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SEVEN PILLARS
The ancient prophet Isaiah declared that the way of Christ would be so simple that even fools could walk in it without making an error (Isa. 35:8). There is no excuse, then, for any one being ignorant of the knowledge of God in Christ. The truth is simple; it is understandable. The knowledge of God is available to anyone who earnestly and diligently seeks it. It is not difficult to learn the way of the Lord Jesus. So many contradicting doctrines are proclaimed in the name of Jesus that many have thrown up their hands in pretended frustration, as though they have searched and searched yet cannot find the right way. They make virtually no effort to know God and then comfort themselves by thinking that the effort would be pointless, seeing there are so many doctrines taught by those who should know the Bible. But God has commanded no man to search for Him by listening to all the doctrines that Christians and others teach. And every man who searches for God in the Holy Scriptures, in prayer, and in sincere humility finds Him- every one! God denies no one, and no one fails because of a lack of intelligence. If you want to please God and walk in His ways, you can. And if you do not, it is only because you do not want to. Men may excuse you, but there is no excuse for you. You have the Bible. You have prayer. You have the stars and the meadows and hills telling you that Jesus is there. And if you have a conscience that tells you that you need God, you have all that it takes. The multitude of doctrines offered to men by religious teachers has nothing at all to do with it. If you want God, you can and will find Him.
These seven are the foundational pillars of everything in the gospel. None of them is difficult to understand. All of them are precious. The apostle Paul was honored to be the one who laid out this foundation for the body of Christ to build upon. As he himself wrote, “According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon” (1Cor. 3:10). Let us look at each of these seven pillars separately, beginning with the first one mentioned by Paul, the
To the saints at Ephesus, Paul writes, “There is one body”. There is only One Body, whether its members be scattered among various religious groups, as taught by some, or all true believers belong to one religious organization, as claimed by others. Regardless of all that men say, if we are honest with ourselves, we must admit there is only One Body recognized by God. To determine who is in this One Body, we need only consider how one enters the body of Christ. In other words, how is a person “born again”. If we determine how one is born again, we will be able to see quite easily who and where the One Body is and who her members are. This issue will be resolved as we continue learning of the Seven Pillars.
From Genesis to Revelation the holy Spirit is given various descriptive titles, such as, “the Spirit of God” (Gen. 1:2), “Spirit of the Lord” (Isa. 11:2), “Spirit of Grace” (Zech. 12:10), “Holy Spirit” (Luke 11:13), “Spirit of Truth” (Jn. 14:17), “Comforter” (Jn. 15:26), “Eternal Spirit” (Heb. 9:14), “Spirit of Adoption” (Rom. 8:15), “Spirit of Life” (Rom. 8:2), “holy Ghost” (Mt. 1:18), and many others too numerous to mention here. Numerous also are the things that the holy Ghost does, which in another place the Spirit is said to do. For examples: Sanctification is by the holy Ghost (Rom.15:16) and by the Spirit (2Thess. 2:13). Spiritual gifts are given by the holy Ghost (Heb. 2:4) and by the Spirit (1Cor. 12:4). Believers are taught by the holy Ghost (1Cor. 2:13) and by the Spirit (Jn. 16:13). Believers pray in the holy Ghost (Jude 20) and in the Spirit (1Cor. 14:16). What dwells in the hearts of the saints? The holy Ghost (1Cor. 6:19) and the Spirit (Eph. 2:2.)
There are many similar instances involving the use of various titles of the Spirit. In 1Samuel 10:6, Samuel tells Saul that the Spirit of the Lord will come upon him, but when it happens (v.10), we read that “the Spirit of God came upon him.” For another example, in Acts 5:3 Ananias and his wife “lied to the Holy Ghost”, but in verse 9 it was the Spirit of the Lord against which they had sinned. Again, using Joel’s voice, God promised that He would “pour out my Spirit upon all flesh” (2:28). But when this wonderful prophecy was fulfilled in Acts 2:4, the promised Spirit is called the holy Ghost. And to confirm this, Peter says in verse 16, “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel.” Time and space forbid the presentation of more examples, but the point is amply made; to wit; there is only One Holy Spirit that is called by many different names.
Paul, that greatly anointed teacher, tells us that the One Hope of the body is “the hope of salvation” (1Thess. 5:8). Before we came to Christ, we were “strangers from the covenants of promise, having NO HOPE, and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12). Other ways of stating this One Hope is the “hope of eternal life” (Tit. 1:2) or “hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). This hope was promised to the Jews as God’s people, “unto which promise,” said Paul, “Our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come” (Acts 26:7). In this 20th century, a strange tradition has developed among many saints, a tradition of claiming to have already received salvation, a tradition which equates conversion with salvation. These dear fellow believers somehow have been persuaded to believe that they “got saved” when they came to Christ and were washed from their sins. It is remarkable how big this “get saved” movement developed in the 20th century, despite the fact that there is not one Biblical writer who used that phrase. Salvation is the One Hope of believers, a hope that the world does not have. To be saved is the dearest hope of every born-again person. We are looking for Jesus to return and to save us from the destruction of the world and eternal damnation. That is our hope. Our only hope. If Jesus does not come again, we believers are hopelessly doomed, along with every one else. As Paul wrote, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (1Cor. 15:19). No, my believing friend, you are not saved yet. However, if Christ dwells in your heart by his precious Spirit, you have a hope the world does not possess and cannot understand: the hope of salvation. We should, as Peter exhorted us, “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (1Pet. 3:15). Let us then humbly continue in the right ways of God, confessing Christ everywhere we go, in our deeds and in words, for “confession is made unto salvation”. On the other hand, denial of Christ is made unto damnation. Pointing us to the goal, the Master warned, “Many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Mt. 24:11-13). NOTE: For more on this, send for our free tract, “Salvation”.
