From the One True Person, Dr Robert Thiel
The one group that best represents the remnant of the Philadelphia portion of the Church of God (Revelation 3:7-13) in the 21st century is the Continuing Church of God. The Continuing Church of God is the only organized church that we are aware of who officially does all the above.
The compelling reason to want to be part of us is not that we are perfect, but that we do teach in accordance with the Bible and the beliefs and practices of Jesus’ early followers. Most churches have some truth, but none other appears to be the “pillar and ground of the truth” ...
We are not just one of scores of Church of God groups, but we are the only international Philadelphian organization. We are also the leader of the Philadelphian remnant that God is using to go through doors He opens (Revelation 3:7-8) for the fulfillment of Matthew 24:14, Romans 11:25, etc. in the final phase of the work. In the 20th century, the old Radio Church of God grew at an annualized rate of 30% per year for decades. Not only has the Continuing Church of God exceeded that, it has been the fastest growing xWCG COG in the 21st century
Will you do what biblically you realize you should do and support the Continuing Church of God or be a hearer only, deceiving yourself? Can you believe the work that God is doing (Acts 13:41)? Do you not wish to support the Continuing Church of God as we continue to preach the gospel of the kingdom to the world as a witness (Matthew 24:14) as well as teach all Jesus commanded (Matthew 28:19-20)? Are you ready to be really part of the true, and most faithful, Christian church?
https://www.cogwriter.com/WhereistheTrueChristianChurchToday.pdf
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The Competition Disagrees
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_true_church
The expression "one true church" refers to an ecclesiological position asserting that Jesus gave his authority in the Great Commission solely to a particular visible Christian institutional church—what is commonly called a denomination. This view is maintained by the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox communion, the Assyrian Church of the East, the Ancient Church of the East, the Christian Churches/Churches of Christ, the Churches of Christ, and the Lutheran Churches,[1] as well as certain Baptists.[2] Each of them maintains that their own specific institutional church (denomination) exclusively represents the one and only original church. The claim to the title of the "one true church" relates to the first of the Four Marks of the Church mentioned in the Nicene Creed: "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church". As such, it also relates to claims of both catholicity and apostolic succession: asserting inheritance of the spiritual, ecclesiastical and sacramental authority and responsibility that Jesus Christ gave to the apostles.[3][4]
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The Roman Catholic Church teaches that Christ founded only "one true Church", and that this one true Church is the Catholic Church with the bishop of Rome (the pope) as its supreme, infallible head and locus of communion.[8] From this follows that it regards itself as "the universal sacrament of salvation for the human race"[9] and the "only true religion".
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The Lutheran Church views itself as the "main trunk of the historical Christian Tree" founded by Christ and the Apostles, holding that during the Reformation, the Church of Rome fell away.[1] The Augsburg Confession found within the Book of Concord, a compendium of belief of the Lutheran Churches, teaches that "the faith as confessed by Luther and his followers is nothing new, but the true Catholic faith, and that their churches represent the true catholic or universal church"
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Many Baptists, who uphold the doctrine of Baptist successionism (also known as Landmarkism), "argue that their history can be traced across the centuries to New Testament times" and "claim that Baptists have represented the true church" that "has been, present in every period of history".
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The Amish, as with other Anabaptist Christians, believe that "the established church became corrupt, ineffectual, and displeasing to God."[35] The Amish believe that the true church is pure and separate from the world:
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Methodists affirm belief in "the one true Church, Apostolic and Universal", viewing their Churches as constituting a "privileged branch of this true church".[43][44] With regard to the position of Methodism within Christendom, the founder of the movement "John Wesley once noted that what God had achieved in the development of Methodism was no mere human endeavor but the work of God. As such it would be preserved by God so long as history remained
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The Seventh-Day Adventist Church (SDA Church) holds itself to be the one true church.[49] It specifically teaches that "it is the 'final remnant' of His true church [spanning] the centuries".[50] Seventh-day Adventist eschatology promulgates the idea that in the end times, there will be a "growing opposition between the 'true' church and the 'apostate' church."[51] ... The SDA Church, in their view, "has drawn substantially on the biblical text, especially the books of Daniel and Revelation, to argue for its own status as the true remnant church which has a divine commission both to exist and to preach its apocalyptic message to the world at large."[
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In 1830, Joseph Smith established the Church of Christ in the belief that it was a restoration of original Christianity. In 1831 he declared it to be "the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth".
