The desire to worship appears to be an innate quality in every people historically throughout the world. Misguided souls have worshipped the heavenly bodies, trees, rocks, carved or forged idols, dead ancestors, kings and even Satan. People, today, still worship in the same way, as well as worship differently from each other the true God of the universe. It, therefore, is a fair question, “With which church should I worship?”
Happily, the one making the inquiry isn’t worshipping the sun, the moon, rocks, trees, his or her ancestors, rulers or even Satan. Neither has the person posing the foregoing question been misled by other world religions outside of Christianity. Yet, no doubt the existence of thousands of denominations worldwide presents a nearly incomprehensible challenge to find the church of the Bible – rather than a manmade knockoff.
Only the church of the Bible – the New Testament – will do, for it is the only church for which Jesus Christ died (1 Corinthians 15:3), over which He is the Head (Colossians 1:18) and for which He will return someday to retrieve (John 14:3). Any church that wears names for itself and for its members that are not in the New Testament is not the church of the Bible. For instance, churches named after people or human doctrines are different from the church of the Bible. Biblical names for the church of the Bible include “the churches of Christ” (Romans 16:16) and “the church of God” (1 Corinthians 1:2), and names for its members include “Christians” (Acts 11:26) and “disciples” (Acts 6:1; 20:7).
Any church founded after A.D. 33 and somewhere other than in Jerusalem (Acts 2:47) is not the church of the Bible. That eliminates every church except the church of the Bible, because the next established after the church of the Bible dates to about 600 years later in Rome.
Any church that is not comprised of independent, self-governing congregations is not the church of the Bible (Acts 14:23). Any church that has added to, subtracted from or altered the five activities of Christian worship is not the church of the Bible. One can discern from the New Testament that, in no particular order or importance, Christian worship consists of teaching or preaching (Acts 20:7), freewill giving (1 Corinthians 16:1-2), praying (1 Corinthians 14:15), singing (Ephesians 5:19) and the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:23-26).
These are some of the characteristics of the church of the Bible. It is pointless to worship apart from the church of the Bible. The churches of Christ (church of Christ) have no earthly headquarters but are connected to each other by a common regard for the wholly inspired Word of God. Members have fellowship with God and with every other Christian who also has fellowship with God (1 John 1:3). Please visit the church of Christ in or near your community.
