What Is The True Name Of God's Church?

The Bible gives the true name of God’s Church in 12 different places.

In five passages where the true name of the Church appears, the entire Body of Christ — the Church as a whole — is indicated. Thus when speaking of the entire Church, including all its individual members on earth, the name is “the Church of God.” Here are these five passages:

1.  Acts 20:28 — the elders were admonished to “shepherd the church of God.”

2.  I Corinthians 10:32: “Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God.”

3.  I Corinthians 11:22: “Or do you despise the church of God…?”

4.  I Corinthians 15:9 — Paul wrote, “I persecuted the church of God.”

5.  Galatians 1:13 — here Paul repeats the statement he made to the Corinthians: “I persecuted the church of God.”

Nowhere is the true Church called after the name of some man or doctrine.

Where one specific local congregation is mentioned, the true Church is called “the Church of God,” often in connection with the place where the congregation was located. Here are four more passages:

6.  I Corinthians 1:2: “The church of God which is at Corinth.”

7.  II Corinthians 1:1: “The church of God which is at Corinth.”

8.  I Timothy 3:5 — in speaking of a local elder in a local congregation, Paul wrote Timothy, “For if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?”

9.  I Timothy 3:15: “I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God.”

In speaking of the local congregations collectively — not as one
general Body, but as the total of all local congregations — the Bible name is “the churches of God.” Here are the final three verses:

10.  I Corinthians 11:16: “We have no such custom, nor do the churches of God.”

11.  I Thessalonians 2:14: “For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus.”

12.  II Thessalonians 1:4: “So that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God.”

These verses prove the name of the true Church. Denominations not bearing this name could not be God’s true Church. And of all the churches that do bear the name, only one could be the true Church of God — that one that obeys all the commandments of God and maintains the faith delivered once for all time. All others are counterfeit, even though some know about the true name.

Since Christ is the Head of the Church, Paul also called the various congregations “the churches of Christ” (Romans 16:16). But the actual name is “the Church of God.” It is kept in the name of the Father (John 17:11).

Who Are The 24 Elders Of Revelation 5?

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Some falsely teach that the 24 elders of Revelation 5 are taken from among saved mortals. This assumption is based primarily on a mistranslation of Revelation 5:8-10. According to the original inspired Greek, the last half of verse 9 and all of verse 10 should read: “…for thou wast slain, and has redeemed them (the saints, not us, the 24 elders) to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made them (not us) unto our God kings and priests: and they (not we) shall reign on the earth.” The Jamieson Fausset-Brown Commentary agrees that this refers to God’s Church only.

We know that the 24 elders are not redeemed human beings because no man except Jesus Christ (John 3:13) has ascended to God’s throne. The elders then are powerful spirit beings – not men – who assist God at His throne in heaven. They are a part of the created heavenly host that have been given positions of responsibility in the government of God, through which He rules the universe.

On the other hand, the resurrected saints will reign on earth! (See Revelation 10:4). All human beings – those who are Christ’s true servants – will be given immortality when Christ returns to earth to rule (I Cor. 15:22-23.