In Matthew 16:18, Jesus Christ told Simon Peter: “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

This is an absolute promise that God’s Church would never die because it was built on Christ, the Rock (1 Corinthians 10:4). The Greek word used for rock here is petra, which Christ contrasts with the Greek word for Peter, petros, which means pebble.

Matthew 16:19 shows that Christ did give authority to Peter who assumed the role of chief apostle at the beginning of the Church (Acts 2:14). But “the head of the body, the church” was and is Christ (Colossians 1:18).

The word church (ekklesia) means “called-out ones.” Being in the Church means being a follower of Christ, signified by having God’s Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9). More specifically, the Church is a united body of members that follows Jesus Christ and God’s government (1 Corinthians 12:27-28). Members only follow human leaders if those leaders follow Christ, who follows God the Father (1 Corinthians 11:1-3).

After Peter’s death, John assumed the role as “the elder” replacing Peter (3 John 1), but Christ continued to be the Head of the Church. Those who followed John followed Christ.

Notice John’s shocking statement: “I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. … neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church” (verses 9-10).

“Were these members who were ‘cast out’ still in God’s Church?” Gerald Flurry asks in Malachi’s Message. “Actually, they were the only ones who constituted the true Church of God! They were the Church because they were joined to Christ through God’s Holy Spirit.”

Herman L. Hoeh put it this way: “The true Christians, who alone comprised the true Church, were being put out of the visible, organized congregations” (Tomorrow’s World, April 1972).

The Church of God is not a building. It is not even a congregation composed of those who have once been called. It is the body of members who follow their Head—Jesus Christ.

Even during Diotrephes’s rebellion, Christ kept the Church of God alive by working with a faithful few. While the Church was prophesied to never die, Revelation 2 and 3 show that there would be consecutive church eras.

The seven churches (Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea) were located along one of the mail routes of the old Roman Empire. But the messages to them recorded in the book of Revelation are “a series of remarkable prophecies, by which the future of the true Church was foretold in outline form, from the day it began on Pentecost, a.d. 31, until the Second Coming of Christ,” Mr. Armstrong wrote in Mystery of the Ages. “The history of the Church would fall into seven distinct eras—each with its own strengths and weaknesses and its own special trials and problems. Just as a message could pass along the mail route from Ephesus to Laodicea, so would the truth of God be passed from era to era.”

The faithful remnant in John’s time became the beginning of the “church in Smyrna,” and John’s disciple Polycarp who resided in the city became its human leader (see The True History of God’s True Church).

God called Mr. Armstrong during the time of the Sardis era. However, at this point, the work of the Sardis Church was dying (Revelation 3:1). God didn’t call Mr. Armstrong into a dead church but to start the Philadelphia era.

Mr. Armstrong’s death marked the end of the Philadelphia era and the beginning of the Laodicean era. This last era, however, was prophesied to reject Christ (verses 14-18). Indeed, the church Mr. Armstrong founded began to reject the truth God restored through him and to kick out those who remained faithful.

Christ today is outside the congregations of Laodicean churches, knocking at their doors with a call to repentance (verses 19-20). Once again, God works through human beings. After Mr. Armstrong’s death, God raised up Gerald Flurry as pastor general of the Philadelphia Church of God to lead those who are faithful to God the Father and His Son.

Today, only a small group of faithful Philadelphians are overcoming the devil during the Laodicean era (verse 21). The larger group, the Laodiceans, rejects the Philadelphian standard established by Mr. Armstrong (verses 14-20). Those who leave the Laodicean churches and join the faithful Philadelphians will be protected during the Great Tribulation (Revelation 12:14); the Laodiceans will not (verse 17).

Both of these groups consist of members who were called by God. However, only one group and one human leader continues to follow Christ. Jesus Christ today is in their midst, present when they congregate and actively involved in their lives. They are the ones who have responded to Christ’s knock. They are the ones who follow the Head of the Church.