Welcome home! The New Testament describes the Church that Jesus Established in nuptial and familial terms: the Church is “the mystical bride of Christ” (Eph. 5:32, Rev. 21:2), a single body containing members both in heaven and on earth. And just as with every marriage, both parties don’t just gain a spouse, they gain a family (warts and all). Thus, the Church is also described as the “household” of God (1 Tim. 3:15, Eph. 2:19). Consider this website a marriage proposal.

Let’s go deeper. Christian marriage between husband and wife is perhaps the most intimate and life-giving relationship known to human beings. And yet, the Sacrament of Marriage is but a glorious sign of the the mystical union between Jesus and His Church. In addition to this spousal and familial language, the Church is described in Scripture as God’s kingdom on earth. Jesus rules his Church through Peter, the apostles, and their successors, to whom he gives the keys of the kingdom, the power of binding and loosing (Matt. 16 and 18), and the authority to teach (Matt. 28:19–20) and forgive sins (John 20:22–23). Simply put, Jesus established his Church as his royal, covenant family, a family that is drawn into the very life of the triune God (2 Peter 1:3–4). The Church, according to St. Paul, is the “body” of Christ, and Christ is its head (Rom. 12:5). Christians are told to hold “fast to the Head, from whom all the body,

nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God” (Col. 2:19). Christians do this by receiving the “circumcision made without hands,” by avoiding false doctrine, and binding ourselves to those joints and ligaments that hold the body together (Col. 2:11–19).

He is the head of his body, the Church.

Colossians 1:18

But who or what are these ligaments? Click here to find out, and move to page 2 of this five-part marriage invitation!

Or, you can scroll to the bottom of any page on this website to find links to Catholic responses to recent sermons at area Baptist Churches. (I’ve started this site focusing on Ogletown Baptist Church, but over time, others will be added.)