The two-headed, multi-bodied religious entity known as “the church” is Satan’s primary delivery system by which he feeds salvation seekers his doctrines and customs designed to lure people away from the Lord’s one-way-only church and into his (Satan’s) have-it-your-way religious system. In his first letter to the church at Corinth, the Apostle Paul sounds the alarm about what was going on in that church.

In 1:11 he notes that there are contentions in the body. People are choosing sides and aligning themselves with different preachers, which is strange in that they all preached the same Gospel. It was known throughout the early church that Paul had received his Gospel directly from Jesus Christ through revelation (Gal. 1:12). Those within the ministry corps looked to him as the final arbiter of Scriptural Truth (1 Cor. 4:17). He made certain that all apostles who preached in the churches he had founded taught the same thing (1 Tim. 1:3), with two exceptions (2 Tim. 2:16,17) who had nothing to do with the Corinthian Church. Therefore, the divisions in that body had to be based on the different personalities and methods of presentation of the leaders involved.

Even though there were no differences in the Truths being put forth in the Corinthian church, the fact that there were DIVISIONS WITHIN THAT BODY troubled the apostle because, as he wrote in verse 17, SUCH DIVISIONS WOULD “CAUSE THE CROSS OF CHRIST TO HAVE NO EFFECT” IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH. This meant that the very reason for Christ’s death would be rendered meaningless. He would have died in vain.

Think about this possibility. If the message consisting of “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (2:2) preached by those with different personalities could cause Christ’s death to LOSE ITS EFFECT, how much worse would be the effect of having the ministers PREACHING DIFFERENT “TRUTHS” relative to Christ and His crucifixion? What effect would that have on the message being sent forth? How confusing would it be to those seeking salvation by way of the cross if they heard CONFLICTING MESSAGES ABOUT THE EFFECT OF THE CROSS ON THE LIVES OF MEN? And what if people separated themselves into different groups, and called their groups by different names, and preached different “truths” about Jesus and the cross?

Would that not contradict the Lord’s statement that there is “one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God and Father of all” (Eph. 4:4-6)? Would not church division result in RELIGIOUS ANARCHY. THERE WOULD NOT BE ONLY ONE CHURCH AND ONLY ONE WAY TO SALVATION. EACH GROUP WOULD CLAIM TO BE THE ONE TRUE CHURCH; EACH WOULD HAVE ITS OWN PATH TO SALVATION; EACH WOULD HAVE ITS OWN GOD AND ITS OWN CHRIST. WHAT IF THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED WITHIN THE CHURCH THAT WAS ESTABLISHED IN JERUSALEM ON THE DAY OF PENTECOST 31 A.D? GOD FORBID. THAT COULD NEVER HAPPEN. RIGHT?

WRONG. THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED.MANY GENERATIONS LATER. The resulting division of 99% of God’s church was catastrophic to the message that God wanted the world to hear. In the Garden of Eden the two members of the original church were led astray by Satan. The same thing took place many years later on a massive scale in the church that the original Apostles had established throughout the world. How could this have happened? The answer comes down to one word: FREEDOM.

From day one man was given free moral agency. He was free to embrace and obey God’s Words or Satan’s words. And like his original parents, salvation-seeking man has believed Satan. Again, why? Because the devil has assured him that he can defy God and, as the serpent told Eve, “You shall not surely die.” According to Satan’s false prophets, self-satisfying churchman can sin against his Maker by doing the exact opposite of what He commands–AND STILL LIVE FOREVER. In the case of such self-appointed gods (religious men), the wages of their sin is not death, but rather eternal life. What is not to like about that win-win deal? Satan makes mankind an offer the vast majority cannot refuse. With open arms he welcomes the masses of salvation seekers into the multi-choice, have-it-your-way world of counterfeit religion, otherwise known as Catholicism and Protestantism.

And in Satan’s you-want-it-you-got-it system, no religious group (denomination, faith, etc.) has an advantage. Each group offers the same end result–eternal life. Variety is the key. One need only shop around until one finds the church that, as one woman said, “does what I like to do,” and join up. No matter what one is looking for, there is a church somewhere in the system that offers it. SATAN GUARANTEES IT. And should a seeker be unable to find the right church, one can simply create a new one. The formula for church creation is simple. One need only gather a following of like-minded people, designate themselves as a congregation, create a group name, claim God’s approval of the group and, presto, another “body of Christ” is born. This is exactly how the hundreds of “churches” in the world today came into being. We do not need to wonder about God’s attitude toward the fiasco today known as “the church.” He tells us.

The anarchic tragedy that is the Catholic/Protestant Church System today is the direct opposite of the church that Jesus established some 2000 years ago. We are told that, upon His resurrection and ascent into heaven, the Messiah did a number of things designed to perfect His one and only church. His actions are described in Ephesians chapter four. Let us turn to verses 8-16 for a clear picture of what He expected His “ONE” church (vss 3-6) to look like today. Here we find Him appointing apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers “FOR THE PERFECTING OF THE SAINTS, FOR THE WORK OF THE MINISTRY AND FOR THE EDIFYING OF THE BODY OF CHRIST SO THAT WE WOULD ALL COME TO THE UNITY OF THE FAITH AND OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SON OF GOD SO AS TO CREATE A PERFECT CHURCH WHOSE MEMBERS WOULD COME TO THE MEASURE OF THE STATURE OF THE FULLNESS OF CHRIST.” The religious morass today known as Christianity in no way resembles the church designed and equipped by the resurrected Christ.

Take a look at that which calls itself “the church” today. What you see is the aftermath of the church’s near universal rejection of the Biblical God. Fortunately, not everyone is on board with the anti-god movement that engulfs professing Christendom. Even during the most deadly of church times, God has always had a REMNANT–a tiny group of true believers who stood for Him when the masses were bowing to His enemy. A tiny remnant of true believers, numbering only a few thousand globally, exists today. As Jesus said in Matthew 7:13,14, though many would follow Satan’s false prophets through his wide, inclusive church door and along his broad, create-your-own-way path, there would be a remnant who would follow God’s true apostles through His narrow, restrictive church door and along His My-way-only path.

I will end this teaching with Paul’s words to those who have divided the Corinthian church: “You are carnal, for within you there is envying, strife and divisions. Are you not carnal and walk as (mere) men? (3:3). Let us reject Satan’s attempt to divide and conquer the Body of Christ. Let us not be like other people. Let us be what God commands His true church to be–“a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people who show forth the praises of Him Who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9). If you have sold yourself to the living God you are “bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and spirit which belong to Him.” L.J.