Ndaku wrote:So then, can't all who genuinely believe and walk according to His will be a part of the Church of Christ?
That question asks the obvious, but at the same time that question can be easily misused.
Someone living the will of god being also part of the church of god, is almost tautologic, as those are the same.
The question should rather be, what stops someone from following their own egoism and then proclaiming to be doing god's will?
How can the will of god, though human actions, be recognized?
There is also one more detail, sometimes understood backward from protestants; christians aren't such because they're perfect and always perfectly follow the will of god, not even saints were always perfect, and if only saints or better could be called christians, there would be hardly any christians at all. But christians are those who love god, and even when making mistakes or falling in error, their desire to love god is unwavering, they persevere in correcting themselves and living on to their best by trying to do god's will.
Which again raises the question, what is the will of god? How can it be recognized?
Cause if someone is striving to adhere to god's will, what that god's will is, is important, or you would get different people striving to different, maybe unrelated or incompatible, things. Someone truly striving to god's will, and someone else striving to error or self-appeasement.
So, the question should be, how can be recognized someone following or striving to follow the will of god, from someone striving to follow their own self-appeasement?