WHY NOT THE CHURCH OF JESUS' CHOICE?

By Nana Yaw Aidoo

If you are a person who frequently listens to denominational preachers, then you can’t have missed their usual drill, where they tell their audience to say a prayer after them, after which they claim that all who said the prayer are saved. They then tell these now “saved” people, to “go and join a church of your (their) choice”. These preachers (pastors as they are popularly called) would have us believe that, a person who obeys the gospel (faith alone in their case, most of the time), is translated into Christ or is saved. After being found “in Christ”, this supposedly saved person, must then join the church of his choice.

If this is true, then which church did the 3000 people, who gladly received Peter’s words and were baptized (the point at which a person is translated into Christ cf. Gal.3:27) join (Acts 2:41)? If these people were first saved and then joined the church of their choice, then which church(es) did they join? The Baptist Church? The Catholic Church? Perhaps the Methodist Church? Which one? What about the believers in Acts 5:14, who “were increasingly added to the Lord”? Which church of their choice did they join? Would it not be interesting for those who teach this doctrine, to tell us which church the Ethiopian joined after he was saved (Acts 8:39)?

The idea that a person is first saved and then joins the church of his choice is the direct opposite of what the bible teaches. The 3000 people and every other person who obeyed the gospel, were added to the church because they were saved (Acts 2:47). They were not first saved and then later joined a church of their choice. That which saved them, at that very instant they were saved, added them to the church of Jesus’ choice.

The bible teaches that all who are sons of God through faith are “in Christ Jesus” (Gal.3:26). Also, all who are “in Christ”, are those that have been “baptized into Christ” (Gal.3:27). There is not a single person, who is a child of God, who has not been baptized into Christ. Let denominational preachers continue to teach “faith alone” into Christ. The bible would still say what it says, and it says, “baptized into Christ”. Must the one who is “in Christ” be in Christ in part or in the fullness of Christ? In His fullness you say? Then thus saith the scriptures; “And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph.1:22-23). Therefore, to be “in Christ” is to be “in the church” because the church is “the fullness of Him who fills all in all”.

My friends, to be “in Christ” is to be “in the church” and to be “in the church” is to be “in Christ”. They are one and the same thing. No one was first “in Christ” and then later joined the church of his own choice. All who obeyed the gospel were added to the church of Jesus’ own choice, because they were saved. Also, notice that those in Acts 2:47 are said to be “added to the church”. Yet, Luke, the author of Acts 2:47, wrote that those in Acts 5:14 were “added to the Lord”. Were these 2 groups of people added to 2 different things? Absolutely not! Then why did Luke write “added to the church” in one place and then “added to the Lord” in another place? He did, because to be “in our Lord Jesus Christ” and to be “in His church” are one and the same thing. Know this and you have learnt the meaning of Ephesians 5:31-32. Clearly, one does not enter “into Christ” and then later joins the church of his choice. Rather, at the same time a person is “added to the Lord”, that person is “added to the church”.

Try as much as you would and you won’t find the statement, “go and join the church of your choice” in the bible. It just isn’t there. So where did it come from? It came from the minds of denominational preachers who deceive people and give them a false sense of security into believing that they are saved, and then add these people into their own churches, according to their own rules or creeds of receiving members. Blind men leading blind people would always be an unwise thing to do (Matt.15:14). Only the word of God can cure spiritually blind eyes (Psa.19:8). 

The 3000 people who obeyed the gospel on the day of Pentecost did not go and join the church of their choice, but were “added to the church” of Jesus’ choice. They constituted the church. When they heard and believed Peter’s sermon, they asked; “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37). Peter replied; “Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins...” (Acts 2:38). That my friends, is exactly what they did (Acts 2:41). Did obedience to the words of the apostle, make them members of the church of Jesus’ choice? Absolutely! We know this is the case because after Peter gave the conditions of forgiveness, he exhorted them to “be saved from this perverse generation” (Acts 2:40). Luke then records that those that received Peter’s words were baptized. Thus, by receiving and obeying Peter’s words to repent and be baptized, these 3000 people were “saved from this perverse generation”.

What then happened to these who were saved? Luke records that “the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47). The 3000 people were added to the church of Jesus’ choice because they were saved. It is this church which Jesus Christ called “My church” (Matt.16:18). It is His church and not the church of any man. Paul in keeping with this idea, called the congregations of Jesus’ church, “the churches of Christ” (Rom.16:16). Even when he said "the church of God" (Acts 20:28) he made sure to specify that he was referring to the Only Begotten Son of God by adding the words, "which He purchased with His own blood." You simply cannot read any other church into this.

Evidently, obedience to Peter’s words to repent and be baptized made these 3000 people, members of the church of Jesus’ choice. If so, then we have found what a person must do in order to be added to the church of Jesus’ choice. If people would today do what the 3000 did, and would hear the gospel, believe it, repent of their sins, confess faith in Christ before men and be baptized unto the remission of their sins, they would not be saved and then later join the church of their choice. Rather, they like the 3000 would be added to the church of Jesus’ choice because they have been saved from their sins.

“And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord” (Acts 22:16).

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