The "BRIDE OF CHRIST" is NOT the CHURCH

The "BRIDE OF CHRIST" IS NOT THE CHURCH

By Joseph “Jovan” Galvan

 

WHAT THE "Bride of Christ" DOCTRINE TEACHES

The "bride of Christ" doctrine tells us once we "stand up and have all the wrinkles out of our wedding dress" then we will be ready (that comes from the scripture that says "..once the bride hath made herself ready..."). It tells us the Lord will return and get us once we "make ourselves ready", are without "spot or blemish" and when the church is perfect and ready. My Church isn’t the first ive seen preaching that…. I must have heard that come from the pulpit a hundred times.

Yet, Nothing can be further from the truth.

BEING READY IS A GIFT

You see, being perfect is a gift and it is a gift we already have. Sorry, but the last time I checked (just now thanks to the internet)   2 Cor. 5:21, Romans 3:26, 1 Cor 1:30, and 2 Cor 9:10 ….it says we have been made righteous by God already. We are already without "spot or blemish". We are already perfect and righteous. Jesus can return now if God tells Him to. He can return at any time. More importantly is the fact that if we are made righteous through the blood of Jesus then it takes away from us "the works" that we will have to do to become perfect. It makes it all about grace again and not something we do on our own. It makes it all about his ability to save us and His ability working in us to give us the power to overcome sin in our own lives. This is the fundamental reason Jesus gave His life for us. "The bride" teaching removes the fundamental purpose in the plan of salvation. Our salvation becomes about works and about making ourselves perfect and ready. Grace is denied. It’s by grace we are saved and it will be by grace that He will return and get His church. (Eph. 2).

THE "Bride of Christ" DOCTRINE… (dun dun dunnnnnn)

Ok, The "Bride of Christ" teaching says the church has to do something to make "herself ready", to be perfect. If this is true then there is absolutely no way Jesus will ever return and get us. We can't get "ready" ourselves out of our own doing something to be perfect. It'll never happen. We are not perfect and we can never be perfect outside of his gift of righteousness. It is just not possible. It will never be possible!

What I’ve found...

Because of the FREE gift of grace, we are already justified by the blood of the lord. We are already ready! It stands to reason that “the church” can't be the one "getting herself ready". It has to be something or someone else! Clearly the "bride" is not the church and is, in fact, the holy Jerusalem just as the Word of God says it is in Revelations 21:9-12 (I will exhibit it shortly)

However I CAN'T IGNORE the comparison…

I want to keep in mind though, that I don't believe we can ignore the marriage comparison of our relationship to God in the covenants, promises or vows made to each other. The word does make those comparisons. I don't refute that. God has made a lot of promises to us just like we make promises to each other when we get married. But as far as my personal relationship with God? I am a friend of God, He is my dad and I am His son too. "...whereby we cry abba (literally: "daddy"), father". Our closeness and intimacy with Him, is like a dad and not like that of a spouse. He is a dad who has promised me an inheritance and the ability to come boldy to His throne of grace.

So let’s break this down a bit more…

JESUS NEVER PREACHED IT.
PAUL NEVER PREACHED IT.
They did not tell us the body of Christ is a bride of any kind. Perhaps Israel is the bride but the body of Christ isn't.

Jesus never told His disciples He would someday be their bride. Paul didn't say we are the bride. In fact nowhere in scriptures does it ever say Christians are the bride of Christ.

NO SUCH THING AS THE TERM "BRIDE OF CHRIST" IN THE BIBLE 
At most I could find a "Lambs' Wife" but no "Bride of Christ". I searched the Bible for the term "bride of Christ". I couldn't find it. It surprised me when I did that search and came up with no results! Hmmmm

SO THEN WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT THE "BRIDE OF CHRIST"???

What does the word say about the "bride of Christ" you ask? ….Nothing really. The term "bride of Christ" is nowhere in the Bible. Aside from being first coined by the Roman Catholic Church, this term has been invented out of perceived inferences of certain passages that says God's relationship to us is "as a bride". These passages are all PARABLES or SIMILES. They are simply making a comparison of our relationship to Him as far as how much he loves us as well as His covenant promises to us.

SO NOW WE NOTICE THE TERM "BRIDE OF CHRIST" IS NOT USED. EVER.

