An Astonishing Passage in I Peter!

Next Part Built Upon Which Rock?—Peter the First Pope?.

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The apostle Peter put an exclamation point—a capstone if you will—on all that Paul wrote about the New Testament Temple.

This first of his general epistles declares this to what would include all true Christians through the ages: “If so be ye [plural again] have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To Whom coming, as unto a living stone [referring to Christ], disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as lively [living] stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices [on God’s altar], acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believes on Him shall not be confounded” (I Pet. 2:3-6).

It is obvious the living stones (Christ being the Chief Corner Stone) are the individual Christians in the Temple lying “close-jointed” or “fitly framed” together. And note that it was only the priests who could enter and serve in Solomon’s Temple (II Chron. 23:6). Also, it is important to recognize that I Pet 2:5 should carry the stronger rendering of the positive command “be ye [BE YE!] also living stones,” as is found in the margin of many Bibles.

This is absolutely incredible understanding, for those able to receive it. Get it firmly in mind before continuing. Everyone who wishes to receive God’s Spirit should give much more than mere pause in determining whether they will fulfil this meaning—will obey what is a command!

Peter wrote more, and understanding cannot be complete without it: “Unto you therefore which believe He is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the Stone which the builders disallowed [or “rejected”], the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed. But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvellous light” (I Pet 2:7-9).

The world has never been willing to accept the true Jesus Christ! Neither will they accept the Church He built—and is still building. They “stumble” at His doctrines, and reject—“disallow”—Him as the Head of the Church—any Church. In His place they have brought a cold, dead Jesus(called “another Jesus”) on a cross, who brings dead understanding (empty pagan doctrines), and who builds dead churches out of dead stones!

The Tragedy

Most will not hold precious the true Jesus Christ of the Bible. Neither will they hold to His teachings (of course, most will not even study them). They will not yield to His government. Neither will they come to His Church, nor support the Work of that Church. And they will not permit Him to head their lives—and build them into His House. Blind to their actions, they keep themselves outside the Temple that He is constructing. They have unwittingly chosen not to be placed next to the “living stones” with which He is building.

Get this. If God is calling you, you will be judged on this knowledge! The apostle Peter also said two chapters later: “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God” (I Pet 4:17).

The Church has long understood that the “House of God” is His Church. By now you know this is the same as saying “His Temple”—of which you may be called to be a “living stone,” one “closely joined” with all the others in God’s unified “Building.”

Why will most people not accept that God’s Church—the Body of Christ—His House or Temple—is obviously one, undivided organization ruled by Jesus Christ as Head under the government of God—and doing His Work?

What could be more important for you to understand than these points? What could be more important to you than allowing yourself to be placed by Christ into the Temple—into the “House of God”—recognizing that it is being judged?

What could be more important to you than capturing the basic, but all-important, knowledge, never understood by Christendom, that “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it” (Psa. 127:1)? There is but one House God could have had in mind here, the one He planned long before the Psalms were recorded. Regarding the churches of men, how could their founders think they could build their own “houses” and that the all-powerful, living Jesus Christ would submit to their lead, and follow them, instead of the other way around?

And how could so many millions blindly help them build?

Why Many Groups?—Some History!

The next two sections form related insets, the first to help the reader understand why the supposed Christian world has so many differing churches.

The universal church, cantered at Rome, and teaching the false doctrine of the trinity, has always taught that the Body of Christ was solely composed of those within that church. Even though the Roman church taught doctrines that were almost entirely the tradition of men, their understanding that Christ led one undivided, organized spiritual Body, identified in a single Church, was largely correct. Their error was connecting this key doctrine to themselves instead of to the true Church of God, led by the true Jesus Christ (II Cor. 11:4).

Let’s understand this by tying together several critical elements that clarify the thinking of the Protestant Reformers. When they rebelled against Rome, they were obviously no longer part of that church, and thus had departed from what they previously believed to have been the sole Body of Christ. They knew that Paul taught, “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body” and “For the body is not one member, but many” (I Cor. 12:13-14).

The entire world of Christendom is able to read this passage, and others, about the Body of Christ. All of these had to be reconciled with the fact that they had now left the Roman church and its authority. But here was their problem: They had to devise a teaching compatible with converts and believers supposedly being truly baptized, but now into a divided, competing and multiplying picture of denominations that is the Protestant world. They had to reconcile the idea of “one Body of Christ” with the reality of eventually hundreds of Protestant denominations—and other groups—with more appearing all the time. They were forced to conclude Christ’s Body is composed of many organizations, denominations, fellowships and “communities of believers.”

But this is utterly false!

Next Part Built Upon Which Rock?—Peter the First Pope?.

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