Distinctive Doctrine

By Larry Killion

Distinctive Doctrine is a casual discussion of certain things in the New Testament that will be of interest mainly to Christians and particularly those who want to be recognized as distinctively scriptural in their thinking, doctrine and practice. The author speaks of ecclesiastical things from a distinctly Baptist point of view having been the Pastor of an independent, fundamental, sovereign grace, old landmark, missionary baptist congregation for 35 years. Some things covered in the book are The Nature of the Church, The New Testament Church defined, Organizing a Church, Adding and subtracting church members, The officers and ordinances of the church, The financing and government of the church, The doctrine and duties of the church, The name of the church, Baptist Briders, Sectarianism, and more.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 6, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503536425

Larry Killion

Larry Killion was born into a military family at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma in 1944. Killion is an Irish name that means “Grandson of War” but Larry is a “lover”. The Lord saved him in 1958 and he served his tour of duty in the Army right out of high school from 1962 to 1965. Larry and Marion (his high school sweetheart) were married in the fall of 1965. They have two lovely daughters, two granddaughters, two grandsons and one GREAT grandson. Larry surrendered to the call of God to preach in the fall of 1974, graduated with a BA in Bible from Clarksville Baptist College in Clarksville, TN and was ordained to the Gospel Ministry 1978. As a church planter, Larry accepted the call to Pastor The Lord’s Baptist Church in Tacoma, WA in 1980 and served as a bi-vocational preacher until retiring from his job as a public servant with the local Public Transit Agency in 2006. Larry’s Books: Traveling for God; ISBN: 978-1-4363-9385-0, The Thessalonian Doctrine; ISBN: 978-1-4363-9929-6, and The Landmark Edition of the New Testament (KJV Study Bible); ISBN: 978-1-4931-0296-9.

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Copyright © 2015 by Larry Killion.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

Rev. date: 03/06/2015

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Contents

The Distinctive Introduction

The Bride Defined

Are Baptist Briders Sectarians?

What is a TRUE Church?

The Nature of the Church

The Qualifications for Church Membership

The Organization of a Church

The Adding and Subtracting of Church Members

The Officers of the Church

The Ordinances of the Church

The Financing of the Church

The Government of the Church

The Name of the Church

The Doctrine of the Church

The Duties of the Church

The Church Covenant

The Distinctive Summary of These Things

Appendix Our Baptist Heritage

This book is dedicated to Elder Elton Wilson

(Now in glory)

Brother Wilson was the author’s Pastor and President of Clarksville Baptist College where the author attended Bible School from 1974-1978.

The title of this book is Distinctive Doctrine but Brother Wilson always used to say, "You can tell what someone really believes in doctrine, not by what they say, but by what they do and what they practice."

If that is so, and we think it is, we must actually talk about Distinctive Doctrine and Practice.

The Distinctive Introduction

How do you know what you are looking at? Well, you usually use your physical senses and make a judgment as best as you can by what they tell you. What does it look like? What does it sound like? What does it smell or taste like? What does it feel like? You know – if it has feathers, webbed feet and walks and quacks like a duck… it must be a duck. Right? There are certain distinctive characteristics or traits that people, places, and things have whereby we may identify them for what they are. This premise is true with just about everything we can imagine.

As we move into the realm of religion, we understand that this same principle also rings true. All of the various different religions in the world have their distinctive marks that set them apart from all the others and identify them as what they are. For example, if you see a man bowing down toward Mecca and chanting a prayer to Allah, you may reason that he is a Muslim. If you see a woman cross herself and begin her prayer with, Hail, Mary, Mother of God, you may conclude that she is a Catholic. If a couple knocks on your door and wants to give you some literature from their briefcase that is published by the Watchtower Society, you may conclude that they are from a group known as Jehovah’s Witnesses. If two clean cut nice looking young men come to your door and give testimony that, they believe that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God; you may believe that they are products of the LDS movement.

