Besides the mainline denominations, there are churches that call themselves undenominational, or inter-denominational, and those that call themselves community churches. In all of these are admirable examples of personal piety and of much time spent in trying to help other people.

How our hearts grieve because their pastors have not given them the complete rule book, "the whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:27). Truly, those misled zealous people "have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge" (Romans 10:2).

When I was preaching in Washington D.C., an invitation came for me to preach for the Greenbelt (Maryland) Community Church. I did so on November 24, 1938, but I was never invited back. While I was with them, I was given a copy of their church constitution. It states that they are "amenable to no ecclesiastical judicatory" and that they fellowship "all Protestant churches." New members are received simply by a "confession of faith" or by a transfer of membership from other churches "of whatever faith." Apparently they overlook the fact that, according to the New Testament, there is only "one faith" (Ephesians 4:5; cf. 2 Corinthians 13:5; Jude 3).

Their time for observing the Lord’s Supper is not determined by the New Testament, but "at such times as the church may determine." Though baptism is a command in the new Testament (Acts 10:48), at the Greenbelt Community Church, baptism "while preferred, shall be optional," and "administered in the form requested by the member." "No ordinance," says their constitution, "is compulsory on any member."

They have written out ten beautiful New Testament verses as their "Creed" (John 4:24; 14:6; Acts 8:37; 17:26; Romans 8:14; 1 John 1:7, 9; 2:17, 8), but they do not make the other New Testament verses as part of their "Creed". The whole New Testament has 7,959 verses.

The New Hope Community Church in Portland (11731 SE Stevens), Oregon, is to be commended for their zeal and commitment. They have over 200 ministries, and hundreds of Tender Loving Care Groups (TLCs) meeting each week throughout the city.

Also, the New Hope Community Church understands much more clearly than other churches the beautiful picture of nondenominational Christianity. They hold "that all believers become members of His body, the church, the Family of God." They hold that "there is one true church universal, comprised of all those who acknowledge Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord."

They have learned what many other churches have not that there is only one true church, and that that church is the body of Christ and is the Family of God. But Peter, on the day that Jesus built his church, did not stop with telling inquiring sinners simply to "acknowledge Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord." He told them to "repent, and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ, so that your sins may be forgiven" (Acts 2:38, NRS). How good it would be if the New Hope Community Church would include Acts 2:38 in their admirable statement of what they believe about the Bible:

That marvelous Bible describes what the new Hope Community Church call the "one true church universal," which indeed, originated in divine wisdom.

Divine love, immeasurable in length, breadth, height, or depth, led the Father, back in eternity, to lay out a plan to save sinners yet unborn (Ephesians 3:11, 17-19). Eight hundred years before Jesus was born, said Isaiah, the far-reaching plan no eye had seen, no ear had heard of it, and no heart had conceived what the Father had prepared "for those who love him" (Isaiah 64:4; 1 Corinthians 2:9).

The beautiful concept that sinners could be washed, forgiven, and purified "had been hidden for ages in God" (Ephesians 3:9). Then, "in the fullness of time", sinners were "redeemed, not by perishable things (as silver and gold)", but "by the precious blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:18).

John the Baptist rejoiced in calling Jesus the "bridegroom" (John 3:29). Jesus gave a dowry (a gift given for a wife) to buy "with his own blood" his called-out people, the church (Acts 20:28). So, in John’s illustration, everyone who believes, repents, and is baptized has gone through a marriage ceremony, and is married to Christ, and wears the name of the bridegroom ("Christ-ian"). (Romans 7:1-4; 1 Peter 4:16).

The Scriptures also use the bridegroom illustration to set forth faith, repentance, and baptism, not as the marriage, but as accepting Jesus’ proposal, as accepting his engagement ring, the wedding to be in the next world.

In the second illustration, someday each fiancée will be presented to the bridegroom in splendor, having been cleansed by "the washing of water by the word," making him or her spotless, flawless, unblemished, and set apart (Ephesians 5:26-27).

At present, each Christian is Jesus’ fiancée, "a chaste virgin" promised "in marriage to one husband" (2 Corinthians 11:2). At present, each Christian is "prepared as a bride adorned for her bridegroom" (Revelation 21:2). Someday the words will be heard:

At that time each Christian who had been faithful as a fiancée will "be clothed in fine linen, bright and splendid. The fine linen is the good deeds of the saints" (Revelation 19:8). A never ending happy marriage is next.