Many people feel they must investigate every religion and denomination, but that task is of course impossible. The mass of doctrines and opinions is too vast for anyone to sift through. The attempt can lead only to despair and confusion.
Some questioning and investigation is needed, certainly: Examine everything carefully and hold fast what proves to be good"
There is a simple method of finding the true church. It is the same simple common-sense method we use any time we want to find something. It's what is usually called "the process of elimination".
Example 1
Part of the story of Cornelius will serve to illustrate: The angel said to Cornelius, "Send men to Joppa and invite Simon who is also called Peter to come to you. He is staying at the house of Simon the tanner by the sea"
To find Peter, they would not need to enter every house in the world. They would take note of the known facts about the house where Peter could be found and put these facts into the most logical search order:
First the men would go to Joppa. That would eliminate Nazareth, Azotus, or other place. Next they would go down by the sea. That would eliminate houses in Joppa that were not along the seafront. They would not stop at a blacksmith's house, nor at the house of a potter, fisherman, boatbuilder, merchant, inkeeper. Even if they came to a sign that said, "Jacob Brown, Tanner" they would not go in. See how easily they have eliminated most enquiry, with a few simple facts put into a sensible order.
Example 2
If you had never seen me, and had to meet me at the airport, how would you single me out from the crowd? All you know is that I'm a man and my name's Ron Graham. But imagine I told you beforehand, "I'll be wearing a grey suit and red gumboots, and doing tricks with a
Gotcha Ron. If you then forgot where you had parked your car, you would not examine every one of the hundreds of vehicles parked at the airport. You would not count the wheels on each car to see if it had four. Rather, you would remember, and look for, special marks or characteristics of the area where you left your car, and then those that distinguish your car.
This same common-sense process of elimination can be used to find true Christians and the true church. You only need to know a few characteristic marks of the true church, and arrange them in the most logical elimination sequence.
I am going to give you four such marks. Just these four will eliminate a very large part of your original search domain. You might still not be satisfied that you have found the true church, and you might want to subject this reduced domain to other marks that might reduce it even further.
There is one caution here. You have to be sure that every mark you apply is really a mark of the true church that distinguishes it from the false. Make sure that Jesus Christ gave to his church every characteristic mark that you apply. Otherwise you will be eliminating parts of the true church, and judging as spurious what Jesus regards as true! This would be an insult to Christ and to those true Christians you have excluded.
Study as of first importance, the four characteristics I mention below. When you convince yourself that these are indeed true marks of the church, go and find a people who have these marks. I would be surprised if they did not have whatever other necessary marks there may be.
Preaches the gospel
...that Christ died on the cross for our sins, was raised from the dead, ascended to the throne of God, and will return to
Practices immersion
...in water in the name of Christ, of repentant believers, for the
Rejects lying wonders
...that purport to be miracles and signs, yet do not measure up to the standard and nature of miracles recorded
Uses scriptural names
...and descriptions for the church, and refuses all names