We have noted that it is really rather easy to establish that there is a God who created all things, and that God has revealed himself to His highest creation in the revelation of His instructions by which man is to live if he is to have a home in heaven in the end. Our last offering was one that presented the ease of becoming a child of God and thus one who has salvation. We wish to conclude these “easy lessons” with revealing just how easy it is to choose the right church.

Since, as we have already noted, the New Testament scriptures are the blueprint for Christianity, we obviously have to look there to find the means by which we are to choose the right church. So, let us begin to shuffle through the great stack of examples found in the New Testament of those Christians of the first century seeking to determine just which church was the right one for them. Oh my! I can’t seem to find a single example. How can this be? The answer to this query is that man has wandered away from the blueprint for Christianity and has done as those foolish Jews that Paul spoke of. He said that, “…they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God” (Rom. 10:2-3). The problem is that of man building his own form of Christianity that is not found in God’s word. The psalmist said of doing that, “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it” (Psalm 127:1).

The reason that there are no examples of people trying to decide which church is the right church in New Testament times is because there was but one church. The Lord promised to build His church (Matt. 16:18), not churches. The Lord purchased the church with His own blood (Acts 20:28), not churches. He is the head over the church, not churches which is His body, not bodies (Eph. 1:22-23). We read of various congregations of that one body, the church, as they were the geographical locations of the church, but no other churches.

As seen in Ephesians 1:22-23 and Colossians 1:18, the church is the body of Christ. It is often referred to in other similes such as the bride of Christ and the kingdom of the Lord. Notice what Paul had to say in reference to the unity of the church as found in Ephesians 4:4-6. He said, “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all”. Since, as noted, the body is the church and the first of the seven “one’s” listed there is the body, we can conclude that there is just one church. However, apply the same rules of grammar to the rest of the list, because if there can be more than one church (body), then there can be more than one Lord, Spirit and God the Father, for the same text says that there is just one of each of them. Denominations did not exist in the first century. In fact, it was almost fifteen hundred years later before the first denomination was formed.

The Bible declares there to be only one church. There are many around us today claiming to be that one church or a part of it, so how can we know? An easy-to-understand illustration should help. If you were sent to find a specific car in the parking lot of a large department store at a busy holiday shopping time and you had never seen that car before, how would you find it? You would look for identifying marks, such as make, model, color, year and possibly even the license plate number. One might tell you, “This is it; this is it”, but your response might well be, no it is not, it is the wrong color. Any church that was founded by anyone other than Jesus Christ (Matt. 16:18), is not the right church. Any church that was founded any time before or after the first Pentecost following the death of Christ on the cross (Acts 2:41), is not the right church. Any church that was founded anywhere other than Jerusalem (Isa. 2:3), is the wrong church. Any church that has any head other than Christ (Eph. 1:22-23), is the wrong church.

Often we have heard someone say, just join the church of your choice. The problem with this is what man chooses does not make it right. We need to be more concerned with the church of God’s choice. The last half of Acts 2:47 states, “And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved”. What church does He add the saved to? His own church, of course. When one obeys the gospel of Christ, thus becoming a child of God, the Lord adds that person to His church. That seems pretty easy, just find the church that meets all the identifying marks, and it will be the right one.