IOW no walking into a crowd and persons being healed, raised from the dead, etc by a specific person on an ongoing basis. That ended with the physical death of The Apostiles. Are their still miracles GOD grants persons? Yes. But as such the ones claiming sucession to Peter do not have the Gifts The Apostles had.
The Temple is within as Christ through The Holy Spirit dwells in us. If two persons are praying in His name He is there.
It's amazing. It's like looking at Israel's Exodus under Moses. GOD made it so simple for Moses and Israel to leave Egypt and placed no heavy burden upon them doing so except Ten Commandments. In steps man to mess it up by worshiping a Golden Calf and their rituals over that of a what GOD established. Jesus tells us “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light".
What is light about men over 1800 years adding their own laws, their own rules, their own conditions, and they in fact are not The Apostles? A system placing believers being under needing the constant the intercession of others for forgiveness of sin instead of the One On One relationship we inherit as believers in Christ makes a mockery of it because if man could save man Christ suffering was in vain and I do not believe in such. There is not one verse in the Bible that directly links calling upon the physically dead for intervention for us to petition Jesus Christ. It was tried with the physically dead in hell asking favor of Abraham. Jesus said pray to The Father in His name. Asking the living to pray for you is one thing, asking favor of the physically dead is quite another.
Matthew chapter 6 5“And now about prayer. When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I assure you, that is all the reward they will ever get. 6But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father secretly. Then your Father, who knows all secrets, will reward you. 7“When you pray, don’t babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered only by repeating their words again and again. 8Don’t be like them, because your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him! 9Pray like this:
Our Father in heaven, may your name be honored.
10May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done here on earth, just as it is in heaven.
11Give us our food for today,£ 12and forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us.
13And don’t let us yield to temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.£
Can we expand and say Lord please help me with this issue or that issue, please help my son, daughter, mother, father, etc? Yes. Speak your heart as you are asking Your Father. He will hear you. Say it in earnest heart and your prayer is heard. It doesn't take anything else.
Yes we can go alone and pray directly to GOD and be forgiven. GOD knows our sins. Forgiveness of our sins is not dependent upon a confession to Preacher Jones, Father Smith, or any earthly being. When was this privilege described below revoked?
9Then Jesus told this story to some who had great self-confidence and scorned everyone else: 10“Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a dishonest tax collector. 11The proud Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else, especially like that tax collector over there! For I never cheat, I don’t sin, I don’t commit adultery, 12I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’ 13“But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ 14I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For the proud will be humbled, but the humble will be honored.”
Who did he pray with? He was alone likely. Whom did he pray too? GOD. When our forgiveness of sin, the dismissing of our soul, the ability of other men to use/abuse a position they claim on things like purgatory which after Christ resurrection is not needed as He and He alone overcame sin and taken our sins away completely, death, hell, and the grave, depending on others for these issues would place us in extreme danger if it were in fact allowed. Place your trust in GOD.
Finally if a Master owns thousands of sheep how many flocks would he have? He may have white sheep in one pasture tended by one shepherd, spotted sheep in another, etc. They are all his sheep. Shepherd Jones may tend herd one way with his flock and shepherd Stevens another. Does the fact the shepherds to not tend the herds the same way take away from the fact they are still the Master's sheep? No. The Master says where the sheep are to be kept. There is your answer to one church. Catholics, Methodist, Church of Christ, Church of GOD, Assembly of GOD, Baptist, etc all the sheep belong to The Master.
The of one mind you demand was not completely possible even with the Apostles as even they had their differences of opinion. But in the end when we all face our time before GOD it won't be the church that says yea or nay to our eternal reward it will be Jesus Christ.
The last church I attended had the church charter or creed handing up in the church. It was about 3' by 5' and essentually was a stated profession of faith. Churches need to get back to spreading The Gospel which is what Christ instructed.