How Can You Know Which Church Is God’s?

Christ said, “I will build my Church” and that it would never be destroyed. He said God the Father calls individuals and places them into that Church. And He said true Christians must reject false churches and false teachings about Christ.

Is God calling you? If so, how can you find the one true Church of God?

It isn’t necessarily the church closest to your house. Or the church with the best activities or the most convenient service times. Or the church your family or friends attend. Or the one with the most engaging pastor or priest.

The right answer depends not on what is popular, what seems right, or what matches your assumptions and reasoning. It is a matter of what the Bible reveals.

As we have seen, the Bible reveals that there are churches that will lead you away from God. To discern a false minister or a false church, you must know the teachings of Jesus Christ. If you casually accept a church’s teaching because it sounds good, you will be led astray.

Follow the example of the Bereans: Search the Scriptures to see whether what you are hearing matches the Bible (Acts 17:11). “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

Christ Taught Only a Few

This may shock you, but the Bible clearly shows that the purpose of the true Church of God is not to try to “save the world” today. If that were its purpose, you would have to admit that, in an increasingly confused and secular world, it is failing.

The true purpose for which Christ founded His Church is entirely misunderstood by modern religion.

During His human lifetime, Jesus made no attempt to gain converts or to invite people to “give their hearts to Him” or to “accept Him as their personal Savior.” Instead, He gave much of His teaching to the crowds in parables. Why? When His disciples asked Him that very question, He answered, “Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. … Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand” (Matthew 13:11, 13).

Christ was not trying to make the truth more understandable to the public; He was hiding the truth from them! He spoke in symbol and code before the crowds, then He explained the meaning of His parables in private to the 12 disciples, those few “called-out” students. He said to them, “But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them” (verses 16-17).

Study this whole passage and think about the fact that Jesus gave true spiritual understanding to only a handful of disciples. That alone exposes a lot of common misconceptions regarding the purpose of the Church.

‘Little Flock’

God yearns to save all men, not just a few (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9). Jesus was grieved when He saw the spiritual destitution of His day. He wanted to help the masses. He did all He could to minister to them and heal them (Matthew 9:35-38). But His purpose at that time was not to save them all spiritually. If it were, then you would have to admit that He failed!

Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus preached to throngs of thousands upon thousands. Yet at the end of His human life, how many had committed to following Him? How many true students did He have?

Acts 1:15 reveals the stunning answer: only 120 people!

Jesus referred to those few He was working with as a “little flock” (Luke 12:32). And so God’s true Church has remained throughout the centuries.

The rest of the world was cut off from God—and still is!

The Bible shows that God has a master plan for saving the world—“all men,” people living who were not true Christians. This inspiring truth is revealed in scriptures from Genesis to Revelation. As 2 Peter 3:9 says, God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” God and Christ have indeed excluded most human beings for most of history from even knowing about Jesus Christ, let alone accepting Him as their Savior. They have allowed false churches to deceive many. Yet they have a plan to give all mankind the opportunity to come to the knowledge of the truth, to repent and to be saved!

This plan of salvation—the biblical plan of salvation taught by the one true Church of God—is more inclusive than any other church or religion can even imagine!

But this universalist phase of God’s plan comes after Christ’s Second Coming. Before that time, God calls out a small number of people to prepare for that phase. That is the purpose of the true Church!

Churches that are ignorant of this fundamental biblical truth are not being led by Jesus Christ and will lead you into serious error!

Christ never prophesied that His Church would become a large, impressive, politically powerful church ruling over the nations before His return. In fact, Jesus promised that those in His true Church—far from becoming more respected in the community, having business opportunities enhanced, gaining more friends, or rising in social status—would be hated, persecuted and perhaps even killed (John 15:18-19; 16:2).

No wonder the true Church is a “little flock”! It is a small group of sincere, converted people whom God has called out of the world, who have repented and forsaken this world. It is a small, generally scorned Body of believers who are doing the Work of God.

