By: Byron McCartney

In lesson one of this series we have learned some of the basic principles of Bible study which will help us eliminate misinterpretation and misapplication of Scripture truth. The five basic steps to proper Bible study we learned were: to understand that God's Word is self-defining, to maintain contextual integrity, to observe the proper sense, to consider the application and limitation of a passage and to properly consider original meanings. God, Who directly placed into the minds of the Bible writers exactly, word for word, what to write (2 Peter 1:21, 2 Timothy 3:16), and Who cannot lie (Titus 1:2), and Who is not the Author of confusion (I Corinthians 14:33),  and Whose Word is Truth (John 17:17), and Who wants us to study His Word to show ourselves approved unto Him (2 Timothy 2:15), did not produce a confusing, hard to understand Bible. It is not God who is responsible for all the various conflicting denominations and Bible based churches, but man's failure to properly study the Holy Scriptures. By applying these 5 simple principles of proper Bible interpretation to our study of His Word we can learn exactly what He wants us to know and some of those truths concerning His churches. By learning and then applying those church related truths we can, today, find one of His churches to join.

And then finally, in lesson five, we looked at how we ourselves can hurt our chances for joining the right church after we've found it. We learned that by relying on traditions or searching for a church which observed what we had become used to could cause us to miss out on joining one of His churches. We also looked at how remaining loyal to family church-going history or family and friends could keep us from joining one of His churches. And we looked at how our emotional reaction to the right church could prevent us from joining it. What a shame to go through all the effort of properly studying God's Word to find out exactly what He thinks of the church, and what the New Testament churches believed and taught and then comparing today's churches to that New Testament pattern and finally finding the right church in our area to join and yet do not do so because of misplaced loyalties, a desire to keep to man-made traditions or just simply because we didn't like the people, the preacher, the color of the carpet, the way they sang, or any other negative emotional reaction.

So now that we have all this information from God's Word on how to locate one of His churches today, how do we put it to practical use? Well, I suggest that the most direct method of finding out what a church believes and teaches is to speak to its pastor. He is the one responsible for bringing the truths from God's Word to the congregation (Hebrews 13:17). I've prepared and included below a sample questionnaire you might like to use. I've placed the questions in order of magnitude of importance starting with the most important. You could simply ask these questions of the pastors of the churches you are considering and then chose the one who answered most of them with a 'yes' (I've phrased each question so that the scriptural answer would be positive).

The second best method would be to ask someone in the church (preferably someone on staff) for that church's statement of faith. Most of the churches I know of have such a printed document which they are more than glad to give out. This statement should include most, and hopefully all, the truths we've covered in these lessons. Here again pick the church whose doctrinal stand most closely matches the Word of God.  If the church does not have a printed form declaring what it believes and why, then it might be a good indication that they are not sure themselves, and therefore are probably not teaching what the Lord wants them to teach.  In that case you would definitely need to speak with the pastor.

The least favorable method is word of mouth. Many members are simply not aware of their church's doctrinal stand and may therefore give you misleading answers. However, if they are a member of one of the Lord's churches, and if they are committed to learning the truths from God's Word, then it is quite possible that they will be able to answer the questionnaire correctly. My recommendation is to try the first method mentioned, and if you are nervous about talking with the pastor resort to the second method.

This concludes this series on finding the right church in our day and time. Thank you for studying this material with me. I stand on the principles included in this series as having come directly from God's Word without any distortion or misapplication. It is my prayer that they will have helped you to both find and join one of our Lord's churches.

QUESTIONNAIRE:

1. Do you believe the Bible (Genesis through Malachi, Matthew through Revelation) to be the completely inerrant, inspired Word of God?   Yes   No

2. Do you believe God has three personalities: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit? Yes No

3. Do you hold to God's Word as your sole rule of faith and practice.  Yes No

4. Do you believe Christ is the virgin born Son of God, and that He existed in eternity past and that He is God? Yes No

5. Do you believe that Christ founded the first church? Yes No

6. Does your church recognize only Christ as its Head, not Peter or some other mortal? Yes No

7. Do you believe your church should be autonomous, answerable only to Christ as its Head, and to itself, and not subservient to some mission board or other extra church organization? Yes No

8.  Do you preach that belief in the gospel, the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, is the only means of appropriating salvation? Yes No

9. Do you believe that it is this church's responsibility to preach the gospel to the whole world and not just to some select few? Yes No

10. Does this church use immersion as the proper form of baptism? Yes No

11. Does this church teach that baptism in only for the born again believer and that it in no way saves a soul or adds that soul to the family of God? Yes No

12. Does this church teach that baptism adds the new convert into its membership? Yes No

13. Does this church teach that it has the Christ given commission to itself? Yes No

14. Does this church believe and teach that the Lord's Supper, as instituted by Christ, is to be observed by each church's congregation alone? Yes No

15. Does this church believe in meeting on the Lord's Day, Sunday, in commemoration of His resurrection on that day? Yes No

NEXT LESSON:

Well, we've learned from God's Word how to find one of the Lord's churches. Now let's focus on why we should care if we are a member of one of His churches. You might have read the previous 5 lessons and asked your self the question, 'what difference does it make which church I belong to so long as it teaches from the Bible?'  And you have a valid question. So in the next series of lessons let's look once more into God's Word for the answer to 'What Difference Which Church I Join?'