EARMARKS OF THE TRUE CHURCH
Hugo McCord
Jesus was the builder of the only true church (Matthew 16:18). His church--his ekklesia, his "called-out" people--make up his spiritual "body" (Colossians 1:18). As he had only one physical body, so biblically there is only "one" spiritual "body" (1 Corinthians 12:20; Ephesians 4:4).
So much did Christ love the church, his "called-out" people, he
gave himself [yes, his blood, Acts 20:28] for them that he might set them apart, having cleansed them in the washing of the water by the word, that he might present the called-out people to himself in splendor, having no spot or flaw or any such thing, but that they might be unblemished and set apart (Ephesians 5:25-27, FHV).
Those called-out people, his spiritual body, his church are still precious to him, and he is awaiting the Father’s signal to make his second coming to gather members of his church to take them to his home in heaven, for he "is the savior of the body" (John 14:1-3; Ephesians 5:23).
Since his second coming will not be to save those out of his body (cf. John 3:36; Romans 2:8-9; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9), every human being ought to have only one chief desire, saying: "I want to get into his body, his church, and then be a faithful ‘called-out’ Christian that I might be ready for the Lord’s coming."
How can one know which of the hundreds of churches is Jesus’ one true church? Jesus did not look with favor on man-made organizations: "Every plant which my heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted" (Matthew 15:13). When Jesus appears in the sky, what are some characteristics, some earmarks, by which we can identify Jesus’ church?
Biblically, five earmarks of the one true church are: (1) the identity of the builder, namely, Jesus (Matthew 16:18); (2) where his church was first established, namely, in Jerusalem (Luke 24:47); (3) when his church was established, namely, on Pentecost Sunday, A.D. 30 (Acts 2:1-47, KJV); (4) the character of church members, namely, dedicated and clean-living people (1 Corinthians 6:11; Colossians 1:3-5) with some hypocrites (Acts 5:1-11; Galatians 2:4); and (5) the namelessness of Jesus’ church.
I used to think that the Lord’s church has several names, and in my preaching I cited book, chapter, and verse which mentioned them. Then I learned from Bro. G. C. Brewer that I was misusing those verses. I was hard to convince, and decided to check every verse that mentions the church. Only then did I realize that one distinguishing earmark of the Lord’s church is its namelessness. I found that the KJV refers to Christians as the "church" 112 times, as follows:
First, it is called "my church" by Jesus one time (Matthew 16:18), a phrase showing ownership, not showing a name of the church.
Second, it is called "the church" 95 times (beginning in Matthew 18:17), with no name attached.
Third, it is called the "church of God" 12 twelve times (beginning in Acts 20:28), a phrase which denotes ownership: Jesus and his Father are co-owners (John 17:10).
Fourth, some Christians were called "the churches of the Gentiles" (Romans 16:4), a phrase describing non-Jewish members, not a church name.
Fifth, the phrase "the churches of Christ" occurs one time (Romans 16:16), a phrase that denotes ownership, not a name for Jesus’ church. In parallel, the phrase "the dogs of John" tells who owns the dogs, not the names of the dogs.
Sixth, the phrase "the churches of the saints" occurs one time (1 Corinthians 14:33), denoting the character of Christians, not a church name.
Seventh, the phrase "the church of the firstborn" occurs one time (Hebrews 12:23). I used to think that the word "firstborn" in Hebrews 12:23 refers to Jesus (as it does in Romans 8:29; Colossians 1:15, 18; Revelation 1:5), but in Hebrews 12:23 the word "firstborn" is plural, meaning the "firstborn people," a figurative expression describing the elevated position of Christians. The King James translators knew that the word in the Greek is plural, and so they wrote about "the church of the firstborn which are written in heaven," using the plural verb "are." Thus the phrase "the church of the firstborn" is a complimentary designation of church members, not a church name.
It becomes evident that none of the 112 instances of the word "church" as referring to Jesus’ "called-out" people supplies a church name. Further, that which has a "name or appellation" is a "denomination" (Webster), and I knew that the Lord’s church is not a denomination.
When one checks all churches now in existence he finds that none of them can trace its way back historically to Jerusalem in A.D. 30. All of them have earmark number four, good and bad people as members, but all of them were built by the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time to have a connection with Jesus’ church, and they all have names.
The Holy Roman Catholic Church with a pope in charge of all churches cannot be traced back of 606 A.D., when Boniface III claimed to be the universal bishop. His immediate predecessor as bishop at Rome, Gregory the Great, had condemned as "anti-Christ" anyone claiming to be the universal bishop.
Similarly, the Lutheran Church, founded by Martin Luther in Wittenburg, Germany, in 1517, only has one earmark of Jesus’ church, that is, good and bad people in its membership.
Likewise, all the other denominations have earmark number four, but lack the other four:
The Church of England, established by Henry the VIII in London in 1534; the Presbyterian Church, established by John Knox in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1556; the Baptist Church, established by John Smythe in Amsterdam, Holland, in 1604; the Methodist Church, established by John Wesley in Epworth, England in 1739; the Mormon Church, established by Joseph Smith in Fayette County, N.Y., in 1812; the Seventh Day Adventist Church, established by William Miller in 1830; the Church of Christ, Scientist, established by Mary Baker Eddy in Boston in 1869; the Christian Church, established by L. L. Pinkerton in Midway, Ky., in 1859; the Jehovah Witnesses, established by Charles T. Russell in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1872.
Sometimes it is said that the church of Christ was established by Alexander Campbell in Washington, Pa., in 1804. He said that he did not establish any church. However, if he did start a church, it was not purchased with Jesus’ blood (Acts 20:28), and its future will be the same as that of all other denominations: "Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain" (Psalm 127:1, NIV).
Are we at a dead end? Is there any way that people in the 20th century can be sure they are in the church that Jesus built? The Scriptures give us "all things that pertain to life and godliness" (2 Peter 1:3), and they let us know that there is another word besides the ekklesia, the "called-out" people, that describes Jesus’ church, namely, "the kingdom" (cf. Matthew 16:18-19; Colossians 1:13; Revelation 1:9; 5:10).
How does the word "kingdom" let us know that we can be sure we are in Jesus’ church? Because the kingdom, the church, is reproduced by a "seed," which, said Jesus, is "the word of God" (Luke 8:11). The divine seed, the word of God, germinated in the hearts of sinners to produce Jesus’ church in Jerusalem on Pentecost Sunday, A.D. 30: "they that gladly received his word were baptized" and "the Lord added" them "to the church" (Acts 2:41, 47). Some manuscripts omit the word "church" in Acts 2:47, but they all have that word in Acts 5:11, a reference to the same saved people. The KJV has a mistake in Acts 2:47, saying "the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved," instead of what Luke wrote, "were being saved" (sozomenous).
What gives us living hope today is that the same seed, the same word, that produced Jesus’ church in Jerusalem in A.D. 30 is just as powerful 2000 years later and will be until Jesus returns. Sinners in the 20th century, exactly like those in the first century, can be "born again not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God," the word that "abides forever" (1 Peter 1:23-25).
When the church does not exist in either a locality or in a given period of time, its restoration is as simple as planting seed. Several years ago, there appeared in the National Geographic an account of some lotus seeds, which were found in an old dried-up Manchurian lakebed. Carbon-14 tests indicated they were more than a millennium old. When the rock-like crust was filed away, they were placed upon some moist cotton in a culture dish and they sprouted! The article contained a picture of the Horticultural Gardens in our nation’s capital where today grow beautiful lotus blossoms from those seeds that slept a thousand years (Hardeman Nichols, THE SPIRITUAL SWORD, October, 1991, p. 19).