God’s Church has “little strength” (Revelation 3:8). It is a group empowered by Christ, united in beliefs, and under God’s government on Earth, but it is also scattered. It is largely unnoticed by the world. Yet as this verse shows, God sets open doors before it—of mass media and other means—to carry God’s warning message and the gospel of the soon-coming Kingdom of God to the whole world as a last witness.

What Does God’s Church Teach?

When looking for which church is God’s, the very existence of so many churches, denominations and sects, believing vastly different doctrines, emphasizes how easy it is to become part of a false church.

You can find the one true Church of God only by comparing its teachings with the Bible. You can do this doctrine by doctrine.

The religious teachers of Christ’s day did not teach the plain truth of the Bible. That is why people were astonished when they heard Christ’s teachings (Matthew 7:28; 13:54; 22:33; Mark 1:22).

Today it is no different. People, religious or not, are similarly astonished at the message of God’s true Church when they encounter it. It is noticeably different from what you hear from other churches.

For example, God’s true Church teaches the biblical doctrine of the resurrection, rather than a pagan-inspired teaching about an immortal soul destined for either heaven or ever burning hellfire. God’s Church understands the true origins of such paganism that has crept into deceived, counterfeit religion.

In a sense you can use a simple process of elimination to prove which churches could not be God’s Church. Again, the better you understand the Bible, the easier it will be to determine which Church is teaching and living according to God’s Word rather than faulty human traditions.

Let’s examine some of the foundational proofs of God’s true Church.

1) The Church Belongs to God

When God created the first man, He revealed Himself as the Creator, Sustainer and Ruler over His creation, including mankind.

God commanded Abram (later named Abraham), “I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect” (Genesis 17:1). The Hebrew for “Almighty God” is El Shaddai, meaning the Mighty God. Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon defines it as “most powerful, Almighty.”

God charged Abram to walk before Him and be perfect, and Abram willingly submitted to God’s government.

One of the great themes of the Bible is that true worshipers of God must submit to God’s authority.

Today, most so-called Christians do not retain God in their mind as the one who actively rules their everyday lives. True Christians are those who, like Abraham, subject themselves to God as their Ruler—those who, in the words of Joshua, stand up and say, “[B]ut as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15).

God rules over and intervenes in individual lives, families, nations and empires (e.g. Daniel 2:20-21; 4:17). Will you surrender to God and let Him rule your life?

God also rules His Church. The New Testament identifies the Church that Christ founded as the “Church of God.” It uses this phrase or variations (“the church of the living God” or its congregations “the churches of God”) 12 times. Twelve is the biblical number of organizational beginnings (12 sons of Jacob, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 apostles chosen by Jesus). Some of these passages speak of individual congregations, but no fewer than five of them refer to the entire Church, including all its individual members, as the Church of God (Acts 20:28; 1 Corinthians 10:32; 11:22; 15:9; Galatians 1:13).

Many churches are named after their founder, such as the Lutherans and Wesleyans. Others are named after a particular doctrine, such as Baptists or Catholics. But the Bible reveals that the true Church will go by the name “Church of God.” The name denotes ownership, signifying who is the true Head of the Church: God Himself.

While the Church of God is a spiritual organism, a corporate organization is needed for the work of the ministry. God has raised up a work that lives up to its name.

Now, many organizations claim the name “Church of God.” Herbert W. Armstrong explained in his book Mystery of the Ages: “Yet none is truly the Church of God, unless it is God’s Church, continuing in doctrine, practice, organization, in all ways on the original biblical pattern, headed by Jesus Christ, yet belonging to God the Father, empowered by the Holy Spirit, having God’s truth, fulfilling Christ’s commission of proclaiming His good news of the Kingdom of God to the world as a whole.”

This also raises the important biblical truth that Jesus Christ not only founded the Church but is also its living Head (Colossians 1:18; Ephesians 5:23). He actively guides it, leading through His chosen leader and ministers, as well as through the members, just as He did in the first-century New Testament Church.

