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"Ours is the Only True
Church of God" MP3
You have, no doubt, run across a number of churches, with claimed
roots to the Worldwide Church of God, who claim and have posted on their
web sites that they are a) the only
true church of God on earth and/or b)
the only rightful group designated by God to carry on the original work
of Herbert W. Armstrong.
The overriding question here is, "Why would the true church of God have
to make such a claim?" What is the purpose of making such a
statement? To whom are they directing this statement to?
Think about it for a moment. If a given church is, in fact, a true
church of God, do they have a membership? Surely they must have.
How did they get there? Was this statement of being the only true
church in the world the element that brought them to the church? I
would hope not. John 6:44 says that Almighty God is the one who
calls people to His true church. It is God who brings one to
repentance, baptism into the Body of Christ and the receiving of the
Holy Spirit. As part of God's calling, He brings them to a
specific church organization in which to carry out his or her given part
of the Work of God. It is a given that the church He calls them to
is God's true church.
Is the claim of being the only true church for people in the world?
Clearly not. Why would they care? Lots of worldly churches
sincerely claim to be true churches of God. If the worldly person
is not being called to this "one true church," the statement means
nothing?
Is this claim for members of other churches who came out of the apostasy
of the Worldwide Church of God? How could this be? If church
A is claiming to be the only true church of God on earth, it is a given
that they consider all the other churches with Worldwide roots to be
fallen away and fodder for the lake of fire. Surely they would not
be interested in having these damned sheep in their flock.
I see no reason on earth or in heaven why a true church of God would
find it necessary to make this claim. Of the some 300 groups with
roots to Worldwide, some of the five or six larger groups make this
claim. I suppose there could be greater number making this claim.
By definition, most of these groups must be in error.
There cannot be five or six church
organizations that are ALL the one and only true church of God.
Therefore the claim is a vain one and serves no Godly purpose.
Moreover, it is divisive and can give rise to envy, bitterness,
jealously and hate. What true church of God needs this?
Making this claim is all about vanity. The true church of God [be
it one or several organizations] has no need to make such a
claim. The true church will be doing the Work of God and will be
peopled by a harvest that only God, the Father can bring.
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