5. The puerile claim that this promise was for His immediate disciples only is hardly worth considering, because of so many texts in which He plainly states that His ministry and words are for the world. He further said, "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself unto him."
6. It was this same Spirit of truth in Peter that perceived the Christ, and of which He said, "Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven." This revealment of Truth direct from Spirit is the rock upon which the one and only church of Jesus Christ is built. All other authorities are spurious.
7. That the one and only true Church of Christ is without authority or head on earth is evident from the accepted words of Jesus Himself. He never authorized the history of His life as recorded in the Gospels, so far as known; yet, accepting them as such history, on their face they bear out the claim of a spiritual church, with only the Holy Ghost as mediator between man and God. It is evident that Jesus saw the tendency among men to make idols of the Scriptures, and it was His aim to do away with that sort of idolatry. Instead of a command to "search the scriptures," as given in the Authorized Version, the American Standard Version tells us that Jesus reprimanded the Pharisees (John 5:39) in these words: "Ye search the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these |