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27 comments:
Boob- Im sure that you are not the one true church.
HOWEVER-- You are indeed the ONE TRUE BEST COG SELF PROMOTER WITH DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR!
Thiel is wrong: the early church observed Sunday! (Justin Martyr)
I'd like to get all these ACOG's in one room, and let them fight it out! It would make an excellent pay to view show like a wrestling match!
Dennis, if there's no one true church, then there's no false churches. However, history proves the Catholic Church is the oldest and authentic, historical church.
"Thiel is wrong: the early church observed Sunday! (Justin Martyr)"
Exactly! No one should ever trust anything Thiel has to say, especially when it comes to church history. It is good that Thiel posts this stuff all the time. We have documentation on how bad his understanding really is.
Some of the COGs believe their individual group is the only one that God works with. Others like UCG believe only those within the COG splinters are true Christians.
This is not true among the Baptists, Lutherans, presbyterians, and methodists that I know. They recognize belief in Christ as Savior is what makes a Christian. They are very different from the COGs in this regard,
Dennis, thanks for posting! (What! No negativity?)
“The One True Church: They're Everywhere”
Actually, it is the many false churches that are everywhere.
So, beware out there.
In Mark 3:33-35 Christ said that His mother and brothers are those who do His Fathers will. So the true church is a spiritual organism rather than a denomination. Today, true Christians are scattered among many organizations with God not holding it against them for being ignorant about or being deceived about technicalities.
The Roman Catholic Church and its Protestant daughter churches reject biblical teachings to do the following:
1. Observe Sunday rather than the biblical seventh-day Sabbath.
2. Observe customs such as Christmas, Easter, and Halloween rather than the biblical festivals with their seven annual Sabbaths.
3. Eat unclean creatures rather than observe the biblical laws about clean and unclean animals.
4. Are Trinitarian.
5. Have weird ideas about heaven and hell.
Since the Roman Catholics and Protestants have a long history of rejecting the laws of God in the Bible in order to do their own things for their own reasons, it is not surprising that many of them are now also going along with the LGBTQ+ agenda. Notice that the current President Joe Biden in the USA and the current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Canada are both Roman Catholics and both officially support what was once considered to be utter depravity.
Jesus Christ is everywhere, but no place specifically. You’re not going to find Him in an expected location. He is not contained.
“As they were walking along, someone said to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.” But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.”
Luke 9:57-58 NLT
The "TRUE" Church/Ecclesia is the one Jesus Christ established through his apostles and disciples - the one that sprang from the Big Bang of that long ago Pentecost where Peter preached a sermon which convicted many and the Holy Spirit visibly descended on those who were being called by God into "His" assembly! NONE, I repeat, NONE of the human organizations mentioned above (including the Roman Catholic Church) are synonymous with that Ecclesia! The Ecclesia of the New Testament was an amorphous, loosely organized group of folks who professed faith in Jesus of Nazareth and had God's Holy Spirit dwelling within them. ALL of the organizations mentioned in this post were the product of the evolution of Christian thought down through the centuries which followed the Apostolic era. In short, they were the product of mostly well-intentioned men and women seeking to protect and perpetuate what they believed to be the "true" doctrines/teachings of Christ and his apostles. Now, while some of the people within all of those organizations undoubtedly exhibit the fruits of God's Holy Spirit and have accepted Jesus as their Savior, it is obviously counterintuitive for ANY of them to claim that their organization is the ONE and ONLY! Neither Scripture or history support such claims.
The one true church keeps Friday because the crucifixion was on Friday. It is by his blood that we are cleansed of sin.
Well said, Blogger Miller Jones/Lonnie C Hendrix said...The church isn't an organization, a 503c3 non-profit corporation, etc. but an organism, the body of Christ. It is made up of individuals found in many groups and in no group at all.
Christianity is an attitude, not a church. I suspect that our favorite advertising sleazebag borrowed "the one true church" hook from his earlier, failed profession. You know how the hypesters always wanted us to believe their brand had the exclusives.
Actually, Jesus holds the exclusive in this case. Salvation is available only through Jesus Christ!
