Words Of Truth

Hijacked - The Names Of The Church

I. Introduction:

A. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

1. There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved (Acts 4:10-12).
2. Jesus is the savior of His church (Ephesians 5:23).
3. That is, the church that He established (Matthew 16:13-18) through the shedding of His own blood (Acts 20:28 and Ephesians 5:25).

1. You have to look at what one does and the fruit from that, not what they appear to be (Matthew 7:16-20).
2. Actions matter more than words (Jeremiah 7:1-11 and I John 2:3-6).

1. The church [assembly; gathering in public] (Matthew 18:17, Acts 2:47, Acts 5:11, Acts 8:1; 8:3, Acts 11:26, Acts 12:1, Acts 12:5, Acts 14:27, Acts 15:3-4, Acts 18:22, Acts 20:17, I Corinthians 6:4, I Corinthians 12:28, I Corinthians 14:4-5; I Corinthians 14:12; I Corinthians 14:28; I Corinthians 14:35, Ephesians 1:22, Ephesians 3:10, Ephesians 5:23-25; 5:29, Philippians 3:6, I Timothy 5:16, Hebrews 2:12, and III John 1:6; 1:9-10).
2. The church [assembly] in/of/at (Acts 11:22, Acts 13:1, Romans 16:1; 5, Philemon 1:2, Colossians 4:15-16, I Thessalonians 1:1, II Thessalonians 1:1, I Peter 5:13, and Revelation 2:1; Romans 2:8; Romans 2:12, Romans 2:18, Romans 3:1, Romans 3:7, and Romans 3:14).
3. The church [assembly] of God [living God] (Acts 20:28, I Corinthians 1:2, I Corinthians 10:32, I Corinthians 11:22, I Corinthians 15:9, II Corinthians 1:1, Galatians 1:13, and I Timothy 3:5; I Timothy 3:15).
4. Churches of Christ (Romans 16:16).
5. The general assembly and church of the firstborn (Hebrews 12:22-23).
6. The body of Christ (Colossians 1:18; Colossians 1:24).
7. Churches of the saints (I Corinthians 14:33).
8. As God’s people, we are referred to as the house or building of God/Christ (I Corinthians 3:9 and Hebrews 3:1-6).
9. Marvelous terms regarding the kingdom (Luke 17:20-21, Colossians 1:13, and Hebrews 12:28).
10. Again, we could go on and on here to even with uncommon terms such as “this way” (Acts 9:1-2).

1. “The Church”; one example: https://www.churchinlosangeles.org/

1. That group believes everyone is born a sinner (https://www.churchinlosangeles.org/about/what-we-believe/).
2. While there are many other errors they believe and practice, the faithful know this is clearly a false doctrine (Ecclesiastes 7:29, Ezekiel 18:4; 18:20, Ezekiel 28:15, Matthew 18:1-4, etc.).
3. There have been those who have NEVER been sinners (i.e. Genesis 5:24 and Hebrews 11:5).

2. The “church of God” is used by many different religious groups that practice thousands of false doctrines. One example: https://churchofgod.org/

1. That groups believes in modern day spiritual gifts (https://churchofgod.org/beliefs/declaration-of-faith/).
2. While there are many other errors they believe and practice, the faithful know this is clearly a false doctrine (I Corinthians 12:3-13:13).

3. The one I am most familiar with are those who commonly call themselves “the church of Christ” based on Romans 16:16.

1. In the USA, many of those who call themselves “the church of Christ” are from the American Restoration Movement (https://www.restorationlibrary.org/). Other false groups use similar or even the same wording too.
2. While holding to that movement, these churches will quickly jump to show they started in the first century in Acts chapter two. If such were true, they would deny the “Restoration Movement” and would not use all the literature from that movement.
3. Yet, with those using this identifying name and claiming to “speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where the Bible is silent” you find nothing but division, debates, man-made doctrines, and hypocrisy. They are not of the same mind (I Corinthians 1:10). When they are getting along it is typically by practicing the falsehood of “unity in diversity” (Amos 3:3). Look online and you will find churches of Christ teach thousands of different things. What they have most in common is a sign in front of their church owned property. That’s about it! Yet, they “speak where the Bible speaks…”
4. If they really did “speak where the Bible speaks…”, they could show the Scriptures (Colossians 3:16-17) wherein there are VBS, Lectureships, good debates, youth ministers, “christian colleges”, preaching schools, many of their modern “ministries”, “brotherhood publications”, bible camps, man made lists of “salvation/fellowship issues”, and many more things that are commonly practiced; but never spoken of in the Scriptures. If it were a good work, you’d read about it in the Scriptures (II Timothy 3:15-17).

4. We could keep going with hijacked Scriptural names for the body of Christ. If I did thousands of lessons we would still not cover even the half of how Scriptural names of the Lord’s people have been hijacked by pretenders. So, consider this…

1. Saints, have your conduct speak for you (Philippians 1:27).
2. True congregations of the Lord’s true people, let your conduct speak louder than any verbal identifier (I Thessalonians 1:1-10).
3. If you’re looking for an assembly of God’s people today, you have to look at what they call themselves for sure. The “Baptist Church”, “Methodist Church”, “Presbyterian Church”, etc. is telling you right away they are a man-made church. Just don’t stop there!!!!!!
4. When you do identify a group using a Scriptural designation, understand that is just the beginning of what you need to look at. Is what they say and do pleasing to God so that you can confirm such through His word (Isaiah 8:20, I Thessalonians 4:1-2, and I Thessalonians 5:21)?
5. Seeing that some are very clever at hiding their true identity, you might even have to look more deeply. For example, who are they in fellowship with (Ephesians 5:6-11 and II John 1:9-11)?
6. The wolves are attired in sheep’s clothing. Look deeper and see that just because they use a Scriptural designation to identify themselves doesn’t make them truly God’s people (Romans 2:23-29).