2) A Sabbath-keeping Church

The Church belongs to God Himself, is led directly and actively by Jesus Christ, and looks to Him for guidance in everything. Thus it believes the Bible is His inspired Word and seeks to “live … by every word” (Matthew 4:4).

A church that claims to follow God must keep the laws of God. Many people offer hundreds of excuses to reason around God’s commandments and laws. The true Church of God teaches the importance of commandment-keeping in letter and spirit. It teaches Matthew 5:17-18, where Christ said He did not come to do away with the law. It teaches the significance of Matthew 19:17, where Christ makes plain that keeping the commandments is a prerequisite to receiving eternal life.

One of these laws is the Sabbath day, established by God at creation (Genesis 2:1-3), kept by the Israelites prior to and during the Old Covenant (Exodus 16:23; 31:12-17), observed by Jesus Christ (Mark 1:21-22; Luke 4:16), and maintained by His apostles and the early Church even after His death (Acts 13:42-44; 15:21; 17:2; 18:4).

Sunday observance was a pagan practice associated with sun worship, adopted by the Catholic Church in the second century a.d. and codified by Emperor Constantine in a.d. 321. Catholics readily acknowledge that it comes from their traditions, not from the Bible. After the Reformation, Protestants rejected certain aspects of Catholic doctrine, yet the vast majority adheres to its Sunday observance to this day.

God’s true Church keeps the seventh-day Sabbath. In Exodus 31:13, God calls the Sabbath a “sign” of His people. Isn’t this helpful? God actually gives a sign indicating the identity of His true Church. His Church keeps the Sabbath. The true Church must be among those few churches that keep the Sabbath.

The true Church will not teach the Sabbath has been done away with or that the Sabbath can be kept on any day of the week. Its members will follow the example of Jesus Christ and His apostles by observing the Sabbath on the seventh day.

The members of God’s Church experience the many benefits of properly observing the Sabbath: physical rest, peace of mind, stronger families, spiritual rejuvenation, true Christian fellowship, a closer relationship with God and more.

God’s people must be an obedient people. God has always tested His people on their obedience to this command and their willingness to prioritize Sabbath observance over their jobs, their pleasures and their other pursuits.

The Bible records instance after instance in which God allowed His people to suffer conquest in no small part because they broke the Sabbath commandment (Ezekiel 20:10-26; Jeremiah 17:21-27; Nehemiah 13:15-18).

If you want to identify God’s Church, the Sabbath is an excellent place to start. This one biblical command quickly eliminates the vast majority of churches. You can enjoy an exhilarating study of this command by requesting from us a free copy of Herbert W. Armstrong’s booklet Which Day Is the Christian Sabbath?

God’s Church also keeps the annual Sabbaths (Leviticus 23). It understands that these annual holy days are far more than mere rituals: They contain an inspiring outline of God’s master plan for mankind, a plan much different from what most churches teach.

3) Freedom From Pagan Teachings

God’s Church does not keep festivals like Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Lent, Easter and other observances that originated in paganism. These are traditions of false religions and not the commandments of God—in fact, they actually break God’s commandments. All this is explained in another free booklet we would be happy to send you: Pagan Holidays—or God’s Holy Days—Which?

Have you ever studied into the beginnings of Christmas and Easter, two of the most popular “Christian” practices? Look them up!

That December 25 isn’t Christ’s birthday is easy to prove. A quick search will confirm that this day was observed by ancient pagans to worship the sun, including the “unconquered sun” of the Romans; the “sun of righteousness,” Mithras, of the Persians; and the god Osiris of the Egyptians. Pagan celebrations of Saturnalia and Brumalia were popularly held on that date.

“Christmas” celebrations preceded Christ’s birth by centuries. Around three centuries after His death, church leaders decided to preserve the celebration but affix Christ’s name to it. This upset many pious believers at the time. Nowhere does Scripture advocate celebrating Christ’s birthday—or any birthday, for that matter. In the Bible, birthdays are celebrated by pagans like Pharaoh and Herod, and sun worship is blatantly idolatrous.

