One Church or Many Churches? Orthodox , Catholic or Protestant?

In modern American society, people often do not know what it means to be part of the church or what the difference between different denominations of Christianity is. We often do not consider it important which church we belong to because we do not know what other denominations stand for. This video will begin to explain the purpose of the church on earth and how to reach that goal.

[cpawel]

Perhaps I was jumping to conclusions when I thought my comment was being deleted - perhaps it is not being posted at all. Third try, hopefully works, this time without links, just titles.

Rexlion - I would suggest taking a look at "The Church: Visible or Invisible?" by Jimmy Akin, as it will begin the journey of looking at the Church as a single entity without the dichotomy of visible and invisible. To aid in that journey, on the Shameless Popery Podcast, Joe Heschmeyer's "What the Apostle Judas Reveals About the Church" will further dive into the topic, and hopefully explain why it is erroneous to think of the Church as visible and invisible.

[rexlion]

Good message. To expand upon it a bit: the church's foremost purpose is (as you say) to glorify God. Its other primary purposes are to lift up and magnify the name of Jesus Christ, to communicate the Gospel of Christ crucified for our redemption from sin, and to build up & encourage the individual members so that they can persevere in faith until the end and can function as one body of Christ on earth.

The church is not just Orthodox. Not just Catholic. Not just Protestant. The church is Christian; it is a spiritual church comprised of all whom God has regenerated by His saving grace and the Holy Spirit who indwells them and unites them. This true church is Jesus' church, not the church of any pope or patriarch or human agency, and it transcends all denominational barriers.

Not all Orthodox belong to Jesus' spiritual church. Not all Catholics belong to it. Not all Protestants. For there are many who belong to visible churches but do not belong to Christ. This proves that none of the visible churches can legitimately call itself the one true church in exclusivist and inclusivist terms. Any church which tries to claim otherwise is guilty of the same mistake which Paul chided against in his letter to Corinth:

1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? 
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? 
1Co 3:5  Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? 
1Co 3:6  I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. 
1Co 3:7  So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. 

Several of the visible churches claim to possess the true Apostolic traditions, yet they disagree and conflict with each other concerning the content of that tradition. This shows us that we must push past tradition and go further back in time to the Apostolic Age itself and to the constant, unchanging written standard which God the Holy Spirit gave to the church: the Holy Scriptures. Although traditions carry authoritative weight, the variance and disagreements concerning the content of tradition demonstrate that tradition is not the highest authority given to us. The highest authority is the written word of God, the Bible, and all traditions must be evaluated in light of, and aligned with, this written authority. To say that we should do the opposite -- rely on a tradition to decide what Scripture says -- is to practically place that tradition _above_ the constant, unchanging written message; this is a backward and divisive method of interpreting the Bible.

Let Scripture interpret Scripture, and let tradition enlighten but never override Scripture. If churches would observe this rubric in all humility and would abandon all pride, hubris, and pretense, they would be capable of dialogue and of eventual drawing together in greater unity. If they would put Scripture first along with prayerful, sincere submission to the Holy Spirit's guidance and true humility toward their brethren, God could lead the disparate groups into His Truth on all the major differences. What stops this from happening? Not the will of God, but self-willed man.

I must call to your attention that you begin this message by defining the church as a spiritual body, but by the time we reach the 20:30 mark, when you talk about "no salvation outside the church, you have changed your definition or word usage of 'church' to mean an organized body with a particular tradition and particular form of earthly leadership. This is an error of logic known as the error of equivocation. Outside of the spiritual body of Christ's church, the true composition of which is known only to the Almighty God who sees men's hearts, there can be no salvation. But the visible boundaries of a visible church do not provide an accurate demarcation for the composition of this true, spiritual church. Belonging to the Orthodox Church or to the Roman Catholic Church (or any other visible church) is not intrinsically salvific, and this is why we make false equivocation if we imply that salvation is found within a particular tradition of a particular visible church.

Peace.