4721 Christ head of His church.... members of the true church....

August 22, 1949: Book 54

The head of the church of Christ remains Jesus Christ Himself.... For this church, which comprises the community of believers, i.e. those who place themselves under the cross of Christ and want to participate in the redemption through His blood, which He shed for sinful humanity, is based on faith in His redemptive work. His church cannot be understood in any other way than on this faith in Him and His redemption, and this is also how Jesus' words are to be understood: "You are Peter, the rock, on you I will build My Church....". Peter was the most faithful among His disciples, and he recognized the mission of the man Jesus, he believed in Him as God's son and redeemer of the world, although in hours of earthly distress he put the world in the foreground, which drove him to his threefold denial. His faith was therefore not weaker, only his flesh failed in the anguish and distress of the events surrounding Jesus. Therefore, whoever wants to belong to His church must acknowledge Jesus Christ, and therefore Jesus Christ will also always have to be confessed as a sign of belonging to His church. And thus His teaching will also have to be proclaimed in it, i.e. the same must be taught as Jesus taught His fellow human beings.... the gospel must be brought to people because the knowledge of it is necessary in order to revive faith in the redemption through Jesus Christ. For only the right faith is the cause for a person to enter into the right relationship with Him, Who acquired eternal bliss for him through His death on the cross....

(23.8.1949) For this reason, followers of every denomination can claim membership of the true church of Christ if they only believe in Jesus Christ and His act of salvation and have penetrated His gospel and live their lives according to His divine teaching of love. These alone are the signs of the church which Jesus Himself founded on earth, that people remain in His spirit and never ever let Him out of their thoughts and strive to follow Him in deeds, words and thoughts.... Faith in Jesus Christ determines a person's right conduct of life, for Jesus' words, His gospel, are sacred to him; he respects them as God’s word and seeks to live them out. And through this he awakens the spirit in himself to life, and the working of the spirit is then the most unmistakable sign of being a member of the true church of Christ. But it is not outward bonds, the fulfilment of outward formulas or a forced membership in the traditional way that makes a person belong to the community of believers. For then the awakening of the spirit is not far off, which demands more than outward membership in name only. Anyone who sees Jesus Christ as the head of the church consciously strives towards Him and for him His word is the gospel.... the only path to the aim.... because the word is Jesus Christ's flesh and blood, it is bread and wine from heaven; consequently it must also lead to heaven, it must lead to the closest union with the divine redeemer Himself and thus make him blissfully happy. Hence the word is the core of Christ's church, the word is His teaching of love, and where this is conveyed to people there will always be the true church of Christ. And anyone who receives His word into his heart and lives accordingly is His follower, he is a member of His church, which is only ever to be understood spiritually, thus not bound to earthly organizations. Nevertheless, every earthly ecclesiastical organization can include members of this church as long as they fulfil those conditions, provided they are truly devout followers and confessors of Jesus Christ and His act of salvation....

Amen

This proclamation is used in the following themebook:

Themebook	Title	Download
150	Form Christians - Living Christians	ePub   PDF   Kindle

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