I Appeal to You
... through Bertha Dudde  - 18.09.1953 

5772   The church of Christ ....

Anyone who professes to belong to the church of Christ shall also live like a Christian, otherwise he is no credit to it. When, in time, belief in Jesus Christ is professed then the true followers of His church will become obvious, for the strength of faith, which is necessary for the avowal of His name, can only be gained through living a way of life by His example, a life of discipleship to Jesus, and he, therefore, is a member of the church founded by Jesus Christ. However, many people will pay lip service, they, too, will belong to churches which claim to have been founded by Jesus .... If they live according to divine will by fulfilling His divine commandments of love then their strength of faith will be strong as well and they will stand firm during the final battle of faith and profess His name before the world ..... But there will only be a few of them, only people who live a life of love will be able to muster this strength of resistance against worldly powers who plan to eliminate everything that is associated with a belief in Jesus Christ, the divine Redeemer. And only then will the human being prove that he is a Christian, only then will he be able to consider himself a member of the church founded by Jesus Christ, which subsequently will also profess Jesus Christ before God, the Father, as He predicted ....

The church of Christ no longer numbers many followers, and the more love grows cold amongst people the smaller the flock of true Christians will become, because love must definitely be practiced in order for people to be regarded as true Christians and to provide a fellow human being with a shining example of the true church on earth, which does not require any official affiliation with a denomination but only a life according to the divine commandments, which first of all call for love, but which then will also exhibit the certain characteristic that demonstrates the founder of the church .... the working of the spirit in all members .... The church of Christ is not an externally recognisable building, it is only the union of profoundly believing people who are in most intimate contact with the founder of the church, with Jesus Christ, and thus are also enlightened, guided and permeated by His spirit and are also truly able to work remarkably with the spiritual strength. Strong faith and profound love prove the affiliation with the church of Christ and only its followers will survive the final battle of faith, because they will fight with Jesus Christ Himself and will, therefore, also be victorious over the one who opposes Christ, over God’s adversary and his vassals .... For Jesus Christ will appear in power and glory on the last day and fetch His small congregation to Himself into the kingdom of peace, but He will place his adversary into chains and with him all those who are enslaved by him ....

Amen