Welcome to the Gospel

The Central Church of Christ will welcome everyone to Christ’s table.

What does that mean?

The invitation to the table is an invitation to share the gospel.

Nag Hammadi Library

Early Gnostic Christians believed that at baptism the believer transcended from this “world into the Jordan and from the blindness of the world into the sight of God, from the carnal into the spiritual, from the physical into the angelic, from the created into the Pleroma, from the world into the Aeon, from the servitudes into sonship, from entanglements into one another … We were brought from seminal bodies into bodies with a perfect form. Indeed I entered by way of example the remnant for which the Christ rescued us in the fellowship of his Spirit. And he brought us forth who are in him, and from now on the souls will become perfect spirits.”

The Gnostics believed all flesh to be corrupt. Baptism was the act whereby a person left behind sin and began to leave behind flesh to become pure spirit.

1 John 5:6 ESV

This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.

John claims that the Gnostics had gotten a huge part of the Gospel wrong.

1 John 5:7–8 ESV

For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree.

John claims that we come to know Christ by water, blood, and Spirit.

John 1:29–31 ESV

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.”

John 1:32–34 ESV

And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”

John 19:33–35 ESV

But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe.

Where do we see the water, blood, and the Spirit today?

Sharing Communion

Sharing Baptism

Sharing the Word

We are driven to his cross, raised to live again in his resurrection, and led by his Spirit.

We are Passion Driven, Forward Thinking, Spirit Led.

The Central Church of Christ will welcome everyone to Christ’s table.