That Jesus built only ONE church is not only crystal clear, it is not even debated by people who know anything about the Bible (Matt. 16:18). That church is CHRIST'S church. End of story! Some people, who identify as belonging to the one church, or body the Bible talks about, use the name "Church of Christ" because it shows who owns it, and the phrase "churches of Christ " is actually mentioned in Romans 16:16. These people understand that division is contrary to the spirit of Christ (1 Cor. 10) and so they reject being part of the problem --denominationalism, and so they preach UNITY based on what the scriptures teach--to include the prayer of our Lord (John 17:17-21). A divided church (body) undoubtedly causes confusion, which God says he is not the author of (1 Cor. 14:33). Christ is THE head of THE church – not "many churches" (Col. 1:18) yet Roman Catholics claim their own head-making the "body" have TWO heads and denominationalism stems from the protesting of this apostate body, which resulted in Protestantism. Fortunately, people can be Christians only and not associated in any way with either denominationalism or Protestantism.
The simple truth is as follows: there is one church; and while people on earth may refer to it in various ways, some of which are scriptural and pleasing to God, yet others NOT, it is the PEOPLE that make up the church. These are people who DID the exact same thing people were told to DO to be saved and thereby enter the church (or be added to it by the Lord) the day it was first established. See Acts 2:36-47.
The people in a church assemble together and come to believe and teach various things. Sadly, some are so far from what the early church was taught and practiced they cannot be identified as anything other than a human institution built by men, which has no positive future in view of the following passage: "Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up" (Matt. 15:13).
Additional reading:
http://www.totalhealth.bz/identify-true-church.htm
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