Astonishingly, many churchgoers have learned the origins of these not-so-Christian observances and are unconcerned! ChristianHistory.net (a service of Christianity Today) concludes: “But while kowtowing to worldliness must always be a concern for Christians, the church has generally viewed efforts to reshape culture—including holidays—positively. As a theologian asserted in a.d. 320, ‘We hold this day holy, not like the pagans because of the birth of the sun, but because of him who made it.’”

Many Christians assume God smiles on such efforts. But notice Jeremiah 10:2-4: “Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen …. For the customs of the people are vain [or false]: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.” Given this clear directive, why would anyone cut down a tree, fasten it down in his home, and decorate it to celebrate anything, let alone a holiday supposedly intended to celebrate Jesus?

God tells us in the Bible how and how not He wants to be worshiped. The fact that most Christians will openly admit that they worship and observe days according to their own ideas and customs is another proof that Christ was right (see Matthew 15:3-9; Mark 7:6-9, for example).

“We hold this day holy,” the Christianity Today writer said of Christmas. On whose authority? It was not holy to begin with. Human beings cannot make anything holy. The best we can do is to keep holy what God has made holy—as He commanded we do with His weekly and annual Sabbaths.

This is just one example of common “Christian” teaching that not only doesn’t come from the Bible—it flatly contradicts the Bible. You can read more in our free booklet The Truth About Christmas. You will find a similar story about the paganism that gave birth to the “Christian” celebration of Christ’s resurrection in our reprint article “The Origin of Easter.”

Most “Christians” take several common beliefs and practices for granted without realizing that they are rooted in false, heathen religion and can be clearly disproved from Scripture.

God’s true Church believes God when He says Satan the devil has deceived “the whole world” and is “the god of this world,” which he has blinded to the truth (Revelation 12:9; 2 Corinthians 4:4). Revelation 17 and 18 expose a great false church that has made the nations spiritually drunk on the “wine” of false doctrines. God calls her “Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth” (Revelation 17:5). And He commands His people to come out of Babylon, “that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues” (Revelation 18:4).

As you evaluate the teachings of different churches, you have a duty to study into the true origins of commonly held beliefs and compare them against the Bible. Many doctrines that supposedly came from Jesus Christ were not broadly adopted by “Christians” until centuries after He died: the immortal soul; heaven being the reward of the saved; eternal hellfire the punishment for the wicked; the Holy Spirit being a member of a trinity; and dozens more. That is because Jesus Christ did not teach these doctrines.

God’s truth is pure (Psalm 12:6; James 3:17). It is not a mixture of good and evil, like the tree that led to death in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:17). God’s people must worship Him “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). The true Church teaches the unadulterated truth of God, unmixed with Babylonish and other pagan or worldly teachings.

A good way to begin exposing and freeing your mind from false doctrines is to read Mystery of the Ages alongside your Bible, looking up each scripture as you go.

4) Godly Conduct

Another identifier of God’s Church is how its members live. Many people claim to believe in the Bible, but how many do what it says? A Christian is one who follows Christ. Yet few people follow the upright, uncompromising, balanced principles that Jesus Christ taught and lived by.

As a child, Christ showed respect and obedience to His physical parents, as He did throughout His life to His heavenly Father. He kept God’s commandments. He diligently kept God’s health laws, knowing that His fleshly body was the temple of the Holy Spirit. He strove for excellence and balance in everything while avoiding extremes. He condemned religion of appearances (Luke 18:10-14). He set the example of true meekness and humility, always seeking to do the Father’s will.

People are known by their fruits (Matthew 7:20). Jesus forewarned that men would profess His name but refuse to obey what He said (Luke 6:46; Matthew 15:7-9). Many churches turn grace into a license to live sinful lives, irrespective of what the Bible says. God’s true Church preaches repentance and obedience, made possible by God’s power and help (Acts 3:19).

