Seven
Pillars
"Wisdom hath builded her house,
she hath hewn out her seven pillars."
The prophet Isaiah declared that the way of Christ
would be so simple that even fools could understand
it (Isa.35:8). There is no reason, then, for anyone
to be ignorant of the truth. The knowledge of God
in Christ is freely given to all who diligently seek
it.
So many conflicting doctrines
are proclaimed in the name of
Jesus that some have thrown
their hands up in pretended
frustration, as though they
hunger and thirst for the truth
of God,
and strive to find it, yet cannot. They make little or
no sincere effort to seek God and then excuse
themselves, pointing to the confusion among
Christians, who say they love Jesus and know the
Bible.
But God has commanded no one to search for Him
by digging through the labyrinthine doctrines of men.
Every person who searches in sincerity for God and
His truth finds Him - every one! If you
desire to know the truth, you can. In Jesus, the way
has been made for everyone who hungers to know
God. If you do not know the truth, it can only be
because you have not yet striven in faith to find it.
You have the Bible; you have time to pray; and you
have an open door from God. That is all that is
needed. The many confusing, contradictory doctrines
invented by Christians have nothing at all to do with
your search for truth. Don't look to them; look to
Jesus. Jesus was never, and is now not "a
Christian", even though God's people have joined themselves to this
religion. To find the truth, a person must "come out" to where Jesus is... and His truths
will ALWAYS be found outside men's divisions of the true body of Christ.
Here are the Seven Pillars, the seven
foundations of the gospel, as listed by Paul in
Ephesians 4:4-6:
One Church
One Spirit
One Hope
One Lord
One Faith
One Baptism
One God
These seven pillars make up the foundation of
the gospel of Christ. They all are easily
understood. All of them are precious. The apostle
Paul was honored to be the one who laid out this
foundation for the church 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). Then, we should
carefully consider these seven pillars, that we may
build upon them rightly, beginning with the
ONE CHURCH
To the church at Ephesus, Paul wrote, "There
is one body", and he made it clear that the
"body" is the church (Eph.1:22-23; Col.1:18).
Yes, there is only one church that is truly of God,
whether its members be scattered among various
religious groups, as taught by some, or all belong
to one religious organization, as claimed by
others. To determine who is in the church, we
need only determine how one enters it, or we
could say, how one is born again. Only if we
know how one is born again can we ever discern
the one church. This truth will be revealed as
we continue.
ONE SPIRIT
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
others too numerous to mention here. All these
titles refer to the same Spirit.
To show this another way, we offer these things
that the holy Ghost is said to do, which in other
Scriptures the Spirit is said to do. For examples:
Sanctification: by the holy Ghost (Rom.15:16); by
the Spirit (2Thess.2:13). Spiritual gifts given: by
the holy Ghost (Heb.2:4); by the Spirit (1Cor.
12:4). Believers taught: by the holy Ghost
(1Cor.2:13); by the Spirit (Jn.16:13). Believers
pray: in the holy Ghost (Jude 20); in the Spirit
(1Cor.14:16). Dwelling in saints: the holy Ghost
(1Cor.6:19); the Spirit (Eph. 2:2.).
The Bible offers many examples of men using
various titles for the Spirit. Samuel told Saul
(1Sam. 10:6) that the Spirit of the Lord would come
upon him, but when it happened (v.10), we read
that "the Spirit of God came upon him". For
another example, we find in Acts 5:3 that 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). When this prophecy was fulfilled, the
promised Spirit is called the holy Ghost (Acts 2:4).
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: There is only one holy
Spirit, called by many different names.
ONE HOPE
The one hope of the church is "the hope of
salvation" (1Thess.5:8). Unbelievers are "strangers from
the covenants of promise, having NO
HOPE, and without God in the world"
(Eph.2:12). Other ways of stating this hope is the
"hope of eternal life" (Tit.1:2), or "hope of
glory" (Col.1:27). Eternal life is promised to God's
people, "unto which promise", said Paul, "our
twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and
night, hope to come" (Acts 26:7).
In the early 20th century, Christians
began to claim to receive salvation at the moment
of conversion. They were persuaded to believe
that they "got saved" when they came to Christ;
and in spite of the fact that it has no biblical basis
at all, this error became widely accepted.