Examples like these could go on and on. Of course, we can also be fooled. Con-men and crooks often pass themselves off as decent law abiding citizens when in fact all they really want to do is rip you off. Criminals print counterfeit money and pass it off as real. They steal identities and empty bank accounts of unsuspecting victims at the expense of retailers and credit card companies and so on. This happens all too often and unfortunately, it is not that rare in the area of faith. There are a lot of counterfeiters and identity thieves in the world of faith. That is what this book is going to consider.

The author has written two books prior to this and contributed to a third. In each book, the topic of church truth and the Bride of Christ was touched on lightly. As he begins this book, he does so with fear and trembling. He knows that he will have to say things in this book that will not set well with a lot of folks in Christianity. The author is a born again Christian and is not interested at this point in dealing with the subject of Christianity in comparison to the other major religions of the world. There are already plenty of books on the market regarding that subject. This book deals with truth and error within the realm of Christendom.

We are fully aware that this book will not be popular. We have no dream of it ever making it to the Best Seller lists. Our motive for publishing it is not for financial gain. We hope to be an encouragement to those few who are in sympathy with the author and agree with his position on the distinctive doctrine and practice of a true New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Bride of Christ. In addition to that, we pray that God in His sovereignty might be pleased to use it to bring others to the truth on this fascinating subject. Most of all, if nothing else happens, it is our prayer that God would be pleased with it and get glory from it in spite of its human weaknesses. AMEN.

There is a lot of confusion among Christendom today regarding the Body of Christ. The most popular teaching on the subject is a very creative idea from the imagination of depraved hearts. Rather than taking God’s word at face value and believing the Bible for what it literally says, man has invented an imaginary new meaning for words like BODY. Now we know and we understand that a properly put together assembly of parts makes a body. There are many properly assembled bodies throughout creation. I know you could name several kinds of bodies in the world if you were pressed to do it. Wherever you are in creation, if there is a body of some kind there, and if you are not blind, you can see it. It is not invisible. The Bible also tells us about a certain kind of body that is one of a kind. It is called the body of Christ. As far as the basic definition of the word is concerned, the body of Christ is not that different from any other body in the world. It is local, it is visible and it is fitly framed. In other words, when the right parts are properly put together, there you have it. Let us consider three things about the body of Christ in Ephesians chapter four.

First, let us consider the ONENESS of Christ’s Body according to Ephesians 4:4. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; KJV.

The one body is the New Testament kind of body that met in the upper room and took the Lord’s Supper the night before our Lord’s crucifixion. It is what Christ called my church. It is a local, visible assembly of scripturally baptized believers in Christ who were fitly framed for doing the will of Christ in the great commission. If it meets these New Testament criteria, it is the body of Christ where ever you find it in this world.

The one Spirit is the kind spoken of in the New Testament that has all of the same divine attributes as the Father and the Son. He only does the will of the Father and the Son according to the full and complete word of God. If He meets these New Testament criteria, He is the one true Spirit.

The one hope is the kind in the New Testament that has its foundation on Christ and His finished work of redemption. If your hope meets these New Testament criteria, you have the one and only hope that really matters for eternity.

Second, let us consider the GRACE of Christ’s Body according to Ephesians 4:7, 11-12. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ…. And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: KJV.

Grace is the New Testament giving of a gift or gifts to the undeserving. The gifts that Christ gave to His local church were for the perfecting and edifying of her members in particular. This is always the way it is and the way it should be understood according to the New Testament.

According to Eph. 4:13-14, it is our Lord’s design that the members of the local New Testament body of Christ, like the one in Ephesus, should mature into the fullness of Christ in the unity of the Faith. This can only happen in His kind of local New Testament assembly. It is absolutely impossible for this to happen in some imaginary mystical so-called body of Christ or universal Bride. Remember, Paul is writing to the local church at Ephesus. The truth that he is talking about here can only be scripturally applied to that kind of church – local, visible.