True Christians are bought with a tremendous price (1 Corinthians 6:20; 7:23). Upon true repentance and baptism, Christ’s shed blood pays the penalty for our sins (Acts 2:38). Repentance involves turning away from a life of sin and completely surrendering to Jesus Christ. True Christians subject their attitudes and will to God’s rule in their personal lives.

A true Christian knows he or she must literally be conquered by God. If you truly are, that will be reflected in your conduct! A true Christian loves God more than anyone or anything and loves neighbor as the self (Matthew 22:36-40). Though still flawed human beings, true Christians are doers and overcomers, striving daily with God’s help to become perfect in character (Matthew 5:48). They strive to submit themselves to God’s law, which encapsulates His way of life, mind, heart and attitude. It is not just a “religion” they think about once a week. Their lifestyle is different from the world’s.

A true Christian is called out of this world to live the lifestyle of the future today. That requires total repentance. True Christians strive to walk worthy of their calling. They are growing, developing, changing and overcoming. They slip and fail in the process of becoming converted, but they strive always to repent, to correct their errors, and conquer their sins.

If you have found the true Church, you will have found a group of people working actively to conquer their sins and weaknesses to allow God to perfect them. You will have found people who experience true joy, peace and fulfillment that only comes from continually surrendering the self to Jesus Christ and God the Father.

5) Government in the Church

Matthew 16:18 states that God’s true Church would be founded on the Rock—Jesus Christ Himself. God’s true Church is actively ruled by Christ as the Head. This Rock is the foundation of government in the Church.

Mr. Armstrong wrote of this verse in Mystery of the Ages, “The churches of this world of Satan are organized according to humanly devised patterns. But the Bible gives explicit directions in regard to Church government. Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church. God’s form of government is, indeed, hierarchical. God the Father—the sole Lawgiver and supreme authority—is Head over Christ.

“God explains in 1 Corinthians 12 functions, offices, administrations and their officers as God set them in His Church.”

From God the Father to Jesus Christ, to the man He uses, to the leaders who support that man, to the individual members, to husbands and fathers, to wives and mothers and to children—God’s government is effective, just, constructive and essential. Not every top-down government is God’s, of course, but God’s government is top down.

Jesus Christ actively leads His Church, directing a human leader through the Bible, revelation and the power of God’s Holy Spirit. That human leader exercises authority not as he sees fit but rather as he is directed by Christ.

Many churches today admit that they experiment with church governance. Some churches have “top-down” government structures, with one man having final authority, but they are led by those men, not by Christ. This limits division but results in tyranny—in the name of Christ. Other churches have government structures that involve “bottom up” voting, or rule by a small group, or some other form of rule besides “top-down.” This limits tyranny but produces division.

Practices like voting on what to believe push Jesus Christ aside. He is not the living Head of those churches!

Only the true Church of God has the government of God: top-down God Family government led by Jesus Christ, motivated by God’s love, and empowered by God’s Holy Spirit.

In the early Church, challenges and disputes arose that had to be settled by those in authority in the Church. The most famous such challenge is recorded in Acts 15. Unordained men, affected by their previous erroneous religious teaching, began to divide the Body of Christ. It became necessary to bring this matter to the authority at headquarters in Jerusalem (verses 1-2). It was Peter, the chief apostle, who made the decision (verses 7-11). James, pastor of the Jerusalem congregation where they were meeting, confirmed Peter’s decision publicly, thus resolving the dispute (verses 13-21).

The Apostle Paul submitted to God’s rule; this enabled God to give him authority to build God’s Church (1 Corinthians 11:1; 2 Corinthians 10:8, 12-13). Paul used that authority as God directed him (Romans 11:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:12-13). God’s true ministers follow this example and submit to the same Spirit that directed Paul.

Ephesians 4:11-12 reinforce how God’s true Church is governed: “And he [Christ] gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” These ministerial offices within the Church carry the authority of God.

