|
Online Truth
|
|
Are We the "True Church"?
Let's start with "what" a church is. The word "church" is a poor English translation for the Greek "ekklesia". A proper transliteration would be "Congregation", or loosely, "a group or an assembly of people". In New Covenant Scriptural usage, the general intent was to use the word to define those people that were the "called out ones"; the ones with a willingness to be obedient to Yahweh and with faith in Yahshua's resurrection. All of those "called out" are called out of this world, meaning out from among the entire human race - out from the "worldly", by Yahweh and by Yahweh alone, hence they are literally "His Congregation".
Now let's go to "who" makes up those called
into Yahweh's Congregation. First, He has called His people of the physical
birthright of Jacob, whose name was changed by Yahweh, to "Israel". These people
originally called by Yahweh under the Old Covenant were and are
comprised of thirteen tribes emanating from
Israel's
twelve sons, [original twelve tribes plus the resulting thirteenth when Joseph's
tribe split into Ephraim and Manasseh]. These thirteen tribes represent a lot
more people than simply the "Jews", or the single tribe of Judah – which are not
Jews, as many people (including modern Jews) erroneously believe. Thus all of Yahweh's children have been called by Yahweh and have been freely offered Yahweh's gift of eternal salvation through His grace, with the inherent right to accept or reject that gift, which is literally our option to choose to believe Yahweh and repent, or to choose not to. Everyone on this planet is a child of Yahweh, therefore by His Covenants and through His Spirit, Yahweh has "called" everyone into His Israelite Congregation according to His good and perfect will. And He has even had this written down as a testimony to us, so that we are without excuse. Therefore the big question is not whether Yahweh's Congregation is the true "church" or not, that is elementary. Rather the big question is, who will answer Yahweh's call - who will recognize and respond to His most gracious invitation and enjoy being a part of His natural Israelite Congregation in this lifetime? Those that accept Yahweh's gift in this lifetime will receive eternal salvation and those that do not accept it in this lifetime, will not - yet. Yahweh's plan allows for only a few - the "remnant" of the Messiah's original followers to "answer His call"; to avoid the deceptive lure of Satan's myriad of false churches and accept His gift in this lifetime, while most will have to wait until the greater harvest during the thousand year reign, before they too will enjoy the opportunity to accept His gift without any associated deception. But in the end, Yahweh declares that it is His desire that "the whole world" be saved. (It is His desire that none should perish—but some will refuse repentance and will perish. It is understood that some teach the extreme doctrine that all will eventually be saved—even Satan and the demons. But this is belief in the Adversary’s lie to Eve when he said “You shall not surely die.”)
When you fully understand His many prophecies on this matter, it becomes clear that literally "most" of the entire world will be saved, it simply comes down to a matter of when, and how much tribulation some may have to endure in this lifetime as a result of the associated deceptions. So have you recognized His offer and received His salvation in this lifetime, or must you wait until the Judgment period? More properly, this might be expressed, as "are you truly a member of Yahweh's Congregation in this lifetime", or, "are you an atheist or a member of any one of Satan's competing Christian churches or Jewish Synagogues?" If you “belong” to any "church" or Jewish Synagogue, then you are outside of Yahweh's Congregation and His salvation has thus far eluded you!
The truth is, only Yahweh knows who has succeeded in this lifetime! In Yahweh's Congregation, "membership is registered in heaven". We can only know if Yahweh has accepted us into His Congregation by our own spiritual discernment, because the "things of Yahweh are spiritually discerned". But we can also know of many worldly deceptions and take steps to avoid them. One such masterfully crafted deception is man's advent of the many artificial "churches" and "synagogues". We cannot belong to Yahweh and to mammon at the same time!
All churches and synagogues, whether or not they are incorporated under man's law, or if they are organized by man in any fashion pursuant to, or under some aspect of international rule or convention, are subject to man's law, and deviously or deceptively, and maliciously or unwittingly, they place man's law as superior to Yahweh's law, and do thereby declare man's law as their sovereign authority! All such incorporated or man-organized churches are indeed artificial - and maintain artificial, or man-made baptismal and membership records "on earth", and often maintain reliance upon man-made copyrights and other artificial protections in direct competition to Yahweh our Elohim, in spite of His clear and multiple warnings on these topics, and in spite of their most noble efforts to dissuade otherwise. For the most part, their leaders are so deceived that they either cannot even recognize, or they refuse to recognize these warning signs, even when they are brought to their attention!
The bottom line is that only Yahweh can create things that are natural, and all things created by Yahweh are indeed natural, whereas everything man creates is by definition, artificial, and man has no capacity to create anything that is natural. All of man's churches are artificial, man-made constructs.
Does this mean that membership in one of these artificial churches or synagogues eliminates the possibility of receiving Yahweh's gift of eternal salvation'? Of course not! Yahweh knows that almost the "whole world" will be deceived by this very issue of false churches administered by false church leaders: "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of the Messiah. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing that his [false] ministers transform themselves into ministers of righteousness..." (2 Corinthians 11:7-15).
This is why, in Yahweh's all knowing and all compassionate plan, He has allowed for those that are deceived in this lifetime by such things as memberships in man's many false churches or synagogues, the opportunity to repent and receive their eternal salvation during the Kingdom age. Scriptures reveal that this is for those who have really not had ample opportunity—and Yahweh only makes this decision. |
