By: Byron McCartney

These are all valid questions, and the Bible, God's Holy Word, answers them very precisely. The answers may surprise you.

It's no wonder that we would have occasion to raise such questions. Today we Christians have a huge variety of churches to choose from, each teaching a different view of God's Word. And the opinions about what constitutes valid Christian service are just as numerous. The most popular opinion is that all Christians are part of the Church, or the Body of Christ, and that because of this affiliation anything we believers do for the glory of God is valid service, regardless of our affiliation to any local congregation. (You may have heard of this view referred to as 'The Universal Invisible Church'). But it was not always this way.

In the New Testament times these questions would not have been asked by any born again believer since there was only one type of church: the Lord's. God's Word was being revealed directly to the men He chose to write the New Testament (2 Peter 1:21, 2 Timothy 3:16). And during this time of revelation (which ended at the completion of the New Testament) the Holy Spirit was working special miracles to bear witness that what Jesus and those He chose were speaking (and later writing) were indeed from God (John 5:36, 1 Corinthians 12:8-10). Thus, the believers in that era heard a consistent message: there is only one church and there is only one channel of service to God.