The Perfect Christian Church?

Question:

What is the true and real Christian denomination, or the real church of Jesus?  Protestantism says any denomination that is inside of Protestantism, except Catholics or Orthodox, are Ok.  Yet they also follow the Bible and follow the salvation by grace.

And forget the historical Catholic church in the centuries that collected the New testament and made 4 gospels and the rest letters and the book of revelations!  But returning to my question, what is the true Christian church?

My Reply:

Although you probably didn’t mean it this way, this is sort of a trick question, for you’re asking what’s the true church of all the denominations.  For, the Church itself, in the sense of the full Body of Christ, is perfect.  But in terms of denominations, the simple answer is, “none”.

For example, in the beginning of the book of Revelation, Jesus speaks to seven churches. The best one out of the bunch addressed was the Philadelphia Church, but even they had some issues that Jesus felt the need to address.

You’ll also hear a lot of churches talking today about trying to get back to the ways of the early church.  But the letters we have in the New Testament from Paul, Peter, James, John, and whoever wrote Hebrews were all written in response to the sinful behaviors and messed up things the early Christians were doing.  There was also conflict between the Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians, so much to where Paul ended up rebuking Peter, and James ended up interrogating Paul.  So with that in mind, not even the early church was all that true of a church in the sense of behavior, for it was just as messed up as the church today (so to the congregations wanting to be like the early church, congratulations!).

Honestly, I've come to the conclusion that, in terms of denominations, there is no perfect church on earth, for they are made up of humans.  The one we're all searching and longing for is in Heaven only.  But until then, we are still called to worship Christ in communion with other Christians.  Church is also meant to be a pre-taste of what to expect in Heaven, and to help us grow in our faith and works for God. 

So find a church to worship in, grow in, serve in, and in the words of Paul, "...rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. and the God of love and peace will be with you."

---Pastor Andy