"RESTORE THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH"

Good day to all who read;

Let's restore the Church of New Testament. 
Maybe a better way to put it would be, let us restore the people to the New Testament Church. 

If you think about it, the New Testament Church has been here since 50 days after the resurrection, on the Day of Pentecost, when the gospel of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus was first proclaimed, and 3,000 souls were added.

Jesus said that the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. So it has always been here since that day, and we need to restore people back to it.

A question often asked is, "Which one of the New Testament Churches do you want to restore?"

How about the one at Sardis, it was dead? How about the one at Laodicea, it was lukewarm? How about the one at Ephesus, it had left its first love? How about the churches in Galatia, they were legalistic?

How about the one at Corinth, it was full of division? Which one of the New Testament Churches should we restore?

Maybe it's hard to see the entire Church from looking at any one of the New Testament congregations, but if we take a look at several of them, the composite of the many will give us an idea of what the Church was really like and what it was meant to be. Let us restore the New Testament Church.

1) LET'S RESTORE THE NAME THAT WAS FAMILIAR TO THE CHURCH AT ROME.

If you had gone to Rome in the first century and asked for the location of most any denomination, either Protestant or Catholic, the members of the Roman Church would have been completely confused. 

They would not know what you were talking about. But if you had said Church of Christ that would have been a familiar name, because Paul had written to the Roman Church and said in Romans 16:16, 

"All the Churches of Christ salute you." 

The Church at Ephesus according to Acts 20:28 would have understood the name Paul used at his meeting with their elders, 

"The Church of God which he purchased with His own blood."

God the Son is the One who purchased the Church with His blood. The church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians 14:33 would also have recognized the term 'Churches of the saints'.

We know that a saint is a Christian because Paul referred to the Christians as saints in Ephesians 4:12 when he said, 

"The Lord has given us pastors, and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering."

Any name found in the scripture is a scriptural name. Is there anything that sows the seed of division any more than denominational names?

I read of a Christian traveler who went to Japan from America, and had need of filling out papers. The Japanese clerk asked about his nationality, his place of birth, his business, and wanted to know,

"What is your religion?" 

The traveler said he was a Christian. The Japanese clerk said, "American, I know you are a Christian, but to what damnation do you belong?"

To avoid much confusion and to be in line with God's Holy Word, let's restore the New Testament Church as far as a name that was familiar to the Churches of the New Testament.