(Here is the infamous Rev. 21:9)

"...Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God..." Rev. 21:9

This passage does not say the body of Christ (us) is the Lamb's wife. It does not say Israel is the Lamb's wife. It clearly states however that " great city, the holy Jerusalem" IS the Lamb's wife.

There IS a "lamb's wife, the bride of Christ", but it is NOT the church.

Revelation 21:9-10 CLEARLY states that the "the bride, the Lamb's wife" is the Holy Jerusalem...

In verse 10 it also says that John the Revelator saw that great city descending down from heaven adorned as a bride. He doesn't even refer to it as the bride but that it is adorned "AS" a bride.

Im a Big Fan of God’s Grace and Mercy… it’s the biggest part of my testimony and...

THIS DOCTRINE IS TAKING GRACE AWAY

Rev 19:7 says: "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready."

It isn't that this scripture is teaching to take away grace, it is the people or in this case The Leadership in my church who preach the church/bride concept that are undermining grace, whether knowingly or unknowingly. Since they believe the church is the "bride" then by default they have to preach that the church is getting herself ready and be without spot and blemish before the Lord comes to get us in order to be consistent with Rev 19:7. If the "bride" is the church then the church has to get herself ready according to Rev 19:7.

That’s just not the way it is though.

WHY DO WE ALWAYS READ THINGS INTO THE WORD?

So, how did some miss that passage and turn the church or even Israel into the "bride of Christ"? Israel makes more sense but still I'm not sure why people draw conclusions like these without clear evidence. My guess is it has something to do with trying to figure out the marriage supper of the Lamb…. That’s just my guess. As humans I think we tend to want to understand everything so we just read stuff into things that aren't really there in order to make some sort of sense out of it… either way this is false doctrine and it is indeed being preached in our church.

Bringing us to…

PREACHERS AREN'T ALWAYS RIGHT…  I KNOW THAT, BUT DOES THE CONGRAGATION?

CHRISTIANITY BECOMES LIKE ALL THE OTHER RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD
so if our salvation becomes about works and about making ourselves perfect and ready... Grace is denied. but its not... It's by grace we are saved and it will be by grace that He will return and get His church. (Eph. 2).

At first I thought the "bride of Christ" doctrine was a secondary issue in Christianity but with further consideration and recently pressing on the issue… I've found it is not. It is a primary issue and will certainly play a role in me deciding my church. What it teaches causes us to find ourselves doing works to become "without spot or wrinkle". Our Christianity becomes just like all the rest of the religions of the world. It becomes a religion of works and not one founded in God's grace. The "Bride of Christ" teaching takes away from us God's grace and gift of righteousness. We then become all about works. The Galations were all about works. What did Paul call those Galations? He called them fools.

ANOTHER PROBLEM THAT COULD BE IN THIS DOCTRINE

Taking into consideration a  great message I heard today about how we are wired… we are the “glove and god is IN us…” now go back to the “Bride of Christ doctrine… in addition to squashing the gift of righteousness by the "Bride of Christ' doctrine, our understanding of our authority and position in Christ is effected as well. Being in his body is much more powerful than the position and authority we might have as a bride….just making a point here.

For example, when it comes right down to it, my wife is limited in her authority. I can delegate my authority to her but she can never have my total authority. It's not that way with the body of Christ. He gave us ALL of His authority as kings and priests in the earth. We are his body. We have His authority in the earth. That authority is the Word of God He gave us to hear, believe, speak and live by in order to do what the first Adam didn't. That is to subdue the earth and replenish it. We get the earth back from satan. Woo woo :)

DON'T BELIEVE ANYTHING YOU HEAR (INCLUDING WHAT I WRITE) UNLESS IT CAN BE CLEARLY BACKED UP BY THE WORD

I can clearly backup, with scripture, the fact that the Lamb's wife is the holy city of Jerusalem. But the ones who believe the church is the bride of Christ cannot back it up with obvious scripture.

Think on that too.

