Daily Devotional

The fact that you call an orange an apple doesn’t make the orange an apple. In Isaiah 4:1, the seven women say they will eat their own food and wear their own apparel, yet they want to take a man’s name. It reminds me of how truth has been compared to food—or bread—in John 6:35 and apparel is a symbol of righteousness in Revelation 19:8. How many churches call themselves by the name Christian but don’t uphold the bread of truth and teach us to wear Christ’s robe of righteousness?

God’s church is defined by the apostle Paul as the pillar of truth. He wrote Timothy on how people “ought to conduct” themselves “in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). If a denomination is not teaching truth, it is not truly God’s church.

Daniel predicted that a time would come when a religious power would “cast truth down to the ground” (Daniel 8:12). Paul warns, “Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed” (2 Thessalonians 2:3).

We should expect there to be false churches that do not teach truth from Scripture but teach “as doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:9). Otherwise, why would Paul encourage us to “test all things; hold fast what is good”? (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

The book of Revelation speaks of God’s end-time church and gives us indicators for knowing if a denomination is truly following the Lord. Of this remnant people, the apostle John writes, “The dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus” (Revelation 12:17). God’s true church stands on biblical truth.