Have you ever thought there is one God, one Christ, one Holy Spirit, one Bible and one hope, but the same folks who will agree with these five great truths; stop and balk like old Charley’s mule when someone says: there is one faith, one church, and one baptism! Just what is it that happened after the first five truths?
The “precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” purchases the church. Have you not read, “…to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood” (Acts 20:28)? Can you be saved without the blood of Christ? Just where are those saved by the by “precious blood of Christ?” If not in the blood purchased church, then, where?
It is true, there are hundreds of churches today; they have different names, faiths many, which teach that baptism is necessary, but not necessary to salvation. There is even no agreement about just what baptism is; is it pouring, sprinklings, or it is emersion in water? Just how did the church purchased by the blood of Christ ever get into such a state? Well, now hear this! She never did! No, the church purchased by “the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” never had any of this confusion! When the apostles Paul wrote about the one church, he wrote this; “the churches of Christ salute you” (Rom. 16:16), no confusion here! Of course, these words need understanding!
Yes, it is true there were false teachers and teachers who taught false doctrine in church in the first century; but the apostles stood like a rock, with the word of truth to correct all such! When some in the churches of Galatia were removing themselves from the “the grace of Christ,” the apostle wrote: “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another (the Greek, heteros, which means: of a different kind) gospel: Which is not another (the Greek, allos, which means: another of the same kind) but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:6-8). It is easy to see that some had come among the “the churches of Galatia” and were teaching them “another gospel,” another of a different kind; but there stood the apostle with these words: “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed!” The false teachers and the teachers who taught false doctrine would have destroyed the church, but there stood the apostle with the truth! Clearly saying, another gospel, a gospel of a different kind, as in faiths many, will always produce a different church; but never “the churches of Christ!”
Yet, even the above words do not make the point desired. The “churches of Christ” lives in the seed, which is the word of God. So long as we have the “seed,” we have “the churches of Christ,” or the one church of Christ made up of all “the churches of Christ” worldwide. Thus, Paul wrote, “one body,” and he identified the “one body” as he wrote: “the body, the church” in Colossians chapter one, verse eighteen. Therefore, the “one body” is the one church which is produced by the “seed,” the truth! It is in the truth; “the seed” in which there never was any confusion! Therefore, in the above as we wrote, “Well, now hear this! She never did! No, the church purchased by “the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” never had any of this confusion,” it was to church in the “seed;” to the truth we had reference and the church in it!
There have always been and there will always be “men” who desire to make the “one body, the church” into their image and not the image of Christ! Therefore, we have “faiths” many, “churches” many, “baptisms” many, and ways of salvation many; but these many are not of God! They are churches without “the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot!”
The question before each person, am I honest? Can I look at the words: “one Lord” and say yes, but at the words, “one faith” and say no? Can I look at the words: “one God” and say yes, but at the words, “one church” and say no? You see, it is a question of being honest!
— Frank R. Williams