There is nothing here to argue; yet, for the benefit of those who may be confused concerning this, let us say that Jesus of Nazareth, God's only begotten Son is “both Lord and Christ”. He is the head of the one body, the firstborn of the dead, and is exalted by his Father “above the heavens”. All power in heaven and in earth is given to him, and in everything he has the preeminence. Jesus is Lord of all.
Throughout the New Testament we are commanded to “earnestly contend for the [one] faith which was once delivered to the saints.” Moreover, Paul tells us “He [Christ] gave some, apostles . . . and some, pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the [one] body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the [one] faith” (Eph. 4:11-13). To be in the One Faith of the One Body is to have a right understanding of the other six pillars of the faith. According to Peter, this One Faith is “precious”, while James says that the faith is “most holy”. Both the world and the devil are overcome by the believer who remains “steadfast in the faith” (1Pet. 5:9; 1Jn. 5:4). Paul, as an aged man, lamented that some to whom he had preached had “erred from the faith” and were “turned aside to vain jangling”; nevertheless, he stood fast, writing to his beloved Timothy, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2Tim. 4:7). The Corinthian saints were encouraged by Paul to examine themselves, to see whether they were truly in “the faith” (2Cor. 13:6). I pray God that we may be so wise. It seems to me that there are altogether too many among us who have not “proved all things” by study and by prayer. It is of eternal consequence what you believe, my dear friend. It is a matter worthy of some self-examination.
Just as there is but One Body and One Spirit that is of God, there is but One Baptism that is of God. Any congregation or spirit other than His is of no eternal benefit. And so it is with baptism. This is an extremely important matter, because both Jesus and Peter taught that without baptism a man cannot be saved (Mk. 16:16; 1Pet. 3:21). The necessity of baptism is not questioned by anyone who is knowledgeable of the Scriptures. The only real issue is, then, which baptism must we receive? Is it a form of baptism in water, or is it the baptism of the holy Ghost that Jesus purchased with his sacrificial death? Peter answered this question when he said that the baptism which saves us is not the one which washes dirt off our bodies but the one which came “by the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1Pet. 3:21). My friend, no one is clean in God’s sight who has not received this baptism, purchased at the fearful price of Jesus’s life, for it is this baptism which washes dirt from the soul. No one will ever be saved without the holy Ghost baptism. It is astonishing how many people claim to be already saved without it! It may be that understanding this pillar of the congregation's faith is key to understanding the faith as a whole, for we are told by Paul that it is by the baptism of the Spirit that we become members of the body of Christ (1Cor. 12:13)! Knowing this, an earlier question concerning the One Body is now answered. Members of the body are scattered throughout many religious organizations because people in many different religious organizations have received this new birth experience. No organization is the One Body because anyone who has received the holy Ghost is in the body, and no earthly organization can reasonably claim that only its members have the Spirit of God. It displeases and saddens the Father for His children to be divided by Christian denominations and sects, as they now are. This is why the Spirit is calling for us all who belong to God to come out of Christianity. He wants us free to worship Him in spirit and in truth, and to do that, we must leave behind that divided and confused religion (Rev. 18:1-5). NOTE: For more on this, send for our free tract, “Baptism”.
The last of the seven pillars is the One God, “who is above all”. He is “the Father” whom Jesus feared (Heb. 5:7), loved (Jn. 14:31), and obeyed (Jn. 6:38; 15:10). The Father is a person, and the Son is another person. The Spirit of God is not a person. It is, as the Bible says, the Spirit of God. Your spirit is not another person, is it? Neither is God’s Spirit another person. It is God’s life (Rom. 8:10), which, by the way, He gave to His Son, with orders for the Son to give it to whomsoever he chose (Jn.5:21, 26-27). So, in spirit the Father and the Son are one (Jn. 10:30; 17:23, but each has His own separate body. At the end of time, Jesus will present to the Father those in the body who have been faithful and will himself kneel down at His Father’s feet (1Cor. 15:24-28). NOTE: For more on this, send for our free tracts “The Father and the Son” and “Is Jesus God?” May I ask you now, my friends, to “examine yourselves, whether ye be in the [one] faith”? To answer that question correctly, we must use God’s standard, not one we have invented. If you have received the holy Ghost baptism and understand that “by one Spirit we all are baptized into one body”, and if you confess that this gift was purchased by the blood of our (one) Lord Jesus Christ, whom the (one) God (the Father) sent to be the propitiation for our sins, then you possess the (one) hope of eternal life and are in the (one) faith. It is this one faith, holy and simple, that we endorse and love. If this is your faith, too, let us know, and let us hear from you. It is always encouraging to hear from others who have also had the truth of Jesus shown to them by the Spirit and have obeyed the Spirit’s call to come out of the religion of Christianity to serve God in spirit and in truth. And pray for us, that we may speak boldly as we should as we labor to publish abroad the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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