If CCOG "best represents the remnant of the Philadelphia portion," where is its Auditorium?
The church is not an organization but all who keep Friday.
"However, history proves the Catholic Church is the oldest and authentic, historical church."
Oh my! That is so easily disproved by simply studying history.
Wow, be still my heart! Lonnie posted something I can actually agree with!
That being said, not everyone claiming to have the Holy Spirit actually does, but that's a discussion for another time.
Friday? Muslims? Is Islam it?
The True Church will possess it's own Gulfstream II to XIII depending, and a profound understanding of the influence of Steuben Crystal on the minds of evil men.
First, there is a semantic problem. I believe this semantic problem arises out of the Christian Movement itself. The term “church” is really a synonym for “denomination” in broad usage. The New Testament never uses the term “church” to mean a “denomination”. There were no denominations back then. I would imagine that First Century Christians could not even conceive of the kind of fragmentation that has given rise to the era of denominations. The semantics confuses the issue.
It was inevitable, humans being tribalistic, that some people would equate their particular denomination with the idea of the only true church. Within the WCG, I met people who were proud of the fact that they were in the one true church. They were also proud of the fact that they lived in a certain town, were “Israelites”, belonged to a credit union and drove Fords. Egocentricity permeated every dimension of their lives, physical and spiritual. After a while, you began to suspect a pattern. The one true church idea has much more to do with the psychology of tribalism rather than history or theology.
Most Christian denominations now believe in The Invisible Body of Christ concept – that the church is a collection of people that God works with and are not assembled together in a single religious organization. God looks upon the heart, as man cannot, and knows his sheep. Jesus said:
“I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.”
Jesus didn’t say people in general would know his sheep but that he knows his sheep. I believe that true Christians everywhere are inclined towards fellowship but determining who is and is not a Christian is inaccessible to human perception. Of course, Adolf Hitler was not a Christian. There are easy cases. But at some threshold human perception fails. And because human perception fails, the sorters and dividers come into the picture and use the opportunity to create for themselves and their friends a salvific sinecure amidst a clubby ambience. Some organizations want to market membership as if it were a commodity. I am not against organizing so as to have an infrastructure. I am very much against having the infrastructure become a spiritual criterion.
Scout
Note: I am a member of a denomination with which I am theologically compatible. But I could walk away tomorrow. There is compatibility to be found elsewhere, too.
Interesting you should mention that, 5:41, especially with the ghettoization of commercial airline flight. I would imagine that anyone with a coveted, money-making Armstrong-franchise is watching this situation, and wondering why "God's ministers" should have to subject themselves to possible biohazards, like a passenger running down the aisle of an airplane enroute to the bathroom, as he sprays the aisle with explosive diarrhea!
As we watched seasoned news readers on TV break down in uncontrollable laughter while reporting this, it must surely be seen as another sign of the end times by those caught up in herbolatry,to the extent that they believe it is their commission to imitate Herb, and travel the globe for their photo-ops with world leaders. If one of the ministers had been in an aisle seat on that same plane with "Diarrhea Dan", the incident would be seen as a direct attack by Satan himself, who is now apparently turning hapless humans into explosive fertilizer bombs!
Put down your beer crackpot prophet Bob Thiel lol. Your not the one true Church buddy, non of the COG's are God's Church. They are a cult of drunken trouble makers preaching a false gospel and acting like a drunken fool!
"Oh my! That so easily disproved by studying history." Nope, it's easily proven by studying the actual records left by the early Christians. The Ante-Nician Father's epistles and books show a church that has doctrine and practices identical to the traditional Catholic ones.
It would be more accurate to say that the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches represent the oldest attempts to formally organize Christians. It is also accurate to state that other attempts to organize Christians ultimately trace their roots to those organizations. However, it is inaccurate and/or misleading to say that either one of those organizations is synonymous with the ecclesia of the First Century. In reality, both groups are the product of the evolution of the Apostolic Church, and the efforts of Church leaders in the Third and Fourth centuries to define and organize Christianity. Neither history nor Scripture supports the notion that the authority of the Bishop of Rome over the church was widely recognized prior to that time. We must never forget that ALL of the different organizations have developed their own self-serving interpretations of history and Scripture, and NONE of these human engineered organizations have been immune from participating in this phenomenon.
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