(Editor’s note: This piece was written by my friend Joshua who is a former member of the ICC)

If you are an International Christian Church (ICC) member, I invite you to reflect on your own thoughts about church history. Do you embrace it, or do you view it with suspicion or even rejection? Have you actually read any books or other sources about the history of the Christian church? And are you aware of any churches outside of your own that profess the true faith? If not, do you believe the ICC is the only true Church?

How the ICC views the historical church

In the ICC’s chronology, The Untold Story: Chronicles of Modern-Day Christianity by World Sector Leader Ron Harding, Tim Kernan (another WSL) wrote in its preface:

One of the most shocking facts about Christianity is the very “way” to become a Christian has been lost for the greater part of 1,500 years… from the fourth century to the present, the history of “Christianity” is mostly devoid of one thing, Christians!… For generations, the simple yet powerful truths of how to become a Christian had been carefully hidden and confused by Satan. Even though God called out in each generation (Acts 17:27), no man answered the call to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth as the Apostles had done. (Acts 1:8)

Harding, Ron. “The Untold Story: Chronicles of Modern-Day Christianity” (Foreword, p. 1)

Kernan’s assertion is most certainly, in his words, “shocking.” To state that for 1,500 years the church has been devoid of Christians, true followers of Jesus Christ, is no small claim. He even extends this claim by saying that the truth has been distorted by the works of Satan and that no one has sufficiently or properly followed the order of Jesus to “take the Gospel to the ends of the earth.”

This sentiment is also reflected in other ICC literature. For example, “The Church” study in First Principles has a specific section that criticizes and denies the validity of various historical Christian traditions (p. 23). In Revolution Through Restoration, founder and central leader Kip McKean stated that while anyone who practices what the Boston Movement (predecessor to the ICC) believes is a true disciple, he admits that he does not “know of any other church, group or movement that teaches and practices what we teach as Jesus taught in Acts 2:41-42: one must make the decision to be a disciple, then be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins to be saved and receive the Holy Spirit.”

Ex-member Emmett Kellogg also testified that most members view the ICC as the only true Church while all other churches are either false or in grave error, and that salvation in other churches is unattainable.

In other words, the ICC firmly believes that the true church does not exist anywhere else outside the ICC. And the visible Christian movement has largely been in error or even apostate to the teachings of Jesus throughout history. Since there is no true church apart from the ICC, the only proper way to express the Christian faith is through the doctrines and structure of the ICC as prescribed and taught by the central leadership.

The ICC vs. Jesus’s Promise For the Church

What is even more shocking than the ICC’s claim to be the one true church is how it directly contradicts the promise of Jesus to preserve his church. The Lord said, “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18 ESV) Therefore, to claim that “the simple yet powerful truths of how to become a Christian had been carefully hidden and confused by Satan” is to say that Jesus had failed to preserve his church throughout most of history, letting “the gates of hell” prevail against her.

The implication of Kernan’s statement is unavoidable. It plainly shows that ICC leadership wants its members to view the historical church with suspicion at best and with rejection at worst. But more importantly, it also implies that Jesus has failed to preserve his Bride throughout the ages. If the claims of Kernan are true, then it proves Jesus to be a false prophet, and so we should not put our faith in him.

But thanks be to God, Jesus is the Good Shepherd who has never failed to deliver on his promises! This, of course, includes the promise to his beloved Bride that he will preserve her until the day he returns. This is why Jude can boldly declare that the faith has “once and for all delivered to the saints,” (Jude 1:3) and John’s Revelation to encourage the persecuted churches in Asia Minor to persevere. This is also why the Reformers from the 1600s, understanding Jesus’s promise for the church, can declare the following:

The purest Churches under heaven are subject both to mixture and error; (1 Cor. 13:12, Rev. 2–3, Matt. 13:24–30, 47) and some have so degenerated as to become no Churches of Christ, but synagogues of Satan. (Rev. 18:2, Rom. 11:18–22). Nevertheless, there shall be always a Church on earth to worship God according to His will. (Matt. 16:18, Ps. 72:17, Ps. 102:28, Matt. 28:19–20)

Westminster Confession of Faith 25.5, emphasis added.

Conclusion

If you are a Christian, you can rest on the promise of Jesus for the perseverance of his church. This is not to say all Christian traditions throughout church history were right about everything. But Jesus’s promise to the universal church is that he will protect her until the end of time. In other words, even with her errors, there will always be a true church on earth, despite the claims of some. However, those who insist that ‘the very way to become a Christian has been lost’ are also the ones who have ignored Jesus’s own promise, thereby exposing themselves to be false teachers, or at least having an unbiblically low view of the church.