THE DOCTRINE OF JESUS CHRIST - AN INTRODUCTION

The Doctrine of Jesus Christ – Introduction

“The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” – Matt. 1:1

This is not an attack upon denominations.  Throughout my life I have been in different types of churches, and I can say for sure that I have met true saints of God in each of them.  This is just something that has been on my heart for a long time.

Have you ever considered how many Christian denominations there are?  I couldn’t possibly name them here and I will not claim my breakdown is accurate, but it looks something like this:

Christendom is divided between Catholics and Protestants (no offense to my Greek Orthodox brethren out there).  Protestants are divided into various subgroups such as Evangelicals (which is the largest), Mormons, Seventh-Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and a couple of others (all have factions that also claim to be Evangelical).  Evangelicals are divided further into various kinds of Baptists, Pentecostals, Methodists, Presbyterians, Churches of Christ, Nazarenes, Churches of the Brethren, Apostolic, Holiness, Churches of God, etc.  Forgive me for leaving out some, but I think you get my drift. 

In our religious world today this is normal – but it isn’t scriptural.

There is only one church…THE Church….otherwise known as the body of Christ – also referred to as the Bride of Christ.  Everyone who has their name written in the Lamb’s Book of Life is a member of that church, beginning with the Apostles and continuing through modern times.  Please keep reading:

The Catholic Church isn’t going to heaven.

The Lutheran Church isn’t going to heaven either.

The Baptist Church isn’t going to heaven, nor is the Methodist, or Presbyterian, or Church of Christ, or Church of God, or Assembly of God.  Nor are non-denominational churches going to heaven – by being “non-denominational” you are a denomination by default. 

Churches don’t go to heaven – people do.

People…you know… human beings with eternal souls – saints of God who’ve had their sins washed in the Blood of the Lamb – those who make up the Body of Christ – they will be in heaven!

“Well then Chris, what happens to the churches?  Let me guess, they go to hell, right?”

Relax, churches don’t go to hell – people do. 

And that my brethren is THE point.  I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of people dying and going to hell.  There are enough people in hell already, and I want to do everything I possibly can to see to it that no one else goes there.  Don’t you?

 Do you know that there are all kinds of people in hell?  Hell is occupied by both men and women.  Goodbye gender gap.  The aged are there, and so are the young.  Therefore the generational gap is gone too. There are white people there, as well as red, yellow, and black people.  Think about it, there is no racism in hell.  The racists are there, but no racism.  In the midst of the weeping and gnashing of teeth, no one will care what color your skin is.  There are both rich men and poor men there, each begging for a drop of water to cool their parched tongues because they are in torment.  There are educated people there, as well as uneducated people.  They are equal in hell.  The atheist will stand shoulder to shoulder with the religious person, and both will be totally alone.  There are Americans there, and there are Chinese, Japanese, Germans, French, Canadians, Africans, Egyptians, and Iranians there – as well as others – all were on the losing side of this war.  There are people in hell who’ve been there since Caesar was king, and there people there who only died last week.   Let that sink in.

We have work to do!

We must get the gospel out to the world, and time is of the essence.  Again, I don’t’ mean to slam denominations – that isn’t my point.  It’s time for all of us obey the commandment of the Lord Jesus Christ and take the gospel to all nations – and we need to obey Him as brothers and sisters in Christ and members of His body.  Do we know what the gospel is?

The gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  And we need to know who this Jesus is that we are taking to the world, for He alone has the power to change lives.

The doctrine of Jesus Christ should be a good place to start!