THE TRUE CHURCH

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 14, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 24.

THE church of God is composed of the called-out ones, those regularly summoned. They are called by the Gospel. They are called out of the world, out of sin and selfishness, out of Babylon and darkness, out of the kingdom of Satan, out of death and destruction. They are called into holiness, righteousness, grace; into the kingdom of Christ, into light, into life and obedience and service.

Jesus Christ is not only the Head of this church, but He is the Head of each one belonging to this church. All this has been abundantly proved in the past.

Now it must logically and inevitably follow, that he who will not submit to God's call, who will not be effectually called, who will not make that calling "sure" by submitting to do and letting God do all that God requires, can not be a citizen of God's kingdom. He is not one of the called-out of God; he is not a member of the church of God. The church to which he belongs may be called by man, "The Church of God," "The Church of Christ," "The Church of the Apostles," or "The Christian Church," or "The Holy Catholic Church," or "The Roman Catholic Church," or the "Methodist" or "Baptist" or "Adventist Church;" the name of the church will not make him a citizen of God or a called-out one from the world; for a man may nominally belong to any ecclesiastical body, and yet be as much of the world as one who believes in no church whatever.

It must inevitably follow that he who once yielded to God's call, but who turned from the path of right, and in time of trial preferred and walked in his own way and the way of the world instead of that of God, would by thus doing take himself out from among the called-out ones, the church, and become one of the world, wherever his name might be enrolled. And this is as true of a church or body of such persons as it is of the individual. "Many are called, but few are chosen," because the many will not submit to God's call.

By not yielding to God's call, however or wherever we may be born according to the flesh, we remain separate from Christ the Head. By not yielding, or refusing to walk in His way, we separate ourselves from Christ our life.

"Christ is the Head of the church; and He is the Saviour of the body" (Eph 5:23), and His church is the body, and the individuals who compose it are "members in particular" (1 Cor. 12:12, 13, 27). We are united to Him and to each other by His Spirit, His life; "for by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body." 1 Cor. 12:12, 13. The union, if it exist at all, is vital and personal between Christ and each one, as tho he were the only called-out one.

Christ is the life, the power, the knowledge, the all in all of every soul saved. Christ tasted death for every soul, He lives for every one, He calls every one, and He personally saves every one who yields to the blessed call of the Gospel. If we cut ourselves off by unbelief, we die as surely as does the branch cut off from the living vine. If we hope for life in a church that has cut loose from God by unbelief and accept tradition and error in the place of truth, we will just as surely die. The only way to do is to heed God's call and come out from the dead forms and worldly emptiness. There is life only by personal abiding faith in Jesus Christ.

The claim that succession of the priesthood is through a certain organization is a deception. A round of forms, elaborate ritual, and splendid ornate ceremonies, great names and sounding titles, wealth, magnificence, numbers, a succession of priests from Christ to the present, not one or all of these can save. Lucifer came pure from the hand of the almighty Creator, and could certainly claim unbroken succession even in his own person; he was "the anointed cherub that covereth," and God set him so (Eze. 28:14); but he fell, and he now ministers death rather than life.

Israel of old were the chosen people of God, to whom pertained "the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises, whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came." Truly this would seem a sufficient guarantee of divine credentials! It would seem to show that Israel was the congregation of God! All these wonderful blessings of God were most precious. But the fact was that the children of Israel were called out of Egypt that they might "serve" God, and unless these blessings were held in the heart, and God's truth in the life, curses followed instead of blessing. God in mercy bore long with the rebellious children, and again and again called them back to righteousness. Still Israel trusted in the outward, and refused the call of God. But succession of priesthood through Levi was not sufficient; tracing the genealogy back to Abraham did not alone prove them to be the people of God, the possession of the temple, the ritual, the ark, were not of themselves credentials. Holding all these, yet Israel of old crucified the Lord of glory.

The Test of the Church.

Our Lord gives us a test, a most effectual one for all peoples, ages, conditions, and times. That test is, "Ye shall know them by their fruits." Matt. 7:16. "To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them." Isa. 8:20.

When the Jews boasted that they were free, because they were Abraham's seed (John 8:33), Jesus replied: "If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. . . . Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do" (verses 39-44). Said John the Baptist to the same class: "O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance ["answerable to amendment of life," margin]; and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father; for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham." Matt. 3:7-9.

Man must be "born from above" before he becomes a child of God, before he is a member of Christ's body, or church, before he is a branch of the True Vine, before he bears fruit to God's glory. If this be not the case as respects the individual, he is not a member of the church of God. If this be not the case as respects a church, it is not the church of God. Lineage, priesthood, ritual, form, ceremonies are all nothing apart from God. The indwelling Word, Christ dwelling within the individual soul by faith, the fruits of righteousness manifest in the life, obedience to all God's commandments as given in God's Word, the fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance,—these are God's indications of the true church, the body of Christ.

Praise God, this blessed relation is open to every one. Reader, are you a member of the church of the living God? Are you His child? Are you among the regularly-summoned citizens? Are you lawfully called? If not, why not?