ALONE WITH GOD     

  The church of God contains all true believers. As salvation constitutes us members of it, all the saved are its members. No one can be a Christian outside of the divine church. The church is the body of Christ, and the body of Christ includes all the redeemed in heaven and earth.

  This is one of the principal distinguishing features between the true church and the false, between the divine ecclesia and man made institutions. This one truth, the catholicity of the church of God, locates every sect. The church of God includes the family of God, and it is but one family in heaven and on earth; therefore it includes in its membership every Christian, all the redeemed in paradise and all the saved on earth. Including all Christians, it is not a sect, but is the whole. Now, a church that does not include in its membership all Christians in heaven and earth can not be God's church, and hence it is a sect. All the religious denominations taken together come far short of including all Christians. Before any of these institutions arose, there were millions of Christians. None of the blood washed saints in paradise are now members of any of these earthborn institutions; and right here upon earth there are tens of thousands of happy saints in robes of righteousness who have come out and stand clear of creed bound churches, and there are many thousands of others who are saved from sin and have never joined any of them. Therefore all denominations put together, both Roman, Greek, and Protestant, do not constitute the universal church, but are only sects.

  In holding membership in the one universal church and in no other, we stand clear of the sin of division; are members of no sect, but members of that church to which all the saved in heaven and earth belong. This is the one and only catholic church. The church of Rome has long laid claim to the title "Catholic church," but in doing so they have assumed a title that does not belong to them. They are a sect—a sect, too, that includes very few real Christians. The church of God is catholic not only in that it includes all Christians, but also in that it is destined to fill the whole earth. "And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High." Dan. 7: 27. "And the stone which smote the image upon the feet became a great mountain and filled the whole earth." Dan. 2: 35. These texts have direct reference to the universality of the church of God.

  Moreover, the religion of the church of God will apply to all men of all nations. The church of God gathers into her fold the rich and the poor, the educated and the illiterate, the high and the low—in short, all classes of all men. These, when saved, are on one common level of equality. Many of the religions of the world are local in their nature and apply only to certain classes. These have adopted peculiar customs, manners, and styles of dress. But Christianity, the religion of the church of God is not local in any sense. It is the one universal religion, the one religion that will apply to all classes of men. It imposes no peculiar customs, manners, or dress. Thus we see again the catholicity of the church of God.