In the writings of the apostles the plural form of the word church is frequently used, but this argues nothing against the unity of God's church, nor in favor of the multiplicity of sects. If all the saved people in the world could be congregated in one place there would be no occasion for using the plural form of this word. Had it been so in the days of the writers of the epistles, the word would have been used only in the singular. But since there was a church or congregation of Christians at Antioch, also a church at Corinth, at Thessalonica, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea, etc., to speak of the whole it would be proper to use the plural of church. “The churches of Asia.” Please notice there is only one in each city, and the same writer addresses them all.
It does not take a town of so great a size to-day to find seven towering meeting-house steeples, where assemble as many different bodies of believers, termed sects. No one minister addresses them all. No one elder gives orders to all these different sects. 1 Cor. 16:1. No one minister ordains elders in all the separate bodies. 1 Cor. 7:17. The word churches was used to denote the different geographical location of the congregations of the Lord. The minister arguing in favor of the plurality of denominations from the plural term churches as found in the Bible is either ignorant or unfair. A plurality of sects is Babylon confusion.
The plural form is used in the Bible with reference to location and not to bodies having a different faith or belief. The church at Antioch had no contrary faith with the church at Corinth as we find existing between the denominations of to-day. They were separated by geographical distance, and not by difference of belief. Had these different churches come together in one place they could all have listened to Paul preach and said, Amen.
Oneness Of God's Church.
“The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul.” Acts 4:32. Can these same words be correctly used when speaking of the believers throughout the various denominations of to-day? “Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Rom. 15:5, 6. “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” 1 Cor. 1:10.
By these two texts we learn that the church of God has but one mind; it has but one mouth, and all speak the same thing. This is beautiful, this is heavenly. “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren [pg 134] to dwell together in unity.” Psa. 133:1. It is only the church of the Bible that enjoys this pleasant unity, and we must never confound this church with the confusive sects. Babylon has as many mouths as there are sects, and they speak contrary things.
“For ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” Gal. 3:28. “Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.” Phil. 1:27. “Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.” Phil. 2:2. “For as we have many members in one body, and all the members have not the same office: so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.” Rom. 12:4, 5.
“Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, ... and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.” John 10:16. The Savior was here speaking of the Gentiles and the Jews. Before the coming of Christ there was a partition wall between these two nations, but Jesus came to break down the middle wall of partition, so there should be neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female: but all one in Christ Jesus. Gal. 3:28. “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into [pg 135] one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” 1 Cor. 12:12, 13.
The “many members” here referred to are individual Christians, and not the ecclesiastical bodies now extant, as some do ignorantly teach. “But now are they many members, yet but one body.” 1 Cor. 12:20. In the fifteenth and sixteenth verses the apostle uses the physical body of man with its dependent members to illustrate the one body of Christ. These members work in blissful harmony and are dependent upon each other. A destruction of one member impairs the whole body. This is not illustrative of the different denominations; they are not dependent upon each other. Oftentimes they are opposed to each other, and thrive better when others are destroyed.
“And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body, and be ye thankful.” Col. 3:15.