ONE! UNO! EIN! UN!
URN!
Truth is one and it is a
person, the person of Jesus Christ:
"I am the way, and
the truth, and the life."
John
14:6
Elucidation:
Just as there is only one Jesus Christ, there can be only
one truth. This
verse is true because He said it.
"And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I
will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I
will give you* the keys of
the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
Matthew 16:18-19
*The Greek word used here for 'you', is
'sou', meaning 'thou', which is singular.
Why did Jesus change the name
of Simon to Peter? The answer is in Scripture.
Did you notice that Jesus said
Church (singular), and not churches (plural) in verse 18?
Did you
notice that Jesus gave the single set of keys to Peter and to him only in verse
19?
Did you notice that the binding and loosening are the authority which
Jesus Christ gave to the one and only Church that He founded, and to none
other?
Elucidation:
Jesus founded only one Church, and He gave the single
set of keys to one person only, Peter.
Just as truth is one and Jesus Christ is
one, the Church
which He founded is one, the visible head of His Church (Peter) on earth is
one, and the GOD
given authority of that Church is one.
Caiphas, the Jewish high priest said:
"He did not say this of his own
accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus should die for
the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the children of God who are
scattered abroad."
John 11:51-52
"I am the
good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I
know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep,
that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice.
So there shall be one flock, and one shepherd."
John 10:14-16
Did you notice that Jesus said only
one flock and
one
shepherd?
Elucidation:
One
flock (one fold in some Bibles) and one shepherd simply means that
there is only one Church which Jesus Christ founded.
"I do not pray for these only, but also for those who
believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as thou,
Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, so
that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. The glory which thou hast
given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are
one, I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one,
so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as
thou hast loved me."
John 17:21-23
Did you
notice the pleas for oneness petitioned to the Father, from the Son
here?
Elucidation:
The Father and the Son are one, as shown in these verses and
in other verses as well:
"I and the Father are
one", John 10:30.
"If you have seen me, you have seen the Father" (or similar), John 8:19,12:45,14:7-11.
"May then the GOD of patience and of comfort grant you to be of one mind towards one another
according to Jesus Christ; that in one
spirit, you may with one mouth glorify the GOD and
Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ."
Romans 15:5-6
Elucidation:
We are
to be of one mind,
of one spirit, and
of one mouth. In
other words, we are to think and to believe, and to speak with one mouth, and do it in according
to the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Do all Christians?
"Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, that you
all say the same thing; and there be no dissensions among
you, but that you
be perfectly united in one mind and in one judgment."
1Corinthians
1:10
Elucidation:
Again, we are to be of one mind, and we are to say the same things, and
we are to be without any
dissension, and to render only one judgment.
"For "who has known the mind of the Lord, that he might instruct him?"
But
we have the mind of Christ."
1Corinthians 2:16
Elucidation:
Christ
is one. Christ is
the one truth. If
we have the mind of Christ, we have the one truth.
"Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether
I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you stand firm in
one spirit, with
one mind striving
side by side for the faith of the gospel."
Philippians 1:27
"Have this
mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus."
Philippians
2:5
Elucidation:
Yet again, we are reminded to be of one mind and one spirit, and to have the mind of
Christ.
How many times must the Word of GOD be repeated before we finally
get the message?
Later in this writing, I will show you that many do not ever
get the message.
Or, they get the message but continue to ignore it.
"Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called the
uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by
hands, remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from
the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no
hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far
off have been brought near in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who has
made us both one,
and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh
the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself
one new man in
place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in
one body through
the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end. And he came and preached
peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him
we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and
sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the
household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ
Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined
together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built
into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit."
Ephesians
2:11-22
"I therefore, a prisoner for the
Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been
called, with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another
in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There
is one body and
one Spirit, just as
you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, God and Father of us
all, who is above all and through all and in all."
Ephesians
4:1-6
How many one's do you count in these few
verses?
Elucidation:
Saint Paul admonished us to have only one faith. Having one
faith means having only one Church.
Saint
Paul continues in the same chapter:
"And his gifts were that some should
be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to
equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of
God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ;
so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro
and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their
craftiness in deceitful wiles."
Ephesians 4:11-15
Even in the Old Testament it is GOD's will that we may all be one.
"The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of
man, take a stick and write on it, ‘For Judah, and the children of Israel
associated with him’; then take another stick and write upon it, ‘For Joseph
(the stick of Ephraim) and all the house of Israel associated with him’; and
join them together into one stick, that they
may become one in your hand. And when your
people say to you, ‘Will you not show us what you mean by these?’ say to them,
Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am about to take the stick of Joseph (which is
in the hand of Ephraim) and the tribes of Israel associated with him; and I will
join with it the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, that they may be one in my hand. When the sticks on which you write are
in your hand before their eyes, then say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD:
Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have
gone, and will gather them from all sides, and bring them to their own land; and
I will make them one nation in the land, upon
the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be
king over them all; and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer
divided into two kingdoms."
Ezekiel 37:15-22
In summation:
There is only one GOD,
one Father, one Jesus Christ, one
Savior, one Shepherd, one Lord, one High
Priest, one Holy Spirit to guide the one Church that Jesus Christ founded, which is the
one Body of Christ. There is only one visible head of Christ's Church on earth, and there
is only one authority which was given to that
one Church. There is only one Word, one truth,
one Scripture, one infallible interpretation of that one Scripture, one
hope, one faith, and one Baptism. We are to be of one mind, be one in
spirit, and speak with one mouth. We are all
to say the same things, are to have no dissensions between us, and are to render
only one judgment.
Wow! That is a lot to
remember, but then we can easily remember all of it if we would only remember
one little three letter word, and what do you
think that one word is?
Now, after all of this overwhelming oneness,
demanded by GOD, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, Saint Paul, and others
in Holy Scripture, will someone please explain to me why there are more
than 35,500* different Protestant and non-Catholic sects, all teaching something
different aside from the one truth, given by
the one GOD, and with all of the tens of
thousands of them using the same one
Scripture?
Where is the oneness in this
satanic divide and conquer chaos?
Answer? There is none!
Are the
members of those tens of thousands of sects* abiding by the teaching of Holy
Scripture? Isn't it obvious that they are not?
*World Christian
Encyclopedia, 2002, a Protestant publication.
Now will someone please tell me, which part of ONE is it that those who
have created
these tens of thousands of divisions of the Body of Christ
simply do not understand?
Written by Bob Stanley, December 13, 2001
Updated
January 1, 2003
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