The importance of Biblical definitions (eg. what is baptism; sprinkling or immersing?: what is speaking in tongues; gibberish or speaking world languages without education?) can’t preempt God’s right to establish conditions for sonship – He determines the “rules” and if we reject them we will be like the man without the wedding garment. Some cannot accept the judgment of Heaven. Let God be true and every man a liar. Some want the praise of men as well as the praise of God. In vogue is the “I’m okay, you’re okay” world of pluralism and the existentialising of truth. Ravi Zacharias said, Philosophically, you can believe anything, so long as you do not claim it to be true. Morally, you can practice anything, as long as you do not claim it is a ‘better way’. Religiously, you can hold to anything, as long as you do not bring Jesus into it. If a spiritual idea is Eastern, it is granted critical immunity; if Western, it is thoroughly criticised.
Imagine if Jesus had said before Pilate “Oh, I may be the Christ – I’m not sure really” !? No, He made the good confession. We need to do the same: “Yes, I am a Christian and I don’t know of any other way to become one than by obeying the gospel.” Once a Christian, always a Christian? Yes, in the sense that I will always be a Coker – I could renounce my family ties, change my name by deed poll, be disinherited, but I cannot change the fact I was born to Cyril and Lil Coker. There may, in truth, be Christians in denominational churches or with no religious affiliation at all, but the crucial point is, they have no right, before God, to be there! They may have been born again but if they are not faithful members of of the Lord’s church they are the black sheep of the family and they are brethren who stand to lose the inheritance they once had a right to. Becoming a Christian involves obeying the gospel, and being a faithful ,Christian necessitates making our stand shoulder to shoulder with our brethren, not with denominationalists. The Bible only speaks of the heavenly reward for faithful children of God and faithful children of God are to be aligned with the other faithful children of God.
F.D. Srygley said in an editorial of the Gospel Advocate over 100 years ago, If a man is not a Christian according to the New Testament, he is not a Christian at all. In the New Testament all the disciples were Christians and the Christians were the church. That’s about as concise as you can say it. Mark me down as agreeing with that.
So many confuse the issue – I’m not sure whether knowingly or unknowingly – perhaps both. The discussion degenerates into a debate over ‘niceness’. There is no debate over niceness. Let’s admit it – nice people are found everywhere. But you show me a nice person and I’ll show you a sinner in need of a Saviour. Niceness doesn’t make one a Christian or take one to Heaven. And as we sing, “I dare not trust the sweetest frame”. It’s funny that when push comes to shove, many who speak of their belief in salvation by faith end up believing in salvation by personality – “but their such nice people, they must be Christians!” It is not a debate over zeal. Zealous people are found in all manner of organisations, religious and non-religious. But Zeal doesn’t make one a Christian or take one to Heaven – cf. Rom. 10:1ff.
The issue is, and always is, what does the Bible teach? It’s amazing how many people get the cart before the horse and rationalize the existing situation by trying to make the Bible ‘fit’ it. In the context of our times it involves the rationalizing of denominationalism. We have over 300 different churches in this country and people can look at that and say, “Yep, that’s the one body the Bible speaks about”. It wouldn’t matter what the figure was – you could make it 3000 denominations and people would still say that’s the one body with the one faith and the one baptism serving the one Lord. You could ask them what the magic number was when it ceased to be one body and the one faith and the one baptism and became many bodies, different faiths and more than one baptism and they wouldn’t be able to give you a number. Six billion wouldn’t even strain the credibility.
Let’s turn it around and do it right. When Jesus says “I will build my church”, and when Paul says there is but “one body”, wouldn’t it behoove me and every other human being to find out just what it is and how to become a member of it? – rather than join the church of my choice and assume it is the Lord’s church?! “Every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up” – because something exists doesn’t mean it does so with God’s approval. People assume God is the Author of denominationalism, but He is not – 1 Cor. 1:10; 4:17.
The Bible teaches that one cannot be a Christian and not belong to the church for the reason that the same process that makes one a Christian constitutes him a member of the church (Acts 2:47). One could no more be saved, that is, become a Christian and not be added to the church than one could be born and not thereby be added to the family into one which was born. You can be a member of a man-made church without ever obeying the gospel plan of salvation. But you cannot be a member of the Lord’s church without without doing so. Note Acts 2:47 again – it is only the saved that are added. You can claim to be a Christian without ever doing that which the Bible says you must do to be one. Does that make you a Christian? No, I could put on a blue jumper, play Origin football rather poorly and claim to be a New South Welshman but that wouldn’t make me one. You can rightly claim to be a Catholic, Protestant or Callathumpian without ever doing that which the Bible says you must do to be saved. Does that mean God would have to accept you despite your disobedience?
The Bible does not teach people to become Catholics or Protestants or Callathumpians – it doesn’t even mention them and such is the outgrowth of the conflicting doctrines of men. The Bible has no such conflict. The Bible teaches a person how to become a Christian, nothing more and nothing less, and in so doing that person is added by the Lord to His church, the same church to which He adds every other person who is saved. Salvation is “in Christ” (2 Tim. 2:10), so you cannot cross the line into salvation without crossing the line into Christ. When does one ‘cross the line’ into Christ? – Rom. 6:23; Gal.3:27 tells us emphatically that it is at the point of baptism and not before. It is not at the point of belief, or at the point of repentance, nor at the point of confession, even though these are also commandments essential to be heeded in obeying the gospel – it is at the point of baptism that the old man of sin is buried, sins are washed away, and one rises to walk in newness of life. It is then one can rightfully claim to be a Christian in the Biblical sense and definition of that term.
So the Bible teaches that men are to become Christians and Christians only. The Bible teaches that such “Christians only” constitute members of the Lord’s church. That is not an unfounded and arrogant boast – that’s just plain reading of the Bible. That’s the easy part – how we respond to that and what we’re going to do about it is the harder part. There is probably as much confusion on this subject as any in the Bible, but its not because the language is obscure or the concepts are hard to grasp. Rather it is because of the tendency to justify man rather than God.
