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thyself in the house of God, which
is THE CHURCH OF THE LIVING
Goo." Here it is the Church of the
living
God.
In speaking of the locaJ congre–
gation collectively, not as one gen–
eral body, but as the total of all
local congregations, the Bible name
is "The CHURCHES OF Goo." Here
are the final three verses of the
12
which name the Church:
1
O) 1
Corinthians 11 :16:
..... We have no such custom, nei–
ther THE CHURCHES OF Goo."
11) 1 ThessaJonians 2: 14: ..For
ye, brethren, became followers of
THE CHURCHES OF Goo which in
Judaea are in Christ Jesus."
12)
JI
Thessalonians 1:4: "So
that we ourselves glory in you in
THE CHURCHES OF GOD."
Yet none is truly the Church OF
Goo, unless it is Goo's CHURCH,
continuing in doctrine, practice,
organization, in aJl ways on the
originaJ biblicaJ pattern, headed by
Jesus Christ, yet belonging to God
the Father, empowered by the Holy
Spirit, having Goo's TRUTH, fulfill–
ing Christ's commission of pro–
claiming bis GOOD NEWS of the
KINGDOM OF Goo to the world as a
whole.
And there is only ONE such
Church!
And it CANNOT BE DIVIDED. lt
remains ONE.
In 1 Corinthians 1, the apostle
Paul was inspired to command that
aJl in the Church ..SPEAK THE SAME
THING." There must be no division
in what is believed, taught or
preached.
Tradltlonal Chrlstianity
But what about all the many orga–
nized churches labeled under the
category "Christianity"- some
with millions of members? They
are all described in Revelation
17:5:
"Mystery, Babylon the great,
the mother of harlots and abomina–
tions of the earth."
Are they, then, evil?
Not consciously or knowingly,
necessarily. The world of humanity
has been CUT OFF from God. Satan
is still on earth's throne, next in
power to Goo hirnself! And the
whole world is DECEIVED by Satan
(Rev. 12:9). Those deceived are not
aware that they are deceived.
If
so
they would not
be
deceived! They
22
may be ever so sincere in believing
they are right!
Are they condemned? By no
means! They are simply NOT YET
JUDGED-· - neither "condemned"
nor "saved." Few indeed realize the
magnitude of Satan's power and
the extent of his DECEPTION!
It is SATAN who is evil and dia–
bolical. But he is an INVISIBLE
being and force- unseen and
unrecognized by mortal humans.
Satan is a great COUNTERFEITER!
He appears as "an angel of light"
(11 Cor.
11:13-15).
And he has his
counterfeit CHURCHES! His minis–
ters are deceived by him into
believing they are "ministers of
righteousness" and of Christ (II
Cor.
11:15;
Matt.
24:5).
"But 1 fear, lest by any means, as
the serpent beguiled Eve through
his subtilty, so your minds should
be corrupted from the simplicity
that is in Christ. For if he that
cometh preacheth another Jesus,
whom we have not preached, or if
ye receive another spirit, which ye
have not received, or another gos–
pel, which ye have not accepted, ye
might well bear with him. ... For
such are false apostles, deceitful
workers, transforming themselves
into the apostles of Christ. And no
marvel; for Satan himself is trans–
formed into an angel of light.
Therefore it is no great thing if bis
ministers also be transformed as
the ministers of righteousness ;
whose end shaJl be according to
their works" (II Cor.
11:3-4, 13-
15).
Notice these deceived but false
churcbes believe they are the true
church, and their ministers are
"transformed as the ministers of
righteousness"- in other words,
appear to be the true ministers of
Jesus Christ. And indeed, many of
tbem may be entirely sincere, being
tbemselves deceived. Yet tbey have
neither
~own
nor preacbed Jesus'
true gospel of THE KINGDOM OF
Goo (M_att.
24:14).
Nor do they
comprehend what is written in this
book about the CHURCH OF Goo!
Partial Truth
Many Protestant denominations,
and sorne personal "ministries,"
quote certain scriptures, especiaJly
concerning Christian living, faith,
love, etc. , correctly. But they
ignore numerous basic scriptures,
cited in this book. Satan seems will–
ing to let the deceived bave parts of
the truth.
But these run afoul on pivota!
truths. Usually they do not have
the proper name, Th.e Church of
God. Neither do they know or pro–
claim the kingdom of God or what
it is- that is to say, they do not
have or proclaim tbe true gospel of
Christ. They do not have God's
government headed by Jesus
Christ, with apostles, evangelists,
pastors and other elders. They do
not know what salvation is. They do
not understand God's purpose or
plan .
One original Church, much per–
secuted and opposed, but still in
existence, has these evidences prov–
ing it to be the original true
Church. And even this Church,
until after the year of 1933, had
lost many of tbese vitaJ truths. At
least 18 basic and
~sential
truths
have been restored to the true
Church since that year.
Human Mlnd Alone Can't Know
Until now, 1 have not been able to
give a clear concise explanation of
precisely WHAT and WHY is the
CHURCH.
And WHY NOT?
People naturaJiy and normally
think only of and about physical
and materiaJ things. People do not
realize it, but they have been CUT
OFF from God! The human mind,
unless and until it receives the Holy
Spirit of Goo, cannot think spiri–
tually- cannot know spiritual
knowledge--cannot understand hu–
man problems, troubles, evils or
purposes of human existence.
But the CHURCH is Goo's
Church. And the tÍtings of Goo are
a mystery- not understandable to
the natural carnal mind. So people
may have sorne kind of human idea
of what and why the Chu.rch is, but
it is not Goo's concept.
God has communicated to man
in our day through bis printed
Word, the Holy Bible. But the real
central meaning in tbe Bible is spir–
ituaJ. And naturaJ minds without
God's Spirit cannot tbink spiri–
tually or comprehend revealed spir–
itual knowledge. To make it still
more a MYSTERY, 1 repeat once
again, the Bible is like a jigsaw puz-
The
PLAIN TRUTH