Do I Have To Join A Church To Be Saved?

Question Twenty-Six

Do I have to join a church to be saved?

Some churches maintain that salvation comes through their organization and you must join them to be saved.  Others have the idea that you must fellowship in one of a number of churches deemed to have the right idea of who and what Jesus is. Still others have no specific doctrine concerned with the church and salvation but insist that their church will bring you closer to God. Many of them joke that they are supplying believers with “fire insurance,” to protect them from the fires of hell.

In our last question we learned that salvation really means to be delivered from error.  After all, the word “salvation” comes from the Greek SOLTERIA which literally means “to rescue or deliver.” Therefore salvation from sin is really a deliverance from error.

Therefore, any church that claims to offer or aid the seeker in obtaining salvation must offer a deliverance from error.

And how does a church or any entity deliver from error?

Quite simple.  We are delivered from error by knowledge of things that are true.

People at one time thought the earth was flat.  Great thinkers and explorers proved that this was and error, that the world was round and not the center of the universe. They delivered, or saved us from, that error, or sin of ignorance.

One reason that Jesus was called a savior was that he delivered us from a number of huge errors.

And how did he do that?

He told us that it was by the power of his words.  That only makes sense since he was called “The Word” in the Gospel of John.

Jesus emphasized again and again that the words he spoke have power to save and deliver us from error and that the saving “word is truth.”  John 17:17

In the great parable of the Sower we are told that “The sower soweth the word.” Mark 4:14 Here we learn that those who treasure up the words of truth in their hearts will be saved.

Words are so powerful that words such as those spoken by Jesus were called “words of eternal life.” John 6:68

Not only were the words of Jesus important to salvation but so are our own for he said, “ For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” Matt 12:37

But Jesus emphasized the power of his words of truth to deliver when he said, “the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”  John 6:63

Salvation then comes from words that are true, which deliver us from error.  The bigger the error that we are delivered from the greater is the salvation.

The biggest errors of all that we make are those that take us away from eternal life and the words of Jesus correct, or save us, and set us on the right course.

Now let us get back to our original question. To ask if we need churches to be saved is like asking if we need a church to find words of truth that deliver us from error. The answer is that we do not. It matters not where we find the words of truth.  They are what they are and if we accept them then we are delivered from error.

Does this mean that the churches have no purpose?

No. They teach truth in differing degrees and assist many people in their search for the words of truth. Most churches offer little depth of knowledge, however, and the true seeker must go beyond that which they offer. He must study and contemplate using his own initiative.

Some of the greatest words of Jesus that all must take to heart are:

“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” Matt 7:7-8

Copyright by J J Dewey 2014

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