"Salvation" is not "conversion". Salvation is the
one hope of believers, a hope which the world
does not have. Believers long for Jesus to return
and to save them from the wrath of God, soon to
come upon this wicked world. That is the sure
hope of the church in Christ. If Jesus does not
come again, believers are hopelessly doomed, 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.
If Christ by his Spirit dwells in your heart, then
you have the hope of eternal glory (Col.1:27), a
hope which the world does not have. And 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 confess
Christ everywhere we go, in deed and in word, for
"confession is made unto salvation". Pointing us to
our hope, the Master said, "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).
ONE LORD
There is nothing here to argue; yet, for the
benefit of those who may not yet know it, let us
state clearly that Jesus of Nazareth, God's only
begotten Son is "both Lord and Christ". He is
the head of the one church, 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 the one Lord of all (Acts
10:36).
ONE FAITH
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 that "[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
means to partake of these seven pillars.
According to Peter, this faith is "precious",
while James says that the faith is "most holy".
Both the world and the Devil are overcome by all
who remain "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 "turned aside to vain jangling";
nevertheless, he himself stood fast, writing to Timothy, "I
have fought a good fight, I have finished my course,
I have kept the faith" (2Tim.4:7). This one faith
is the gospel which will be preached throughout the
world before his return (Mt.24:14). "Christians" have
carried their doctrines around the world, but the
true gospel, quenched since the days of the apostles,
has yet to be preached on a scale such as Jesus
suggested.
Since what we believe about God will have eternal
consequences, sound doctrine is essential to our
spiritual well-being. Paul exhorted us to examine
ourselves, to see whether we are in "the faith"
(2Cor.13:5). And those who are wise constantly do
so; they ask themselves the hard questions. "Why
do I believe what I believe about God?" "How do
I know that what I believe is the truth?"
ONE BAPTISM
Just as God has but one church and one Spirit,
so it is with baptism. And just as no other
church or spirit can save, no other baptism but
that of Christ will cleanse the heart. This is an
extremely important matter, because both Jesus
and Peter taught that no one could be saved
without being baptized (Mk.16:16; 1Pet.3:21).
The absolute necessity of baptism is not
questioned by anyone who is knowledgeable of the
Scriptures. The only real issue is, which baptism
must we receive? Is it a form of baptism in
water, or is it the baptism of the holy Ghost
which Jesus purchased with his sacrificial death?
Peter answered this question when he said that
the baptism which saves is not the one which
washes dirt from the body 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. No
one will ever be saved without the holy Ghost
baptism. It is astonishing how many people claim
to be already saved without it!
"And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of
fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled
with the holy Ghost" (Acts 2)
Understanding this pillar of the faith may be the
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 church
(1Cor.12:13). This answers the earlier question
concerning the [one] church. Many have received
this regenerating baptism of the holy Ghost, but
they are scattered throughout the sects of
Christianity which they have joined. Clearly,
Christianity is not the [one] church of God, because
a person may belong to Christianity without being
baptized by Christ! Many Christians even dare to
reject the one baptism of Christ! For a child of
God to be a part of Christianity, then, is to be
"unequally yoked together with unbelievers". It
saddens the Father for His children to be united in
faith with those who do not love and obey His Son.
This is why the Spirit is calling all who belong to
God to renounce Christianity, and to be united at
long last by the one faith and the perfect love of our
Lord, Jesus Christ (Rev.18:1-5).
ONE GOD
The last of the seven pillars is the one God,
"who is above all". He is "the Father" whom
Jesus loved, feared, and obeyed (Heb.5:7;
Jn.6:38; 15:10). He created His Son (Col.1:15; Rev.3:14) , and gave
him power to create everything else. The Father
is a person, and the Son is another person. The
Spirit is eternal life, which He gave to His Son,
along with power to give it to whomever he chose
(Jn.5:26-27). In spirit, the Father and Son are
one, but each has His own body. At the end of
this age, Jesus will present to the Father those in
the church who have been faithful and will
himself kneel down at his Father's feet
(1Cor.15:24-28).
May I ask you now to "examine yourselves,
whether ye be in the [one] faith"? If you have
received the holy Ghost and understand that "by
one Spirit we all are baptized into one body [the
church]", 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, let us know, and join with us in this labor to
publish the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Questions? Log onto the Internet, Click Here,
and you can E-mail them to:
GSAVELLI@aol.com
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