The so-called universal invisible church could never have this New Testament kind of unity and love. The only way for a true believer to possibly strive for the fullness of Christ is to first of all follow the Lord in Scriptural baptism and be added to a local New Testament body of Christ. All those who are not so joined to one of the Lord’s assemblies shall be tossed and carried with every wind of the doctrines of men and devils. Christ’s church is the house of God today and the pillar and ground of the truth.

1Tim. 3:15 But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. KJV.

Third, let us consider the LOVE of Christ’s Body in Ephesians 4:15. But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: KJV.

The Love of Christ constrains us to be truthful. The New Testament way to truth and maturity is to be fed from the word of God as a member of one of the local New Testament bodies of Christ as taught by the Holy Spirit. On this point of LOVE, the writer wishes to remind the reader that this work is offered as a labor of love. First to the Lord, secondly to his fellow laborers in the truth and thirdly to those who in the providence of God have not yet had these truths presented in a clear and understandable way apart from negative characterizations of the distinctive doctrine and practice of the Lord’s true local churches.

According to Eph. 4:16, the body of Christ is one that is fitly joined together and compacted with every member supplying his part according to the effectual work of God in him by the Love of Christ unto edification.

This is STRICTLY local New Testament church doctrine and can in no way be realized by the heresy of the papal hierarchy or the imaginary invention of reformed ecclesiology. The great whore is wrong on the nature of Christ’s body and so are all her harlot daughters. The same goes for the false cults and the Johnny-come-lately crowd with their so-called self-authorized pop-up churches.

We should fear for the souls of many in the world today who name the name of Christ. Most of Christendom consists of professors of Christ who do not actually possess Christ. This is a bold statement. It has force because so many professed Christians are not willing to serve Him the New Testament way in a true New Testament church and I would ask you, are you truly a follower of Christ. Do you know what it means to follow Him according to His word?

1Tim 1:15, This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. KJV.

Jn 3:16, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. KJV.

1Cor 15:1-4, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: KJV.

If you are a true believer, the first act of loving obedience, according to the New Testament pattern, is to submit to Christ’s authority in baptism and be added to the membership of a true church, that is, one of His New Testament local assemblies.

Eph 3:19-21. And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. KJV.

Salvation puts you in the family of God. As a believer, God is your heavenly Father and all true believers are your brothers and sisters in Christ. After salvation comes service and in order to scripturally serve the Lord, you need to do that as a baptized member of the body of Christ – a local body of Scripturally baptized believers that was fitly framed to do the will of Christ in the great commission. It is out of this institution (the local New Testament church) that Christ elected His bride. AMEN.

The Bride Defined

According to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, the word bride appears fourteen times in our King James Bible. The first nine times it is the Old Testament Hebrew word kallah, and the last five times it is the New Testament Greek word numphe. Both ancient words have to do with a betrothed girl or a young married woman, a son’s wife, or a daughter-in-law. According to Webster’s New International Dictionary, a bride is a woman newly married or about to be married. The Bible tells us that Jesus will marry a bride. WHO is this bride of Christ?

Revelation 21:9-27 tells us about when one of seven angels in the Apostle John’s vision came to show him the Bride of Christ, the Lamb’s wife, saying, Come hither. The angel carried John away in the spirit to a great high mountain and there showed him that great city, the holy Jerusalem coming down from the heaven of God.

This great city was the dwelling place of the Bride of Christ and manifested the Glory of God. She shined like a precious jasper stone clear as crystal. There was a great high wall around the city and it had twelve gates. There were twelve angels at these gates and the gates had the names of the twelve tribes of Israel on them. Three of the gates were on the East. Three were on the North. Three were on the West and three were on the South. The wall of the city had twelve foundations and on the foundations were the names of the Apostles of Christ.

As the angel talked with the Apostle, John noticed that he had a golden measuring instrument with which to measure the city, the gates and the wall. The city is symmetrically square with four corners. The height, breadth and length of the city measured equally the same. The measurement was twelve thousand furlongs. A furlong is about 660 feet. That makes it 7,920,000ft. X 7,920,000ft. X 7,920,000ft. It must have been a remarkable sight.

The wall of the city measured out to be one hundred forty four