The
False Teaching
Many declare that
the Christ is a bridegroom and the "church" is his bride. So Paul wrote:
I feel a divine
jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to Christ to present you a pure
bride to her one husband (2Cor.11:2.)
The Seer of Rev. wrote: . . . the
marriage of the Lamb
has come, and his Bride has made herself ready;(Rev. 19:7) Augustine of
Hippo wrote: For all
the Church is Christ's Bride, of which the beginning and first fruits
is the flesh of Christ: there was the Bride joined to the Bridegroom in
the flesh. From
the Westminster Confession:
The catholic or universal Church . . . consists of the
whole number of the elect, . . . and is the
spouse, . . . . of Him
that filleth all in all. From the
Catholics: The third parallel represents the Church
as the bride of Christ.
Here there is much more than a metaphor. The Apostle says that the
union between Christ and His Church is the archetype of which human
marriage is an earthly representation. And from the Southern
Baptists:
The church is the
bride of Christ, comprised of all the
redeemed who
will, one day, be
taken to
heaven by Him.
Behold, the uniform doctrine across many denominations!
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Exposing
the Error
The left column shows general agreement in
Christendom that Christ is a bridegoom and the Church is his
bride. They identify him
as a bridegroom such that he has a real spousal relation with
believers. Jesus uses this relation as a metaphor only, in which he compares (does not identify)
himself with a bridegroom, as in the parables of the Marriage
Feast and the Ten
Maidens. The churchmen, by failing to make this critical
distinction, have concealed the Truth of the essential relation that
joins Jesus and the Father with true believers, with tragic
results. This may have been deliberately put out by Paul and his
disciples for that purpose, and it has been very successful due to the
Levitical prohibitions of incest. The prophets identified Israel as the bride/wife
of the Lord, and early Jewish Christians made a similar identification of the Christ with
the body of his believers. Jesus saw this as putting new wine
into old wineskins; he identified his followers by a new, different
relation with himself and the Father that is offensive to all that hold
to the spousal relation. So, they reject the truth &
condemn themselves.
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Declaring
the Truth
Jesus
did not once identify himself
as a bridegroom, nor his believers as his bride. The Father did not
send him to find a bride for himself, but to gather the childlren of
the Father unto himself and lead them home. He identified true
believers as children of the Father, not as the Son's bride: And call no man your father on earth,
for you have one Father, who is in heaven.
(Mat.
23:9) . This is an exclusive relation that allows no
other father on the earth! Then, he identified the relation of
his disciples with himself thus:
And stretching out his hand toward his
disciples, he said, Here
are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does
the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother. (Mat.12:49,50)
John the Baptist compared Jesus with a
bridegroom, drawing the metaphor from the prophets. Jesus voided this
by the metaphors of the old garment and old wineskin. God's desires to
be the only Father of the disciples, not their father-in-law!
Making the Christ the bridegroom set up an incestuous relation should
he also be the elder brother, thus blinding men to the Truth. More
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