One true church

That's what he was telling this woman.

And I think we can draw parallels with that and being God's true church at the end of time, the remnant church, the eschatological remnant, if you will.

So what did Jesus mean when he told her salvation is of the Jews? This is what we really need to understand in order to make the connection.

Did Jesus mean only Jews could be saved? No, we know that because in that encounter he was offering salvation to a Samaritan, right? Did Jesus mean that there were no problems in the Jewish faith? No, they were plotting his death at the time.

We know that.

Did Jesus mean all Jews were perfect people? So do the math.

If the Jewish church was his true church then and Seventh-day Adventists today say we're the true church today, are we saying only Adventists can be saved? No.

Are we saying there are no problems in the Adventist faith? No.

And you say, wow, that's a harsh term when you're talking about this false church.

The Bible likens a true church unto a virgin, an uncompromised entity.

The Bible likens a false church who has compromised with all the religions of the world as a harlot.

The Bible says, mystery Babylon, the mother of harlots and all her daughters.

You understand that, right? It's not just the Antichrist.

It was the Antichrist working alongside, the false prophet working alongside the Antichrist to roll out the mark of the beast.

The true church will not be in that system.

There will be some churches in that system that are adhering to that.

One is the question of the Novus Ordo, the new order.

Does that have the four marks of the true church? The other question is the traditional Catholics.

Do they have the marks of the true church? I've answered this question several times, both on what Catholics believe and also in the catechism program that I have addressed this question literally in the last year, about four or five times.

So, I mean, again, without going into great detail, I think let's just remind everyone that the true church that Christ established has to, like himself, be one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic.

christ himself was one one savior one lord one son of the one true god right he's one he established one true church okay that church must see one like himself and the uh church must be holy like christ was holy and he he gave that holiness to him because he is the head of the church is holy and he gave the means of holiness the sacraments the the true faith and so on to the church to make sinners sin to saints.

And the church must be Catholic as he is the one true savior of the whole of mankind.

And there is no other savior by which anyone can be saved.

There was no other name under heaven by which we must be saved by that of our Lord Jesus Christ, right? Saint Peter said that.

That's really much funnier than that.

But a more important question than what is a church is, what is a true church? What is a good church? What is a faithful church? because there are lots of places that call themselves churches, Mormon churches, Unitarian Universalist churches, pagan churches, even Satanist churches, and more, so that many theologians in many traditions over many years have tried to come up with a framework to decide how to tell a true church from all these other things, how to tell the difference, if you will, between a church that is preaching a true sermon And one that isn't.

Because the churches of this world, up to and including churches that aren't called churches, like the church of politics, the church of the shopping mall, the church of self-actualization, all these churches are preaching sermons.

And we need some way to tell what's true.

Over many generations, like I said, Christian theologians have come to this sort of basic consensus that there are three marks of a true Christian church.

You can see this in many of the great confessions of church history, including in our own 39 articles of religion.

The true church, it is said, is a place where the gospel is accurately proclaimed, where the sacraments are duly administered, and where discipline is rightly exercised.

And it's that last one that gives us pause, isn't it? We love the sacraments, holy communion, holy baptism.

I knew the weird thing was coming.

There's only one true church.

This week, I had to be in two cities, not for, well, one for definitely a visit.

The other one was just for to get on a different plane, though I'd been to that city too many times before, all over the place.

And regarding the One True Church, let me say this.

Note this first, that its founder is Jesus Christ, okay? Its founder is Jesus, okay? It's not some man.

There's only one true church, and it's the one that he died for.

Would you like to become a member? Then bow your heart to him.