This authority is given to ministers to help people and relieve suffering caused by living the wrong way of life. They use that authority to back and support the message of God that can bring hope to people’s lives.

God calls each member and places him or her in the Body where it pleases Him (John 6:44; 1 Corinthians 12:18, 28), within that organizational structure.

Government in the Church is there to keep the unity of the faith. Through God’s government, God preserves the unity of the Church. It is the only way unity can be preserved. It helps to overcome obstacles, settle disputes and reach decisions. Without it, there would be confusion. There could be no smoothly functioning Body nor effective Work of God. Jesus Christ would not be its Head.

True Christians learn a lot by coming under God’s government today. It perfects those who submit to it. God uses it to serve His people (Luke 22:25-27). The Apostle Paul called God’s ministers “helpers of your joy” (2 Corinthians 1:24). Authority in God’s Church is not to be abused or used to control people’s lives.

God’s people are admonished to esteem the officers of God’s Church highly (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13). This does not mean exalting the physical man, who is a sinner like everyone else, but the office, which is God’s.

No other ecclesiastical institution stresses the importance of godly, righteous government like God’s Church does. God’s rule extends into every aspect of our lives. It is how He establishes and preserves order, purity and unity. It enables God’s Work on Earth, including the preaching of the good news of God’s soon-coming Kingdom.

Isaiah 9:6-7 is a prophecy of Jesus Christ—and of the government of God: “Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end …”!

6) A Church With Revelation

Starting on that first Sabbath in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve received the opportunity to submit to the government of their Creator, learn His revelation, live His way, and achieve the incredible potential He had created them to achieve. They rejected Him and chose to decide good and evil for themselves, not from what God revealed. All of their descendants have made the same choice, as God closed off that opportunity to mankind in general (Genesis 3:24).

Yet as the Bible records, God did call out a select few to receive and live by His revelation.

God revealed truth directly to His prophets and apostles. The Bible itself is largely a record of revelation and instruction from God to these human servants (Ephesians 2:19-21; 2 Peter 1:21).

Today, God still reveals truth to His Church—through His government, specifically through the ministerial offices of apostle and prophet (Ephesians 3:5; Amos 3:7). Another crucial identifying sign of God’s Church is that it receives understanding and revelation about the Bible from God Himself.

The Bible says God’s Church would have the “testimony of Jesus [which] is the spirit of prophecy” (Revelation 19:10). In other words, the true Church of God receives deep understanding of the prophecies and mysteries of the Bible. This understanding empowers God’s Church to explain world events and forecast the future.

Many churches deny that God continues to give revelation to His Church. Some few believe that God is giving them revelation, but their teachings do not come from the inspired Word of God. Only God’s Church has the office of an apostle, through which God gives biblical understanding and new revelation. God continually guides and reveals new and deeper understanding built on previous revelation, squarely supported from the Bible.

In this end time, the Philadelphia era of God’s Church (see the prophecy of Revelation 3:7-13) had humble beginnings: It sprouted from an era that barely survived spiritually (verses 1-6). It blossomed as God began to restore all things through an apostle who was willing to believe God and draw all doctrine from the pages of the Bible.

God promised to send a man in the spirit of the Prophet Elijah in the end time, before Jesus Christ’s Second Coming (Malachi 4:5). Jesus Christ confirmed this prophecy and added the detail that this end-time “Elijah” would also “restore all things” (Matthew 17:10-11). These are prophecies most churches completely ignore. But you can understand how this prophecy was fulfilled in modern times by requesting our free booklet A Pivotal Sign of the End Time.

This role of Elijah was fulfilled by Herbert W. Armstrong. He restored all the foundational truths of the Bible to the Church of God in preparation for Christ’s return.

However, after he died in 1986, the church he founded repudiated these truths, entering the Laodicean era (Revelation 3:14-22).

