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Christ the Savior of the Body but Which One – the Matter of Timing?
In Eph. 5:23 we read where Paul says “Christ is the head of the church; and he is thesavior of the body.” This passage is clear cut and easy to understand save for onething – what body is it he is the savior of? Is it the Baptist church, the Lutheran, theMethodist, the Nazarene, or one of the hundreds of others that could be named?Many would say it is all of them taken collectively. It is a subject worthy of consideration, an important study, for if we do not get it right we will be foundoutside the body Jesus’ is saving at the last day.It is important that we understand that when Paul said Jesus was the “savior of thebody” he was talking about the church. The church is the body, “And he (God theFather – DS) put all things under his (Jesus’ – DS) feet, and gave him to be headover all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all inall.” (Eph. 1:22-23 NKJV) Paul again in Col. 1:18, “And he is the head of the body,the church.” (NKJV) The church is thus the spiritual body of Christ which Christ willsave at the last day as he is the Savior of the body. Being a church member then isclearly essential for salvation. However, we still have the problem of figuring out just which church it is that Christ is going to save as we have hundreds andhundreds of churches today. Is there any help in figuring it out? Yes, all kinds of help.I will start with what ought to be obvious to any and all. If the church of which aperson is a member began centuries after the New Testament was written it is notthe church which Jesus said he would save. The church Jesus established and overwhich he was and is the Savior was established in the first century on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2. Let us say, just as an example, that a church began in the1400’s. If a person claims the church of which he is a member is the one which Jesus is the Savior of and yet it was not begun until the 1400’s it necessarily meansthat for 1400 years Jesus had nothing to save and no one was saved. If anindividual readily admits his/her church was established sometime in the MiddleAges or thereafter they are admitting, like it or not, that their church is not thechurch Jesus established or built. They ought to get out of it, leave it. It is clearly aman made church rather than Christ built. That the church was begun in the first century is so self evident from even a casualglance at scripture I do not want to waste much time on it here. Many of Paul’ssalutations in the epistles establish that fact for he often begins with words like, “Tothe church of God which is at Corinth” (1 Cor. 1:2 NKJV), “To the churches of Galatia”(Gal. 1:2 NKJV), “To the church of the Thessalonians” (1 Thess. 1:2 NKJV). It is hardto write to a body not yet established, to something that does not exist. The churchwas begun on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2 commencing with those whoresponded to Peter’s preaching that day. In Acts 2:47 the New King James version of the Bible reads, “And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being
 
saved.” Much more could be written on the establishment of the church but that isnot the purpose of this particular article.Every denomination that exists today was built many hundreds of years after Christbuilt his church. This puts every denomination in a terrible bind. Only emotion canrescue (?) them for there is no hope that reason can. How can one claim his church(speaking by way of accommodation) is the church Jesus built when one takeschronology into account? The church Jesus built had to exist before hisdenomination otherwise the implication is that no one was saved for the hundredsof years prior to his denomination’s establishment but after Christ’s purchase of thechurch with his own blood (Acts 20:28 NKJV) which would mean no one at Ephesus,Corinth, Philippi, or any other city mentioned in the New Testament.If you admit the obvious that your denomination is not the church Christ built thentroubling questions arise. Why does it exist? Who built it? Jesus built his church butthe chronology says your church is not his church so who built it? Did God go aboutbuilding a vast multitude of denominations in addition to his church? If so why?Was his church insufficient by itself? If he could not make one church sufficient howcould he make hundreds or thousands sufficient? Why did he build them? If he didnot build them but man did who gave man the right? Where is the Bible authorityfor any man to go out and build a church in addition to God’s church? That is thevery thing that has happened if God’s church already existed prior to yourdenomination. It was built in addition to God’s church.If your church (I am using the words “you” and “your” in a generic sense) is not thechurch Jesus built then how can it be a friend to Christ’s church? It surely is incompetition with Christ’s church. If it taught the same thing Christ’s church taught,was the same in organization, work, worship, the same in every respect then itwould be his church and not a denomination and yet I have never known adenominational person willing to declare that his church is the church Jesus built.Why not? Because that would make it exclusive as Christ built only one. If yourgroup is it then no other group is but the chronology will not allow you to make thatclaim for your denomination. The timing is just not right. Furthermore, If that wasthe case and your body of adherents is indeed the Lord’s church then you wouldhave to declare it the “one body” (Eph. 4:4), the one church Jesus built, meaning theothers (all other denominations) were and are a fraud and I know of nodenominational person willing to do that – to make that declaration.I think men generally realize these things, it is only common sense, a little logic,pretty much like two plus two equals four, simple reasoning, and yet it is sotroubling to allow our minds to dwell on these things that we quickly shut thethoughts off from our mind. If we do not see an answer, a way out, our mind seemsto say let go of it. We pretend the problem is not there, it is non-existent, and werefuse to think about it. Why? Because it is so troubling and is capable of causingso much worry, concern, and trouble. But, like cancer, if the problem is there it will
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