The True
Church
Revelation 1 depicts the
seven churches of Asia as golden candlesticks and calls them the churches of
Christ. Candlesticks are used to give light to the world. Jesus said to His
church, “You are the light of the world. A
city on a hill cannot be hidden” (Mt 5:14). The seven
churches of Asia were visible to the world. They were shining lights that could
not be hidden. But even though they were depicted as pure as gold, Jesus
pointed out their faults. So it is with the visible church. The church in
Corinth is called the church of God (1 Cor 1:1) even though it had many faults
and sins. God called the church in the wilderness His son, His firstborn
(Exodus 4:22), but with most of them God was not well pleased (1 Cor 10:5).
This seems like
a contradiction, but it is a paradox that some cannot discern. Their logic
says, “If a church tolerates false doctrine, it is not God’s church. It is a
false church.” But is that the logic of Scripture?
Can God’s church have false
doctrines and moral corruption and still be God’s church? Can a dead church be the
true church? Was the church in Sardis God’s church? Jesus said to it, “you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead” (Rev
3:1). The church in Ephesus lost its first love. Was it still God’s church? Is
a church that allows the doctrines of Balaam and the Nicolaitans still God’s
church? That’s what the church of Pergamum allowed (Rev 2:14-15). How about a
church like the one in Thyatira that tolerated that woman Jezebel, who called
herself a prophetess and was teaching and seducing God’s servants to practice
sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols (Revelation 2:20-21)? How
about a lukewarm church on the verge of being vomited out? Are they still
golden candlesticks? Was it still God’s Church? And who knows if it is vomited
out already or its candlestick removed? Can a church still have a name that it
lives and be dead? Who decides that? God alone can make that judgment.
Evidently they
were still God’s churches because in each church there were still a few names
who had not soiled their garments (Rev 3:4). So we learn from the Scriptural
examples that God names His church after the remnant within the church that are
conquerors and not after those within it that tolerate false doctrine and
corruption.
We have those
who say, “The true church is our church.” Or, “The Catholic Church is the false
church.” But are there no conquerors in the Catholic Church? What defines a
true church? Jesus told us in Mathew 18:18. He said to the church, “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you [plural] bind on earth will
be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
When Arius challenged the true faith of the church, the entire
church got together in Nicaea in 325 AD and bound on earth and in heaven the
essential definition of what the true church. It is called the Nicene Creed. In
essentials there must be unity; in non-essentials there must be liberty;
liberty to disagree without excommunication. Who gets to decide what the
essentials are? Jesus told us in Mat. 18:18.
Therefore, anyone who says he is a Christian, but denies that
Jesus is God, cannot say he is a Christian. Who says so? Jesus said the church
says so. The church is the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Tim 3:15). The
Bible is the word of the church. The Nicene Creed is pure Bible doctrine. The
agreement of the one and only church made it binding on earth and in heaven.
Jesus said so.
So the question is this: Is the Catholic Church God’s church?
Well, according to the logic of Scripture on the visible church, I am forced to
admit it is God’s church in spite of false doctrines and corruption because it
confesses the essentials of the faith and has true conquerors as a remnant
within just as the churches in Asia did.
Is there such a thing as a Christian that has not one ounce of
wrong doctrine or corruption? “Reformed and always reforming.”
The same is true of the Baptist churches, the Coptic Church, the
Reformed churches, etc. “Reformed and always reforming.”
The Nicene
Creed
We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and
earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the
only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, light from
light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the
Father;
through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he
came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
and became truly human.
For our sake he was crucified under
Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in
accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the
right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the
living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the
giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father [and the Son],
who with the
Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified,
who has spoken through the
prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic
Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and
the life of the world to come. Amen.
