A True Church

(Part One)

What constitutes a real church of Christ? I suspect a lot of people have pondered this question, especially with the denominational confusion today.

Well, names won’t help, for there are those who hold to names found in the New Testament, like Church of Christ, Baptist, Church of God, Assembly of God, Presbyterian, etc. No, there is only confusion to be found in names, so some have created a new denomination—non-denominational!

Well, the solution is not so difficult as one might initially think. The answer is found in simply comparing what exists today to the church that Jesus set up while He lived on this earth and was set in motion by the Holy Spirit through the Apostles. Wherever you find believers who believe and practice what Jesus and the Apostles practiced, then you have found a real New Testament church.

The Primitive Baptists have historically sought to scrutinize that New Testament pattern of doctrine and practice and follow it. We have been imperfect in this, but it is our true desire.

That is why you will find our churches holding a simple, but hopefully spiritual manner of worship, where the word of God is held up as the supreme and only test of truth.

Numbers 10:29 Come thou with us, and we will do thee good.

(Part Two)

We contended last week that a real church of Christ is not to be discovered by names, but by principles. It is to be discovered by contrasting what exists today with what we find set up by the Master in the New Testament.

What was a New Testament church like? If a first century Christian walked into your church and saw what was done and heard what was preached, would he recognize it as that to which he was accustomed?

The first century Christian went to the house of God on the Lord’s Day with his family, and sang praises to God without any musical accompaniment. He lifted up his voice and his heart to God in worship.

His children did not go to a Sunday school, there were no ladies auxiliaries, no seminaries, missionary societies, or sundry other modern man-made para-church organizations. There was only the church of God.

It trained parents to teach their children at home in daily family worship. It trained those who felt that God had called them to preach. It sent out those who felt the burden of
evangelism.

Yes, the family met together and heard the preaching of the sweet gospel of salvation by grace and the teaching of the whole counsel of God.

Primitive Baptist churches have tried (albeit imperfectly at times) to maintain this simple New Testament pattern.

Visit one sometime soon, and see what you think!

(Part Three)

What do real New Testament churches believe and teach? The real ones today teach exactly the same thing as the one set up by Jesus Christ and the Apostles.

Most "churches" today teach right and wrong, so the real test comes in what they say about who God is and how He saves His people.

Most today have abandoned the New Testament truth of the sovereignty of God—that is that God alone has absolute power to do with His creatures as He sees fit and does so in a manner that brings Him great glory—and have replaced it with a humanistic "gospel" which empowers man to be the master of his destiny and the deciding factor in the salvation of sinners.

True New Testament churches have always taught that salvation was determined by God before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1, Romans 8, 9) and dispensed by a sovereign God by grace alone (Acts 15). They teach that man by nature is corrupt—unable and unwilling to come to God by his own righteous works (Romans 1-3). If any sinner is to be saved, he must be born again from above (John 3) and drawn by cords of love to believe in Jesus Christ (John 6:37, 44). All who are thus drawn are kept by the power of God unto life everlasting (John 10, Romans 8).

Believing these things, the first century church worshiped God with a true heart of praise and hungered to live a holy life to show forth the praises of Him who called them out of darkness into the marvelous light of the kingdom of God.

Primitive Baptists believe what the Lord taught His churches in the first century. Study for yourself, then come and see for yourself.