There was only one Jerusalem and likewise there is only one true church. Jesus said that it is not simply a location but that the kingdom of God was within you. The obvious characteristics of the early church that were established by Jesus and the apostles were:
- The foundation of the church had to be Jesus Christ-the one in scripture that lived out "Not my will butThine be done" and who said His food was to DO the will of the Father because He feared and loved Him. Self was not a consideration.
- The converts understood that they were to repent of their old behavior and to be new creations-meaning they were to die to their will and live for God's will just as Christ showed them. The converts understood that they were to be loving disciples of Christ. Self was not a consideration.
- The converts to Christianity understood that they were to be baptized (to bury their will and live for Christ and God.) Baptism physically and spiritually (of the heart) was essential to join God's church and the early converts were well informed of the meaning, "For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin-because anyone who has died has been freed from sin." (Romans 6:6,7) True converts were dead to themselves and alive to the will of God. Self was not a consideration because they loved God's laws or will.
- The converts understood that they could not continue being under another god-whether something created or themselves. They had to stop being the king of their life and they were to surrender their body, soul and mind (the temple, 1 Corinthians 3:17) over to the King. In other words, they understood that they could not continue in sin that grace may abound. (Romans 6:1,2) (1 John 3:6) Grace was not abused out of love for Christ and God. Self was not a consideration, only the will of the Father.
- They understood that the way to tell if someone was a converted Christian (a Christ-like person) was to see if they were doing right (God's right) not their own rules (self-righteous). "No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning." (1 John 3:6-8) Self and what self wanted was not a consideration and Christ and God's will was all that mattered-the only signs of the true church vs. the counterfeit.
- They understood that they were to be separated off from people that call themselves brothers but were sinning or rebelling against God's wishes, will or commands (1 Corinthians 5:9-13, 2 Corinthians 6:14) so that the behavior would not spread throughout the church because it is a known fact that a little yeast will work through the whole batch of dough. They were to separate from sin because God could not reign over rebellious subjects. These Jewish converts and early Gentile converts had heard the Law of Moses every Sabbath and knew that someone who opposed the law of Moses was taken outside the camp and stoned. (Hebrews 10:26-31) They knew they were to be more concerned with the church as a whole so that God would have a place to dwell. No concern for self and no time for a popularity contest.
- They understood that "spiritual" meant that they were focused on and continually doing only God's will (full of God's agenda and void of their own). (Romans 8:1-17, Galatians 5:16-25, 6:7,8) Selfish ambition was of the devil. (James 3:14,15)
- They understood that there would be many false leaders and that you could tell a false leader by the fruit of their teachings. If people repented, truly repented and they were full of the will of God then they were authorized by God to speak on His behalf. If they tickled your ears so that you were allowed to be the ruler of your life in a few areas-they were false leaders. (Jeremiah 23, Matthew 7:15-20)
- They understood that the only ones who were saved were not those who heard the word of God, but rather those who put it into practice. (Matthew 7:21-27, Romans 2:5-11,13) They understood that salvation was far from the wicked. (Psalm 119:155)
The early converts knew that there should be no concern for self because God had promised that if you seek His kingdom first that everything else would be added unto you. Fortunately, this teaching was ingrained. Faith was rich as they lived this out. Persecution weeded out the half-hearted so that the strain would stay pure over the years. Christians had to stay on their toes because as Jesus predicted there would come waves of false teachers and the true leaders were few. This powerful conversion spread rapidly over the land.
Do you see the difference between the true church and the counterfeit church? The world is alive to self and selfish ambition. The true church is dead to self and alive to the will of God so that the true King can rule on earth (His church) as He does in heaven-which was the prayer of Jesus for the true church. God is the supreme authority and Christ is at His right hand, ruling the church. Christ has been given all authority because He proved to be faithful to God and at each test was able to resist the temptation to trump God. Jesus referred to God as "My God." Picture a church with Christ as the Head, God as the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, and members are the loyal subjects.
The counterfeit church is deceitful. It gives lip service to God and Jesus and yet subtly incubates little gods. SELF gets its way and yet believes that this is okay with God. Imagine a church building with members. If you stare long enough (like the 3D pictures that reveal a hidden image), you see members on the pews with horns on their heads. The great delusion is in place. They are little rebellious beasts or gods and they have approached God with such false humility, religious jargon, religious-looking rules, and songs that they have fooled themselves. The truth is they are little devils. There may be a few surrendered saints-the wheat may be scattered among the chaff in a counterfeit church. The counterfeit church subtly allows people to rule just a few areas of their life yet has them deny some other areas of their life. What the false leaders do not tell you is that if you decide on what God gets to rule and what time of day He gets to rule-then He is not the Lord of your life at all. SELF is the god and you do not even know it. A few surrendered areas feels good and righteous and saved-and after all, they are only holding on to a few little areas to rule. That's okay by God isn't it? Do you let your employees do that? Do you let your children do that? Of course not! It is out of the question for us, but okay for God! Our God is so longsuffering, but a judgment day is coming. There is idolatry in the temple with each leader sitting at the feet of their idols and members longing for their idols in church. One foot is in the temple but their backs are to God! (See Ezekiel 8)
A description of the counterfeit church is a place that is deceived and full of deceit. That means that a lot of the facade looks right. To fool someone, it must look quite a bit like the real thing. Remember that the counterfeit bill is hard to detect as well as the false leader and the false member. No one is aware that they have done anything wrong. The grace message has so subtly changed and "what sin is" is so twisted and the church has you so busy with ministry fairs and missions that you do not know that you have set yourself up as a "god" and are in danger of Hell fire because you are defying THE GOD! Here is another way to picture our Christian walk. We are going down the path called self-denial and suffering and at every corner there is someone trying to lure you off to consider self. Jesus was asked 3 times to save himself in the first few hours of the cross. He could have saved himself but instead He trusted God with the amount of pain that He had to bear. Jesus did not consider "self" and that is the type of attitude that is the Head of the true church. Considering self and all the excuses for why we do not do things God's way, is the counterfeit church.