This post was made in response to this awesome post. Find the link here.
Kindly watch my video below:
HERE.
These are the amazing things I learned from Bro. Eli Soriano's teaching on the above-mentioned topic in addition to my own personal research as well.
1 Corinthians 1:1-2 (NIV)
Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,
To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:
There was, in fact, a Church of God in Corinth and if it were not so, the Bible won't capture it expressly in the second verse. I think it would be wrong as a believer, for anyone to claim to be the true Church of God. We are simply of these present age, imitators of the things done by the apostles of years past.
We are now adapting to the teachings they have taught and the preaching they have preached. We are reading from what they have been able to pen down and from their experience with Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 2:14 (NIV)
For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ Jesus: You suffered from your own people the same things those churches suffered from the Jews
The above mentioned scriptural reference points to the fact that we are imitators of the Churches of God. That is not to say it is a bad thing but to say that we are following a model, a patter which Jesus has modelled for us through the disciples that were with him.
If you imitate the dollar, it is called a fake. If you imitate another person's behaviour, you are called, 'Not real' but if you imitate another believer or the standards of God regarding what His Word says, that is never a bad thing. We are imitators of the messages written, messages preached, the good deeds done and the writings made. This is to achieve a common goal of spreading the gospel of Christ to avoid division in the body. That's why the Bible warns against being blow by every wind of doctrines because most people these days preach and teach what suits their selfish and sinful desires and not what pleases God. God gave us a model to follow so we can do what pleases Him which is what the apostles modelled to us when Jesus sent them into the world to make disciples of all nations.
The apostles raised the dead, healed the sick, gave sight to the blind and strengthened the lame which are the things that made us understand our trust, believe and inheritance in God that for them to have done it after being with Jesus, we can do it in our modern world too seeing that we have known Him too.
Matthew 10:1-5 gave the name of the apostles that Jesus mandated to go out into the world to show people the ways of God, to be imitators of the ways of God and follow it to the letters.
Matthew 10: 6-8 (NIV)
Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.
As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’
Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.
Now, it is no longer to the lost sheep of Israel but to the lost sheep in the world because Jesus died for all and salvation has been extended to us, the gentiles - unbelievers.
We have been called to model our lives on Jesus. We have been shown the blueprints based on what the apostles have written and preached which is why we still make references to them till today. We quote them, quote what they did and quote all they have written in the Bible. The Bible is our complete guide, so no one can claim to be the true Church because we are following a template and only when we follow the dictates of the Bible can we know the truth of God and only God knows the heart of all man.
Revelations 1:3 (NIV)
Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.
This Post First Appeared Here.
Thank you for your time.
My pen doesn't bleed, it speaks, with speed and ease.
Still me,
My tongue is like the pen of a ready writer.
Olawalium; (Love's chemical content, in human form). Take a dose today: doctor's order.