CLARIFICATION ON SALVATION VERSUS CHURCH

There are some on this forum who are repeatedly making the false charge that if I, or other brethren on this forum reject paedobpatist congregations as true churches of Christ that we are somehow asserting all paedbaptists are lost and none of them are brethren in Christ. That is simply a false accusation!

However, that assertion or accusation should be expected from such brethren because they believe in a doctrine which makes CHURCH equal to SALVATION and so when I or some other brethren say paedobaptist assemblies are not true churches of Christ, then in their minds, we have rejected salvation of anyone within their assemblies because they think church equals salvaition and so to reject their assembles as true churches is to reject those in the churches as saved or "brethren."

So let me break this down so there can be no future confusion or false accusations:

1. Do you believe there are saved people in what you regard as false churches (Roman Catholic Churches, Campbellite or "Churches of Christ", Seventh Day Adventist churches?

2. Do you believe there are saved people in the Great Harlot (Rev. 18;4)?

If you do, and you still reject their churches are true NT Churches then you see to reject a denomination or an assembly as a true NT church does not mean you are asserting all their members must be lost!

Now, put on your thinking hat for a second. If you can distinguish between a true Christian and a true church without confusing the two, that means there is something additionally required to be a true church than just saved people in its membership, or else you would have to accept the Roman Catholic Church, The Seventh Day Adventist churches, the Campbellite churches as all true churches of Christ.

Hence, a church is where people who are ALREADY saved serve God according to what they think the Bible teaches. Therefore, the church is concerned about ACCEPTABLE SERVICE for people who already profess to be saved. Hence, qualifications to be a true church require more than mere salvation essentials but SERVICE ESSENTIALS or things that characterize all true churches in the NT.

Hence, a church to be a true NT church requires more than mere salvation essentials, but requires those Biblical essentials that characterize all true churches in the pages of the NT (ordinances, kind of membership, officers, church government, mission, message, discipline, etc.).

However, some will object and say the Roman Catholic Church and others I have listed don't preach and teach the true gospel, but some Paedobaptist churches do and that is what makes them a true church. However, if a correct profession of Salvation is what makes any group of people who habitully assembly a true church without regard to any other major Biblical characteristics of true NT churches, then many Masonic lodges in America would have to be considered as true churches of Christ as many are composed of all professing Christians. Many of "parachurch" ministries would have to be regarded as true NT Churches also if simply salvation is the only essential to be a true NT Church. However, the Masonic lodge and "parachurch" organizations do not harmonize with essentials that characterize true churches of Christ in the Scripture.

Neither do Paedobaptist assemblies characterize the true essentials of NT churches in Scripture. Just because an assembly ASSERTS they have the major characteristics of a NT. churches not not make that assertion true! What determines if it is true or not is not their assertions but whether their assertions HARMONIZE WITH BIBLICAL DEFINITION AND TEACHING.

Saved Paedobaptists pervert the characteristics of the NT church. Paedobaptists pervert the ordinances of the church. Paedobaptists pervert the membership of the church. Paedobaptists pervert the government of the church. Paedobaptists pervert the offices of a church. Paedobaptists pervert the constitutional requirements of the NT. church. Paedobaptists are therefore not true churches any more than the Roman Catholic Church, or Seventh Day Adventist Churches, or Campbellite churches or the Great Harlot simply beause true believers exist in their membership and simply because they verbally assert a true gospel message in practice with regard to those things that characterize true NT churches repudiate it by their ordinances, membership and church consititution.