Today, only a remnant of the Philadelphia era remains, clinging to the biblical truths God established in His end-time Church. In fact, it fought in court for the right to publish and give away freely Mystery of the Ages and other books and booklets containing this priceless revelation. (Request your free copy of Raising the Ruins to learn this amazing history.)

For faithfully preserving that truth, God has blessed this remnant with even more biblical revelation, through the office of an apostle, building on the truth of the previous era. An abundance of literature containing new revelation is full proof of that fact.

As end-time events accelerate, God continues to show how they fulfill the prophecies of the Bible. God’s true Church has the “more sure word of prophecy” (2 Peter 1:19).

7) A God-given Commission

One final sure sign of which church is the true Church of God is the work it does. Many churches exist to attract and “save” members. This premise is inwardly focused. These churches compete with each other to cater to the personal needs and desires of its flock. People attend for social reasons or to merely satisfy a sense of belonging. The purpose of God’s true Church, its mission, extends outward.

God’s Church is commissioned to deliver God’s message to the world. When Jesus Christ was a human being, He did His Work using His physical body. Today, He accomplishes His Work through His spiritual Body, the Church. (This is another reason why Christ’s Body is not divided, as discussed in Chapter 1.) The mission of the true Church of God is to believe, live and proclaim the same gospel and warning message Jesus Christ taught.

Christ preached the good news of the coming Kingdom of God. He commanded repentance (Mark 1:15). Through His one true Church, today He still preaches the need for repentance—turning from our sinful ways to the ways of God—in preparation for His return and the establishment His Kingdom.

God’s true Church does not preach about simply getting salvation but about giving God’s message to whoever will hear it in preparation for Christ’s return and the rest of God’s master plan beyond.

“The greatest commission God ever gives to men is to take His message around the world and teach people about this new world!” Gerald Flurry writes in The True History of God’s True Church. Earlier in the book he writes, “God has given us the greatest commission He has ever given to man! In a time of increasing global crisis, we are here to deliver this message for God to this world.”

God commands true Christians to share His message of hope with the largest audience possible. We “prophesy again” as God’s apostle did during the Philadelphia era (Revelation 10:11). Following the death of Herbert Armstrong, only one group fought for the doctrines God had placed in His Church and the rights to distribute those doctrines. Only the Philadelphia Church of God is sending out that message again.

God’s true Church today is charged to support God’s apostle in declaring this life-saving message to the largest audience possible—ultimately every human being (Ephesians 3:9). God’s master plan is about gathering in all of mankind. All people need to be taught to teach and dispense God’s truth forever (this inspiring scripture is explained in our free booklet Prophesy Again). No other church or religion understands that.

In fact, God’s true Church is a “teachers’ college,” a place of training for the teachers of tomorrow’s world after the return of Christ!

When you understand the commission God has given His Church today, you see how it beautifully prepares both the Church and the world for the unfolding of God’s plan of salvation for all mankind. It brings God’s true Church to life with dynamic purpose and causes its members to grow spiritually as they support the Work of God.

You Can Find God’s Church

Most people simply do not accept and believe what Jesus Christ and the Bible writers stated about God’s Church. Their idea of what the Church should be is based largely on human assumptions and traditions. Many of these assumptions are contrary to the Bible and lead into thickets of false claims and error.

Let’s not assume!

You can prove where His one true Church is. You can prove its name, whether it is large or small, which day it keeps, what doctrines it teaches, what its members are like, how it is governed, what revelation it receives, and what work it is doing. Prove these things, and don’t settle for a counterfeit!

Christ promised that His faithful group of called-out ones would never perish. Here on Earth, there is a Church of God being led by Jesus Christ under God the Father. It preserves and proclaims His revelation. It does its best to proclaim Christ’s message to as many as will listen and prove it from their Bible.

Deeply study your Bible. Jesus Christ did found His Church. It has not died. There is one true Church of God—and with God drawing and guiding you, you can find it!

For a more comprehensive understanding of this vital subject, request Mystery of the Ages, by Herbert W. Armstrong, and read Chapter 6, “Mystery of the Church.”