Robert Heibel:
I for one am sure glad we have the Scriptures. Jesus has used Scriptures to help teach me, and I used and still use them to make sure I’m on the straight and narrow.
Robert,
I share this joy with you, but I am also grateful to Jesus for establishing His Church, the pillar and bulwark of truth.
Let’s see just what scripture says about the Church.
Jesus Christ founded the Church.
And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; Matthew 16:18
Jesus protects His Church.
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Matthew 16:18
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
Matthew 28:19-20
Jesus is the head of the Church, the Church is His Body
Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands.
“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church; Ephesians 5:22-24, 31-32
Jesus intimately identifies Himself with His Church
But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he journeyed he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed about him. And he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting; Acts 9:1-5 (cf. Acts 22:4-7, Acts 26:9-15)
Note Jesus does not ask why Saul (Paul) is persecuting His Church, He asks “why do you persecute me?”
Christ loved the Church, cherishes & nourishes it. The Church is holy and without blemish.
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. Ephesians 5:25-30
The Church is the pillar & bulwark of the truth.
if I am delayed, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth. 1 Timothy 3:15
Obey.
Obey your leaders and submit to them; for they are keeping watch over your souls, as men who will have to give account. Hebrews 13:17
The Church as final authority, with the responsibility of binding and loosing.
If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Matthew 18:17-18
“Vicars” (substitutes) of Christ
After this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to come. And he said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. “He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” Luke 10:1-2, 16
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who receives any one whom I send receives me; and he who receives me receives him who sent me.” John 13:20
So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 2 Corinthians 5:20
The Bishops have been placed in charge of the Church by the Holy Spirit
Take heed to yourselves, and to the whole flock, wherein the Holy Ghost hath placed you bishops, to rule the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. Acts 20:28 (Douay-Rheims) (note many Bibles translate the Greek word, episkopos, as “overseer”;. The traditional rendering is “bishop”, however. The King James version, for instance, translates it as “bishop” in every instance except this one! In any event, it shows that the Church has a heirarchical structure by the design of Almighty God.)
