QUIT DENYING THE OBVIOUS #1 Pastor Art Watkins of Coden Bible Church (Coden, Alabama) April 23, 2016 One of the major problems I have with modern dispensationalists is how they deny the obvious. I just read an article in Truth Magazine, a dispensationalist publication, concerning the church and the wife and bride of Christ. The author says in his article over and over again, that the church is not married to Christ and is not the wife or bride of Christ. He says Israel is the wife and bride of Christ. But what saith the scriptures? What does Paul say about this issue in his epistles? Paul the apostle of the gentiles tells us in no uncertain terms that the church is in fact a part of the wife and bride of Christ. In Romans 7:4 he wrote: Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. Paul plainly says we are married to Christ who is raised from the dead. If we are married to Christ what does that make us? Let me give you a clue: It makes us his wife and bride. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure that out does it? But these are not the only scriptures in Paul’s epistles where the church is obviously the bride and wife of Christ. In 2 Corinthians 11:1-2 Paul wrote: Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me. For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. This verse plainly says that we are espoused and married to one husband and he is Christ. If Christ is the husband of the church, what does that make the church? Here is a hint: His wife and bride. Children in my Sunday School have no problem believing this, but some of these hard core dispensationalists can’t grasp it. Their private theories about Israel and the church will not allow the church to be the wife and bride of Christ or allow Christ to be the husband of the church. And so what do they do? They deny the obvious by saying Israel is the wife and bride of Christ! But Paul was not writing to Israel in Romans 7:4 or 2 Corinthians 11:1-3. He was writing to the church which is Christ’s body. The author of the article mentioned above says, how can the church be Christ’s wife or bride if the church is his body? That’s easy; My wife is my body, but she is also my wife and bride for the past 54 years. In Ephesians 5 Paul says that the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. He says the wife is under subjection to her husband even as the church is under subjection to Christ. Anybody with walking around in the woods sense can see that the relationship between Christ and the church is that of a husband and wife. This reinforces what Paul wrote about Christ and the church in Romans 7:4 and 2 Corinthians 11:1-2. To my dispensationalist friends; quit denying the obvious; Your apostle that you brag about says the church is married to Christ and Christ is the husband of the church. And like many of you preach: the Bible means what it says and says what it means. And all this appealing to “right division” ain’t going to change Romans 7:4 or 2 Corinthians 11:1-2 either. Practice what you preach!