1. Only a Prophet or better (namely Jesus since he was more than just a prophet) can form a wholly new Church or Congregation.

NOTE #1: The following explanation is simplified so as to not have to go into page length explanations.

NOTE #2: A branch of the church is _NOT_ a wholly new church organization/entity. Exp, The church at corinth was not its own church but instead it was a branch of the church which followed letters and epistles of the Apostles.

Explanation of first precedent...Unless you are Catholic your church was founded by a man and it was formed after the Church that Jesus created was made. Only the Catholic church can really claim lineage back to the original primitive church. Some would like to drag us off to the coptic and other churches but they forget that the Roman Catholic Church did not tolerate any schizims for nearly 800 years (what the R.C.C. did't wipe out the Islamics surely did). Also, some of you would surely like to evade this by implimenting the universalized church theory whereby everybody's church is " THE " Church so long as said church is compliant with fundamentalist (mostly protestant) concepts/theology and no further. but that is not the case.

It is a well known fact that the Catholic church was the one and only church until about 1100 a.d. when the Greeks made a schizm and made it stick. The Catholic church is the only church with any possible successive link to the original primitive church besides the Greek version of the Catholic Church (disagree? refer to NOTE #1). History shows us that things were complicated further by the protest movement during the 16th century when the protestants removed themselves from the Catholic Church. Men who did not agree with the actions of the Catholic Church decided to form their own churches. And this is the clincher, none of those men ever claimed to have formed their church at the direction of God as did Moses and Jesus (since Jesus is considered God by most protestants his authority to do such is a given though he did tell us that he did nothing of himself but instead only his fathers will, so everything that he did must have been planned by his father i.e. God)

So what? This means that there can be no church created without express permission of commandment from above. The only people we know to have done such things were prophets of God or those holding Higher offices of God (Jesus). It happend twice in the Bible so its a precedent that will hold its hermaneutical case water tight. (hermanuetics is a system protestants use that has alot to do with how they interpret the Bible)

2. The Church or congregation of God is a singular entity without divisions. Simply put, only one church has the right to interpret the Bible and most importantly its doctrines with authority.

Explanation...There were no acceptable divisions of the Congregation of the children of Israel nor were there any acceptable divisions of the Church that Jesus's ministry bloomed into. The Bible teaches unity while men teach that a little disunity is acceptable so long as enough of the divisions agree on enough of the same critical doctrines. Unfortunately the Bible does not support men in their idea that divisons are ok, there are no Biblical precedents to support them while there are numerous verses against divisions throughout the New Testament (as well as the old testament).

3. The Church or Congregation is led by and goverend by a central body.

Explanation...Whenever legitimate Prophets are given to us by God, they direct us in what to do (as God tells them to tell us). They have the authority to delegate authority. Moses did it, Elijah did it and Jesus did it (numerous Prophets and apostles did it too). It doesn't take a genius to see the offices (Bishop,teacher,deacon etc..) of authority in the Bible (where they come from and that they are limited to certain capacities) and then figure out that the links of authority lead back to somewhere, namely a Prophet who was called by God (no duh).

This may be a little off the subject but it might interest you to know that no man (prophet or other called person) from the Bible ever said that he " thought " or " felt " like he was called by God. Authority doesn't come from persistent feelings that convince you that God is calling you. Again, not one precedent for that kind of behavior is found in the Bible.

4. Whenever there has been a Church or Congregation on the earth scripture has always been a postive by product.