By Dean Kelly

Jesus told His apostles concerning the great confession that Peter made that Jesus was the Christ the Son of God, “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). 

Paul states that the Ephesian elders were to shepherd the church which “He purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28). Again, Paul says that “Christ is the head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body” (Ephesians 5:24). 

Jesus built His church. That church is His body (Ephesians 1:22-23). Ephesians 4:4 states there is “one body”. Later in the same chapter the scriptures say, “but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ – from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body through the edifying of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:15-16).

In the first century there were no “denominations”, only the church that Jesus built. The division of those who called themselves Christians into splintered groups teaching and practicing a myriad of different doctrines developed over the centuries but was never the way that God intended it. 

That leads to the concept of “pre-denominational Christianity.” This is a call to go back to the church as it was in the first century. It is not just “non-denominational”, which has come to mean just a blending of all kinds of doctrines and practices. It is a call to go back before any denomination existed, to the actual teachings and approved practices of the first century church.

Let’s meet together at the cross where the blood was shed to purchase the church which Jesus built. That church is precious to Him and should be to us.