by Doy Moyer<\/p>\n
We sometimes hear talk about finding the original church. In the search for the original church, we may then make the mistake of thinking that we can find a line of churches that go all the way back to the 1st century to prove which one is the right church. Besides conflating the universal and the local senses of “church”, the mistake is in thinking horizontally instead of vertically. No one can trace some pristine, unbroken line of churches in a linear fashion back to the apostles. That’s not how this works. Further, churches and movements through time often moved away from the teachings of Christ. Even if we could prove an unbroken line of churches, that would not prove that we are the correct church (universally) because we could be part of a historical line that moved away from the truth over time. However, it’s not an unbroken line of churches that we are to be looking for, and this complicates matters far too much.<\/p>\n
What is vital is fellowship with God, and we can learn the teachings of Jesus through the apostles and seek to follow those now. This is not some search for an original line of churches; this is a search for God, the purpose for which we are made (Acts 17:27). We are attempting to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness (Matthew 6:33). This is something every generation can do regardless of the state of churches up to this point. Being part of the original church (universal), then, is not about membership in an unbroken line of congregations, but rather being one of Christ’s disciples in whatever time we live. If every linear path of churches failed through time, we can still open God’s word to follow it now. The call of the gospel is reconciliation with God. As Paul said of their work in the first century, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God<\/em>” (II Corinthians 5:20). We do well in seeking to mirror this today. Reconciliation with God is true restoration.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Doy Moyer We sometimes hear talk about finding the original church. In the search for the original church, we may then make the mistake of thinking that we can find a line of churches that go all the way back to the 1st century to prove which one is the right church. Besides conflating…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[617,1643,448],"class_list":["post-61823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-apostasy","tag-apostolic-succession","tag-church"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":28411,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-did-the-presbyterians-and-the-episcopals-come-by-their-names\/","url_meta":{"origin":61823,"position":0},"title":"How did the Presbyterians and the Episcopals come by their names?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 9, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Recently we studied the qualifications of elders and I mentioned the Greek words, Presbuterous (elder, presbyter) and Episkopos (bishop, overseer), and one of the members here asked if this is how the Presbyterian and Episcopal churches came up with their names for identifying their churches. I did some research\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66619,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-ordain-in-all-the-churches\/","url_meta":{"origin":61823,"position":1},"title":"I Ordain in All the Churches","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 16, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Text: I Corinthians 7:17 There was no such thing as each church making up the rules for themselves. From the very beginning, they \"continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine\" (Acts 2:42), and when the apostles taught something, it was meant for \"all the churches\" to teach\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33111,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-legacy-of-campbells-error\/","url_meta":{"origin":61823,"position":2},"title":"The Legacy of Campbell’s Error","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 8, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Steve Dewhirst Sentry Magazine, December 2000 Alexander Campbell (1788-1866) was a remarkable man, but he was just a man, subject to error even as the rest. for all of his great learning, teaching, and writing over many years, he was profoundly wrong in his understanding of one vital aspect\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/Alexander-Campbell-200x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17980,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-church-in-1492\/","url_meta":{"origin":61823,"position":3},"title":"The Church in 1492","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Kent Heaton The world of 1492 was very small. Men knew very little about the earth as we know it today. Christopher Columbus sailed this important year with a crew of 87 to discover a new world. His adventure literally changed the face of the world and man came\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/Columbus.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":55631,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-the-churches-of-christ-suffer-from-amnesia\/","url_meta":{"origin":61823,"position":4},"title":"Do the Churches of Christ Suffer from Amnesia?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 9, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Hugh Fulford In the October 2022 issue of the Christian Chronicle (identified as a subsidiary of Oklahoma Christian University), a book review is set forth under the headline, \"New book explores where Churches of Christ fit\" (p. 37). The name of the book reviewed is In the Great Stream:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29586,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/im-shocked-at-your-stance-regarding-501c3-churches\/","url_meta":{"origin":61823,"position":5},"title":"I’m shocked at your stance regarding 501(c)(3) churches","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: The web site is excellent. Someone worked very hard on the design. My question is your church a 501c3 church or a free church? More and more I am finding many of the New Testament churches have signed up to be a corporation and be under the IRS rather\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61823\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}