So Which IS The True Church?

It has been claimed that Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon faith, had a vision in which he communicated with both our Heavenly Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ.  Whether or not this is true I have no way of knowing, never having met Joseph Smith and thus having no opportunity to judge his character.  What I can say with some certainty though is that the answer he received to his question 'Which is the true church?' is pretty much spot on the mark.

Smith was, allegedly, told that none of the churches of the time were the true church and I would venture to say that remains true to this day.  Now, I've never had any kind of visitation from God or Jesus but I do have a close, personal relationship with Them - the kind that the Bible speaks of frequently.  As a result of that in addition to my own personal research and much study of the Bible I too believe that there is no such thing as 'the true church' in the manner that we think of it today.

God, through Jesus, did establish a church on earth.  But it wasn't a denomination or a building or anything like man's rigid structures that have been placed around the true faith.  Dogma and the rigid church rules that are so prevalent today simply have no part whatsoever in the pure and simple faith that Jesus and the Bible teaches.

Act of God or Natural Disaster?

As many of you will know parts of Australia have recently been beset by bush fires and floods.  Naturally this inevitably brings up the question of whether these events are 'acts of God' or 'natural disasters'.  My question is a little simpler though - why do the two have to be mutually exclusive?  In ancient times man always viewed natural events as signs or omens from their many gods.  In some ways we're not that different today and with good reason.

The Bible tells us clearly that God uses natural disasters as a way of imparting a lesson to His people.  As a way of reminding His people of His ultimate plan for all mankind.  So does that mean that every thunderstorm or earthquake is an act of God?  Well, this is where things get a little complicated because the answer is yes and no.

The first thing we all have to remember is that God created nature.  Nothing happens on this planet that God is not ultimately in control of completely.  However that doesn't mean that He deliberately sends a disaster just to see His people suffer without cause.  That's not the way of love so we know immediately that it is not the way of God.

So Where Is The True Church?

This is a question that probably all Christians, almost from the time of the New Testament, have asked at one time or another.  If you read the New Testament carefully you will see that there were many 'churches', which were merely congregations of people who had heard and believed the message of Jesus and His disciples.  These were in many different places, largely due to the work of Paul and other evangelical Apostles, and were often completely separated from each other.  History shows us that in the first three centuries there was, quite simply, no such thing as a universal, organized 'true church'.

The first thing you need to understand when studying this subject is that the word church doesn't mean what it has come to mean in our modern society.  It comes from a Greek word and simply means 'those called out with honour'.  The 'True Church' was and is simply those people, in many different areas, who follow The Way taught by Jesus as given to us by God the Father.  It's not a denomination or organization as we understand it today.

The modern sense of 'church' only developed with the Roman Emperor Constantine who wanted a readily recognizable body that would help him to unify the increasingly disorganized Roman Empire.  He was, in a very real sense, the true founder of what we now call the Catholic Church.  However it is vitally important to understand that Constantine's motives in this were not spiritual but political.

So... What About Armageddon?

Well, as you can see, we did not perish on the 21st of December as many said the Mayan's had predicted.  So does this mean that Armageddon is a myth?  That there will be no 'Great and Terrible Day of the Lord'?  Absolutely not.  Mark my words, the return of Christ will come, perhaps even in our lifetimes.  What it does prove though is the words of the Bible - 'no one knows the time or the day'.  Not even the Son in His earthly body knew when the Day of the Lord would come.  Of course, now that He has resumed His position at the right hand of The Father, He is, once again, fully one with God and fully privy to the plan of salvation that God has laid out for mankind.

God the Father, the Ancient of Days, has allotted a period of time to humanity for us to go our own way.  To choose for ourselves what is good and what is evil.  That time period though, will run out.  Christ, the Son, the great I Am, will return to earth with His heavenly host to end Satan's rule over mankind and to bring judgement to the world.  The Bible promises us that this will occur. What we are not told is when.

Any one who preaches that they know exactly when the Day of the Lord will come is a liar.  They may be simply deluded and misguided or they may have a more malicious agenda but either way they are wrong.  The Bible gives us clues, warning signs to watch for but it also states clearly that the Lord's return will come 'like a thief in the night'.  We may be able to make fairly educated guesses based on the events going on in the world but that is all they will ever be... guesses.

