{"id":90235,"date":"2025-09-08T10:59:38","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T15:59:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=90235"},"modified":"2025-09-08T10:59:38","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T15:59:38","slug":"is-it-possible-to-identify-the-church-found-in-the-new-testament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-possible-to-identify-the-church-found-in-the-new-testament\/","title":{"rendered":"Is It Possible to Identify the Church Found in the New Testament?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<p>by Todd Clippard<\/p>\n<p>With so many forms of &#8220;Christianity&#8221; today, one may ask, &#8220;How can I know I&#8217;ve found the church of the New Testament?&#8221; With recent estimates showing over 2000 individual religious groups all claiming to be a form of Christianity, this is a valid question, and we can see why one would be confused. However, we can say with absolute certainty that it is possible to find the church revealed in the New Testament. As an illustration to show our certainty, consider the following:<\/p>\n<p>I will have been married to my beautiful wife for 20 years. Let&#8217;s suppose I decide to take her on a cruise to celebrate our anniversary. Shortly after boarding a ship filled with more than 2000 passengers, we became separated. My wife is a petite brunette. Suppose every other woman on the ship is a petite brunette; am I to despair that I should never find her among so many others? Why, such thinking is ridiculous! Even though there may be many on board who are similar, we all understand that I can easily find her because she is unique among all the others. She has specific characteristics that will allow me to easily distinguish her from all the others.<\/p>\n<p>The same can be said for the Lord&#8217;s church. In Matthew 16:18, Jesus promised, &#8220;<em>I will build My church<\/em>.&#8221;\u00a0Note the singularity of the church. Jesus did not promise to build His &#8220;churches,&#8221; but rather His &#8220;church&#8221; (singular).<\/p>\n<p>In Ephesians 5:22-32, Paul teaches us how a husband is to love his wife and how a wife is to love her husband. Throughout this text, Paul parallels the husband-and-wife relationship with that of Jesus and His church. As a husband is to have only one wife, and a wife only one husband, Jesus only has one church. In fact, throughout this particular text, there are twelve references to the church, all of which are singular in nature:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In verse 23, we find &#8220;the church&#8221; and &#8220;the body.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>In verse 24, we find &#8220;the church.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>In verse 25, we find &#8220;the church&#8221; and &#8220;it&#8221; (a singular pronoun in reference to the church).<\/li>\n<li>In verse 26, we again see &#8220;it&#8221; referring to the church.<\/li>\n<li>In verse 27, we find &#8220;the church&#8221; and &#8220;it&#8221; (twice).<\/li>\n<li>In verse 29, we find &#8220;the church.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>In verse 30, we find &#8220;His body.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>In verse 32, we find &#8220;the church.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If it is possible for me to identify my wife among thousands of other women, though they share some of her characteristics, then it is equally possible for me to find the church Jesus built, though there be thousands sharing some of its characteristics.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Todd Clippard With so many forms of &#8220;Christianity&#8221; today, one may ask, &#8220;How can I know I&#8217;ve found the church of the New Testament?&#8221; With recent estimates showing over 2000 individual religious groups all claiming to be a form of Christianity, this is a valid question, and we can see why one would be&hellip;<\/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":[448,300],"class_list":["post-90235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-church","tag-denominations"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4647,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-history-of-the-church-of-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":90235,"position":0},"title":"What is the history of the &#8220;Church of Christ?&#8221;","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 6, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is the history of the \"Church of Christ?\" Answer: The true history of the church is found in the Book of Acts in your Bible. However, I assume from your question you are wondering about the history of the churches of Christ in the United States. A really\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4650,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/pre-campbell-christianity\/","url_meta":{"origin":90235,"position":1},"title":"Pre-Campbell Christianity","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 23, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ken Chumbley via\u00a0Gospel Gazette, Vol. 2, No. 8, p. 18, August 2000 The following is an excerpt from an article by Carroll Sites that has been found in a number of bulletins over the last few years: Many people identify churches of Christ as owing their roots to Alexander\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94547,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/preacher-why-does-new-testament-christianity-scare-you-so\/","url_meta":{"origin":90235,"position":2},"title":"Preacher, Why Does New Testament Christianity Scare You So?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 14, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Floyd Chappelear via\u00a0Sentry Magazine, Vol. 20 No. 4, December 1994 The enemy was formidable, so a sizeable army needed to be assembled to ensure victory. Even so, how could an army of 32,000 conquer the host of Midian, Amalek, and the other eastern peoples whose number exceeded 120,000? Although\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69198,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/baptism-in-history\/","url_meta":{"origin":90235,"position":3},"title":"Baptism in History","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 8, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ed Harrell via Christianity Magazine, December 1984 My reading of the New Testament makes very clear the meaning and intent of baptism - it was a \"burial\" that put one \"into Christ\" and resulted in the \"remission of sins\" (Romans 6:3-4; Acts 2:38). Of course, we should always be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25588,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-john-the-baptist-associated-with-the-baptist-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":90235,"position":4},"title":"Was John the Baptist associated with the Baptist church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I love your site. It is very helpful and is the truth. Why was John called \"John the Baptist?\" I know there is no other religion mentioned in the Bible. Is this where the Baptist organization get its name? Is John the Baptist the same as John the apostle?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":90355,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-restrictive-nature-of-submission\/","url_meta":{"origin":90235,"position":5},"title":"The Restrictive Nature of Submission","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Zeke Flores Submitting to the authority of God's will is not only serious business, it's also very restrictive.\u00a0Because of its very nature, those who submit to authority can only operate within its bounds. What passes for Christianity in America, and across the world, really isn't because it goes beyond\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90235","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=90235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90235\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}