THE BRIDE OF CHRIST ORIGINS

The term "Bride of Christ" has its roots in the Roman Catholic Church. You probably know the clergy or priests of the Roman Catholic Church "marries" their church, taking a oath to celibacy. As a result, the term "Bride of Christ" was eventually coined in relation to this practice. Today, this concept and terminology has spilled over into our own fundamental Christian doctrines

IT SOUNDS GOOD…. All this sounded good so somehow this doctrine got into what is being preached today. Just because the doctrine sounds good doesn't mean its God. Don't believe a thing just because at first glance it makes sense. If it’s not clearly in the word, it’s not so….

OUR RELATIONSHIP TO GOD IS A COVENANT RELATIONSHIP

I don't believe we should throw out notion that we have a similar relationship to God as a husband would have to his wife in covenant only. That is, in light of the promises and covenants we make with our spouse in marriage. Those are similar to the ones Jesus makes to us in the promises of the New Covenant.

THE PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WE HAVE WITH GOD

In the concept of "intimacy" with God in a personal relationship with Him, it is like that of a son to his dad. We are also called a friend of God. We became the sons of God when Jesus laid down His life for us. Now we call God "dad".

INFERRENCES DON'T ESTABLISH TRUTH

This thing about us being "the "bride of Christ"" can only be inferred! Building doctrines on inferences will mess us up and get us off the truth. I don't know about you but I'm not going with any doctrine that is inferred.

For example, It can be inferred that the baptism of the Holy Spirit was for the early church only and that God doesn't operate that way today. For centuries the church, by and large, had been robbed of the comfort, revelation, ability and power found in the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I'm glad we don't believe that's true anymore.

Also consider that "the church" once believed women shouldn't be in ministry or pastoring or in any leadership positions. That misconception came out inferences taken out of the word too. We don't accept those two inferences as truth anymore yet we will accept inferences when it comes to the bride teaching. I find that an inconsistent approach to figuring out the truth in the word. (I hope you do too)

In interpreting the word, I take the word literally for what it says unless it specifically says otherwise. For instance, Jesus told many stories that had meanings and were similes. Before He told His stories, He always let the hearer know He was about to tell a parable before He told it.

"FINALLY BRETHEREN WHATSOVER THINGS ARE...TRUE"

Until it can be unquestionably proved that we, the body of Christ are "the "bride of Christ", I don't plan on building a message, doctrine, or ministry around it or joining a church that makes it a pillar in their ministry. I'm going to continue walking in His grace and maintaining a righteousness consciousness. I'm playing it safe on this one and just referring to all of us as the "body of Christ".

 

                                       

 

FACT CHECK

THE FOLLOWING ARE THE SCRIPTURES USED IN THE “BRIDE OF CHRIST” DOCTRINE

One of the disturbing things here is that neither of the following stories on which the "bride of Christ" doctrine is built even mentions a bride. But the proponents of this doctrine do make the ridiculous leap to this being about a "bride of Christ"!

READ THIS PARABLE AGAIN KEEPING IN MIND…

This story is about how Israel rejected Jesus as the Messiah so, God sent the gospel of grace to the Gentiles. A bride is NOT a subject in this story. The guests (gentiles) are the subject. At best, today's church could be represented here as a guest at the wedding...

Rom 1:16 "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."

Matt 22:1-14 And Jesus answered and spoke unto them again by parables, and said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests. And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen.

...AND READ THIS PARABLE AGAIN TOO

It goes without saying that the ten virgins are not this groom's wife. They are only guests trying to get into the wedding.

Once again, taking the leap from the ten virgins being guests to being the bride and representing "the bride of Christ" can't be done but the proponents of the bride/christ concept do it here! :(

This story is about being ready to be accepted into the kingdom of heaven. How is that done? ….By accepting Jesus as our lord.

That story is as simple as that and that is all there is to it!

Matt 25:1-13 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.

THEN THERE IS ISAIAH 62...

Isa 62:4 Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.

Some have said He won't marry a city but here the Lord is married to the land so, as in Rev 21:9-10 He can be married to a city if He wants. He has certainly divorced one (Israel).

AND JEREMIAH 3:14

Jer 3:14 "Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:"

Once again the prophet is addressing Israel and not the church. There was NO church yet. Furthermore, the prophet says God is ALREADY married to Israel! So, maybe there is not a wedding in heaven later but only a marriage supper since there is no mention of a wedding for Jesus... hmmm…. Just thinking out loud… :)