"The Churches of Christ Salute You"
Have you ever noticed how many different churches there are today? It seems that on every street corner you will find a different group with a different name claiming to serve the one true God. Is this religious division what God wanted for His followers? Did God fail mankind by creating all of this confusion, giving him no instruction on how to do His will? Did God, on the other hand, provide a way for unity among true believers?
The churches of Christ are the product of God's scheme of redemption (Eph. 3:10-11), and have Christ as the only foundation upon which we find all authority (1 Cor. 3:11, Col. 3:17). In short, we are the church that you read about in the New Testament.
Did you know that Jesus, while on earth, promised to build His church? "And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18). After His death on the cross, burial and resurrection, Jesus ascended into heaven and presently reigns as King over His kingdom— the church (cf., Matt. 28:18, Dan. 7:13, Matt. 16:18-19, Col. 1:13).
Nonetheless, shortly after the establishment of the Lord's church (Acts 2), certain ones sought to draw away Christians from simple, New Testament worship, and into the doctrines of false religious practices. The inspired apostle Peter warned, "But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction" (2 Peter 2:1). Paul also wrote of the division in his day, "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils" (1 Tim. 4:1). Several other references give support to the rising troubles of those departing from the faith: Jude 3, Gal. 1:6-8, 1 John 4:1-3, Co. 2:8, Acts 20:29ff., etc. As a result of man's rebelliousness, the church departed from God's one true way; and over time, produced multiple religions that plague the world with confusion.
Many have said that what you do in religious service to God does not matter; however, Jesus Himself commands otherwise, "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:23-24). True worship—that which according to the New Testament—is an imperative to please God. If you do not worship according to truth (John 17:17), then your worship is in vain (Mark 7:7-8). Sadly, so many will choose the broad way that leads to destruction (Matt. 7:13-14) instead of worshiping and living righteously according to the New Testament.
Still, there is a solution to all of the division that is produced by manmade religion: Unity based on the New Testament alone (1 Cor. 1:10). People are isolated in religion by different creeds, synods, doctrines, faiths, and ideas that have no recognition from heaven above. True unity can only be achieved if everyone would put these aside and follow the New Testament alone. Jesus prayed for such: "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me" (John 17:20-21).