Through the ages Jesus has claimed only the true “remnant,” those loyal to the principles and government of God. “Yes,” insinuates the tempter through the skeptic, “Catholics say they are the only true church; each of the other denominations claims the same for itself; and how is any one going to know?” Notice these words: “There is but one church in the world who are at the present time standing in the breach, and making up the hedge, building up the old waste places [in God’s law]; and for any man to call the attention of the world and of other churches to this church, denouncing her as Babylon, is to do a work in harmony with him who is the accuser of the brethren.”—Mrs. E. G. White, in Review and Herald, Sept. 5, 1893. Again: “God has a people [definite, one] in which all heaven is interested, and they are the one object dear to the heart of God.” This one people, this one object on earth, dear to the heart of God, he says is that one church on earth that is standing in the breach, building up its old waste and torn-down places. Will God own both the churches engaged in tearing down the wall and the one engaged in repairing it?—Nay, verily.
Again: obedience is enjoined upon, and observed by, the true wife: “For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.” Eph. 5:23, 24. The true church, owned by Christ, therefore, is “subject” unto him in everything; that is, she is obedient. This is a proof from Christ’s standpoint that she loves him. “Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my565words;” and Christ spoke his Father’s ten words on Mt. Sinai. “He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings.” John 14:23, 24. True companionship does not exist long between husband and wife when love is gone; and when the spirit of joyful obedience to the wishes of each other is gone, it is a sure sign that love has gone, and that which soon follows when both these are gone is, usually, divorce.
It is plain, then, that Christ’s church will be an obedient church; not because she must, but because she delights to, do his will. To illustrate: he has expressed his will, saying: “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work.” Now the church that loves her Lord, after having determined this to be her Lord’s expressed will, and also the day he so definitely specifies as his, will lay aside her own work, and observe it according to his directions, because she loves him. To do differently would be to despise her Lord, to take the first step toward the ultimate divorce.
In view of these divine utterances, shall we say that Christ owns, loves, cherishes, and supports all the so-called churches of the land alike? To admit that is to admit that he sanctions and sustains confusion. To claim such a thing is to admit that the principle of Mormonism, one man claiming to love a plurality of wives alike, is a principle of the kingdom of Christ.
As churches, Christ owns but one, and that one is composed only of individuals who “keep the commandments of God,” and who “have the testimony of Jesus.” “For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” And the spirit of prophecy is the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost; for holy men wrote the Word as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Those who “have not the Spirit of Christ,” the Holy Ghost, are “none of his.”
This is not saying that there are not individuals who have the Spirit of Christ, scattered among the churches which are the falsely claimed churches of Christ. Although as bodies they have been rejected of the Lord because they rejected his commandments, every individual in them whose heart is perfect toward his God will be called out: he will take his stand firmly upon all his Master’s commandments, because he loves them, and in that very act will unite with the one remnant company, which Christ is not ashamed to claim as his.
Let us study carefully these clear distinctions made by Christ between his true followers and those who are following him only in name.