PREACHING CHRIST

January 1, 1987 Issue
Voyd N. Ballard

Denominational preachers have always objected to the preaching of what the New Testament says about the Lords plan of salvation and the one church by insisting that we should simply "preach Christ and Him crucified, not the church and not the plan." Their idea of preaching Christ is to simply tell what He did for us, but remain as silent as the tomb about what man is required to do in obedience to Him.

These objections to the preaching of the ONE plan, the ONE church and the ONE worship coming from denominationalism are not surprising nor alarming, seeing as how the ONENESS of the New Testament forever abolishes the whole concept of "unity in denominationalism." What is a source of surprise and dismay is to hear any man who claims to be a gospel preacher parroting such objections.

What is even more amazing is that these preachers who are always talking about "preaching the man and not the plan" and "preaching Christ and not the church" tell us that this is something NEW that they have recently learned! They talk about it being "a new truth I have recently learned". Well, it is NOT NEW and it is NOT TRUTH. It is as old as denominationalism and IT IS FALSE TO THE CORE!

l am willing to affirm that no man can preach Christ in His fulness and completeness without preaching His plan of salvation and His church which He purchased with His own blood.

The eighth chapter of Acts tells us that Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them. But in preaching Christ he preached THE KINGDOM (THE CHURCH), THE NAME OF CHRIST, AND THE PLAN OF SALVATION. (Acts 8:12). This Scripture sounds a lot different from the cry of these fellows that are always talking about preaching Christ and not the plan and not the church.

How are you going to preach Christ and not preach what he said? Whether we like it or not He did say, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved..." (Mark 16:16). Belief and baptism is the Lords plan of salvation for the sinner and Philip certainly preached that plan in Samaria. I am sure that when he preached the name of Christ he preached salvation in that name, and he preached that we are baptized into that name. (Matt 28:18, 20) He also preached the church, for that is what the Kingdom of God is, and Luke says he preached it. How any man can talk about preaching Christ and not the church is beyond me. The church is His body (Col 1:18 - Eph 1:22, 23) and He is the HEAD of that body. He is the saviour of that body. (Eph 5:23) Therefore, I affirm that no man can preach Christ without preaching His plan and His church.

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