Churchianity

Recently Pope Benedict XVI announced that the Roman Catholic Church is the only true church.  In reading some of the responses denouncing this statement I was reminded of a discussion I had not too long ago with a man who claimed that he was not a member of any church but simply a follower of Christ.  My religion, he asserted, is not Christianity but churchianity.  This seems to be a growing attitude among religious people today.  Many today say that they want to make Christians not church members out of people. This apathetic attitude concerning the church is quite perplexing to me in light of what the scriptures say about the church. 

Christ Died For the Church

It is the church that Christ purchased with his own blood (Acts 20:28).   It is the church that is his beloved bride and that he gave his life for (Ephesians 5:25) and he considers her to be glorious and holy (Ephesians 5:27).  The church is obviously of tremendous value to Christ and thus we should not attempt to downplay its importance.

The Church Is The House Of God

Paul wrote to Timothy and gave him many instructions on how to conduct himself “in the house of God, which is the church” (1 Timothy 3:15).  The church is God’s dwelling place and assuring the proper beliefs and practices within it was important enough that Paul wrote Timothy to give him instructions on these beliefs and practices.

The Saved Are In The Church

Whenever a person is saved God places them in his church (Acts 2:47).  We also find that Christ is the savior of his Church (Ephesians 5:23).   Thus if you are not a member of his church then you are not saved. Since it is in Christ’s church alone that salvation is found then it is tremendously important that we are members of his church and his church alone.

It is impossible to come to the conclusion that the church is unimportant from scriptural evidence.  The Bible time and time again attests to the great value and importance of the church.  Thus it is important that we not only be members of a church but of the right church and we cannot simply dismiss the church as a nonissue.