The Church

Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered unto my name”. Does it say, “For where two or three gather unto my name”? No, it doesn’t say that, and there is a big difference between gathering ourselves together and being gathered. To gather is your doing, to be gathered is someone else’s doing.

Who is the gatherer? The Holy Spirit?

And where does the Holy Spirit gather? The Holy Spirit gathers to where Jesus is. John 16:14, in speaking of the Holy Spirit, said, “He shall glorify me”. Who will he glorify? Jesus.

Now comes the question: Does it glorify Jesus to gather believers into different bodies in division?

Ephesians 4:4 “There is one body and one Spirit”

If this is acknowledged, then the next logical question is:

-Does the Spirit gather believers into different bodies?

An example of this could be taken with the Catholic church and the Orthodox church. These are two separate organizations each with their own separate governments and hierarchies. If you are a member of the Orthodox church, then you are not a member of the Catholic church, and vice versa. Now one of these could be the church, or neither could be the church, but it is not logical that both could be the church. Why? Because the Holy Spirit will not gather believers into different divisions. To say that the Holy Spirit gathers believers to the Orthodox church and at the same time gathers believers to the Catholic church is basically to say that the Holy Spirit does not care to which body believers are gathered to.

Now take the logical conclusion to Protestantism. Before division, the name “Christian” was enough; after division, we become a Christian of a specific kind. I am Orthodox, I am a Protestant, I am Baptist. Even if people do not call themselves by the name of the gathering of which they are associated with, they will say, when asked where they go, “I go to a Lutheran church” or “I go to a Calvary Chapel” or “I go to New Life”.

Outwardly it is no longer the body of Christ, but many bodies independent of each other. The attitude in Protestantism of one body to the next, in general, is this:

“We are as much Christians as you guys are. We meet to worship the Lord as much as you, and we come together for the very same purpose as yourselves; yet we must just agree to differ, and meet apart, each in our own place, and under our own ‘denominational name.’ As you will have things different in your meetings, we think it best to leave you to yourselves; and so all of us who are agreed about it say ‘good-bye’ to you, and meet now where we have liberty to please ourselves. Yet since we still believe you are Christians, we will allow any of you that like to come sometimes and sit down at our table for communion, and we may some of us occasionally come to you in the same way, so as to show the world that though we are divided we are still one.”

Jesus prayed in John 17:21-23

that they may be all one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou hast given me I have given them, that they may be one, as we are one; I in them and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one [and: that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and [that: thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me.

Why it that the evil system of Freemasons has more unity than the outward church? If a person were to be excluded from one lodge, would other Freemason lodges receive him based on their own independent judgment? If that were to happen, the Freemason system would be gone. Independency means that each church judges for itself independently of another. Did the Lord form the church as a number of independent bodies with each body judging for itself, so that Antioch could differ from Jerusalem?

Application: If you are in a denomination, in order to believe that the Lord supports that denomination and is in the midst of that denomination, you must also believe that the Lord then supports the setting up of different denominations. Do you believe this? If not, you are in the wrong place of gathering. If you are in an independent protestant gathering, in order to believe that the Lord supports that specific gathering, you must also believe that the Lord then supports churches being formed independently.

He who is “in the midst” is “Head of the body, the assembly”. He is not “Head of a particular gathering”, but of the whole body. Can you imagine a head of any company with branches so divided, could you say that each branch is holding to the head? If they were holding to the head they would be in unity.

Thesis Summary: The Lord is where the Holy Spirit gathers believers, and the Holy Spirit doesn’t gather into independency or division. The Holy Spirit gathers to the name of The Lord taking no other name but the church and that of Christians, and those who are gathered as such have unity and do not act independently of one another.