Introduction

I have known many, including myself, who have at one time or another either been looking for a good church or while attending a church have wondered if it was the right one. My parents were missionaries and so from childhood I have always been a member of one church or another. While a child, the churches were mostly always those pastored by my father and it follows that I would have never questioned my being in them. However, as an adult, I have several times found myself in search of a good church to join. And on more than one occasion while joined to a particular church have questioned its legitimacy.

In my quest for answers to the above-mentioned questions I have limited myself to God's Word for obvious reasons. Anyone else's word is susceptible to the human frailties of limited intelligence and self-serving bias. God is all knowing and free of any limitations or flaws of any type. Furthermore it was He, Who through His Son Christ Jesus, instituted the church and set down forever in His Word the rules of its existence, conduct and self-perpetuation.

And so, in looking to God's Word, I have found the answers to these questions and would like to share them with you. It is my strong belief that after you have read all the material which will be set forth in this column over the next several weeks, you will have answered your questions about which church is the right church as well as accumulated to yourself a wealth of church related information from God's Word. You will also see that the facts brought forth from God's Word on this subject will be free of human misinterpretation and misapplication of truth.

If your interest has not been piqued yet, that last sentence surely should have triggered your interest. How can anyone claim to know how to correctly understand God's Word? Yet that is exactly what God expects us to do. In the New Testament book of II Timothy, chapter 2 and verse 15, the apostle Paul told Timothy to "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."