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To: Christian Engineer Mass
"The word Church as used in the time of the Bible does not mean organization..."

What do you consider the "time of the Bible" to be? Since you Sola Scriptura types rely on only Scripture (which itself is not Scriptural) I will limit the discussion to Scripture. The establishment of the Church preceded the Bible by several hundred years and is recounted to us through Apostolic tradition.

The organization that is the Church as it was it was established was founded by Christ through Peter, whom He made the Church's earthly father (see Matthew 16:18-19)

The Church is:

The Church is one and unified, not comprised of 33,000 competing denominations. (see Matthew 12:25, 16:18, John 10:16, John 17:20-23, Acts 4:32, Romans 12:5, Romans 16:17, 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, Corinthians 3:3-4, Corinthians 10:17, Corinthians 11:18-19, Corinthians 12:12-27, Corinthians 14:33, 2 Corinthians 12:20, Ephesians 4:3-6, Philippians 1:27, 2:2-3, 1 Timothy 6:3-5, Titus 3:9-10, James 3:16, 2 Peter 2:1),

The Church is universal(ie, "katholikos" in Greek, or "Catholic") (see Matthew 28:19–20, Revelation 5:9–10)

The Church is Apostolic (see Matthew 16:18-19, Matthew 9:6-8, John 20:21-23, Acts 5:5, Ephesians 2:19–20)

And lastly, the Church s hierarchical and has bishops (episkopos), priests (presbyteros or "elders"), and deacons (diakonos) (see Acts 1:20, Acts 15:2-6, Acts 20:28, Acts 21:18, Philippians 1:1, 1 Timothy 3:1-2, 1 Timothy 5:17, Titus 1:7, Hebrews 11:2, 1 Peter 5:1, 1 Peter 2:25)

The Apostolic succession of the bishops (episkopos) is an unbroken chain, through the laying on of the hands of bishops, to the original Apostles. (see 1 Timothy 4:12)

74 posted on 08/18/2011 8:10:55 PM PDT by Natural Law (For God so loved the world He did not send a book.)
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To: Natural Law; demshateGod

“The Church is one and unified, not comprised of 33,000 competing denominations”

As I said before, the church of Christ does not mean any one organization. People today take “church” to mean “organiztion, building”, but that is only through the modern corrupt lens. That is NOT what the word translated “church” in the Bible means. The church consists of people. I would also disagree with 1) “competing”, and 2) your number. Most churches of different denominations that I know are very cooperative. My church will happily direct newcomers to any one of many good churches in the area. It’s just the catholic church, and fringe cults who insist they are the One True Church. The rest of us GET ALONG JUST FINE!

You willingly ignore everything I’ve said, and come back with a completely different tack.


75 posted on 08/20/2011 8:42:24 AM PDT by Christian Engineer Mass (25ish Cambridge MA grad student. Many conservative Christians my age out there? __ Click my name)
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