While on earth Christ told His disciples the end was coming 'soon', and as we know, that was two thousand years ago.  This means we must also have an understanding of what 'soon' means to God.  The Bible tells us that 'a thousand years is like unto a day to God' - therefore, very little time, as God measures it, has passed since Jesus walked the earth as a man.

By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them

There have been many, many scandals throughout the centuries involving men and women of God who have fallen far short of their claimed characters.  Does this automatically mean they were NOT true followers of God?  Not necessarily, as the Apostle Paul said we are still human, we will fall short of our own expectations, let alone those of the Lord.  We will sin, we will stumble.  Yet the Bible also teaches us that 'by their fruits you shall know them' - which very clearly shows us that we should be able to judge a person's Godliness by their behaviours.  And this is where the very fine line between judgement and discernment comes into play.

God has told us through the inspired words of the Bible that we are not to judge one another.  This means that we cannot condemn someone as being anything less than a child of God.  We are all His children, made in His image.  None of us has God's ability to look into another person's heart and see their true self.  Thus we cannot judge someone's relationship or lack of relationship with God simply by looking at them from the outside.  It's impossible for any human being to be able to make that kind of judgement.

So what about discernment?  Firstly discernment is a gift of the Holy Spirit - it is a part of the power of God that He bestows upon us in order to look at our fellow humans through the filter of our Lord Jesus.  We've all heard horror stories about cults and other similar groups and they are examples of the very people we should be asking for God's discernment to determine whether they are truly from God or whether they are motivated by some human sin.  In many cases they are not remotely Godly and you should move away from them immediately and find another earthly instructor in the ways of God.

Charisma - God's Gift or Satan's Curse?

Charisma - you don't always know exactly how to define it but you definitely know it when you see it.  It's a rare gift, despite many people being labelled as 'charismatic', in fact there are usually only a few who truly deserve the label in each generation.  Unfortunately it seems that many people who do have the gift seem to use it for ill rather than good.

Hitler, David Koresh, Jim Jones, Napoleon, Julius Caesar - to name but a few.  They were all highly charismatic people with that incredible gift of being able to draw people to them, to have people follow them - almost slavishly at times.  I'll never forget my exposure to 'real' charisma when I was a teenager studying history in High School.  To demonstrate how Hitler had managed to gather such an enormously devoted following our teacher played the class a video of Hitler delivering a speech, from beginning to the end.

Unlike most of the speeches we see in news clips, which are only brief excerpts and usually taken from the latter part of his speech, when you actually see his entire speech from beginning to end it is breathtaking.  He would begin very slowly, very quietly, forcing the audience to be still and really pay attention and then gradually dragged you into the full force of his personality.  Even though I didn't speak a word of German and the video had no sub-titles, I honestly felt so caught up in the moment that I would have followed him anywhere.  It was a devastating thought to have once the magic had been broken and I could think clearly again.  It also frightened me - it still does.

We know that in the last days there will come an Antichrist.  God's last human opponent, controlled by and devoted to Satan.  We know, because the Bible tells us, that this man will be so charismatic and have such a powerful personality that 'unless the days were cut short even the very elect would be deceived'.  Almost the whole world will fall under the sway of this soon to come world leader.  Like the people of Germany in World War II the world will follow this Antichrist's lead - right to the gates of hell on earth.

So where is the True Church?

This is a question that probably all Christians, almost from the time of the New Testament, have asked at one time or another.  If you read the New Testament carefully you will see that there were many 'churches', which were merely congregations of people who had heard and believed the message of Jesus and His disciples.  These were in many different places, largely due to the work of Paul and other evangelical Apostles, and were often completely separated from each other.  History shows us that in the first three centuries there was, quite simply, no such thing as a universal, organized 'true church'.  Rather there were followers of The Way who were in doctrinal harmony with each other.

The first thing you need to understand when studying this subject is that the word church doesn't mean what it has come to mean in our modern society.  It comes from a Greek word and simply means 'those called out with honor'.  The 'True Church' was and is simply those people, in many different areas, who follow The Way taught by Jesus as given to us by God the Father.  It's not a denomination or organization as we understand it today.

The modern sense of 'church' only developed with the Roman Emperor Constantine who wanted a readily recognizable body that would help him to unify the increasingly disorganized Roman Empire.  He was, in a very real sense, the true founder of what we now call the Catholic Church.  However it is vitally important to understand that Constantine's motives in this were not spiritual but political.