THE CHURCH OF CHRIST-ITS IDENTITY
Matt 16: 18
Introduction: We are some nineteen hundred years removed
from the time the Lord established his church. When he uttered
the words of the text, there was no church which wore his name or
honored him as its head. But on the day of Pentecost following his
resurrection, he fulfilled his promise and his church or kingdom
was set up, and throughout the remaining period of New Testa-
ment history only one church is mentioned. Today things are
different. Instead of having one church, we have more than two
hundred, and each one differs in some respects from all the others.
Such conditions are confusing to the average person and makes the
task of identifying the church of the New Testament very difficult.
Every thoughtful person, of course, wants to know the identity of
that institution, and it is the purpose of this study to offer some
assistance toward that end. To begin with, therefore, let us ask:
I. DOES THE CHURCH SPOKEN OF IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
STILL EXIST?
1. The testimony of the scriptures. (Dan. 2: 44; Matt. 16: 18;
Heb. 12: 28; Rev. 12: 6.)
2. The statements of these passages make it certain that the
church the Lord established is in existence now, has been from its
beginning, and will be until time is no more.
II. WHAT ARE SOME OF ITS DISTINGUISHING FEATURES?
1. It would be impossible to identify this or any other institu-
tion unless we have a clear conception of its principal character-
istics.
2. However, it will only be possible in this study to mention
some of the more outstanding ones, but they will be sufficient to
enable us to identify the institution for which we are seeking.
3. The marks of identification which we shall mention in this
lesson are: (1) the Founder (Matt. 16: 18) ; (2) the time and
place of establishment;* and (3) the law. by which it is governed (2
Tim. 3: 16, 17).
4. It should be obvious, therefore, to any fair-minded person
that no church can rightfully claim to be the church of the New
Testament, which does not possess the above-mentioned marks of
distinction.
III. IS IT POSSIBLE TO IDENTIFY IT TODAY?
1. If the church is still in existence, as we have already seen,
and if we know its chief characteristics, it is, of course, possible
to identify it today.
2. However, it should be remembered at the outset that no
church whose history does not reach back to the days of the
apostles can be identified as the church whose history is recorded
in the New Testament.
IV. How MAY THIS SEARCH BE: MADE PRACTICAL?
1. Suppose that one should want to know if the Mormon
Church is the church which the Lord established. how should he
proceed, so as to find out? The Mormon Church is here today
and has been for a number of years, but can it be shown that a
Mormon Church existed in the days of the apostles? Its history
may be traced and allusions to it may be found in the various
literature of the world until we reach the year A.D. 1830. There
we find its origin, and back of that date there is no reference
to the Mormon Church in any kind of literature, either human or
divine. The Mormon Church, therefore, cannot be identified
as the church that Christ said he would build, the one for which he
died.
2. The history of the Methodist Church may be traced back to
the year 1729, but beyond that date it is not mentioned anywhere.
It cannot, therefore, be the church for which Christ gave his blood.
3. The Baptist Church is in existence today and its history
may be traced back to 1607 or 1608, but back of that date it is not
mentioned in any literature. Therefore, it cannot be the church
built by Jesus.
4. The Presbyterian Church is here now and its history may
be traced back to 1535, but prior to that time it is not one time
mentioned in any literature, either sacred or Profane. It cannot,
therefore, be the church mentioned in the New Testament.
5. The Episcopal Church is a well-known institution today
and its history may be traced back to the days of Henry VIII of
England, but prior to that time there is no reference to it anywhere.
6. The Roman Catholic Church is a prominent institution to-
day and its history may be traced back to the fifth century A.D.,
but when that date is passed the references to it become fewer and
fewer. Popes, cardinals, bishops, and priests are lost, and soon
one comes to the first general council ever held in A.D. 325.
Prior to that time there is no council, no pope, cardinal, nor any
other ecclesiastical dignitary of the Roman Catholic Church. But
as Roman Catholicism fades away, brighter and brighter becomes
the history of the church founded by the Lord Jesus Christ.
V. ANOTHER POINT FROM WHICH THE QUESTION MAY BE
VIEWED
1. As has already been noted, the church of the New Testa-
ment was established by Christ in the city of Jerusalem on the first
Pentecost after his resurrection from the dead. Any religious
body, therefore, that was founded by any other person or at any
other time or in any other place could not be the one we read about
in the New Testament.
2. The Mormon Church was organized in A.D. 1830, in Illi-
nois, by Joseph Smith, Jr. That was a long time after Pentecost,
a long way from Jerusalem, and the founder was a very different
person from the Lord Jesus Christ. The Mormon Church, there-
fore, could not be the church of Christ, for it was founded by the
wrong person, at the wrong time and in the wrong place. Then,
too, The Book of Mormon is not the New Testament.
3. The Methodist Church was founded by John Wesley and
his associates in England in 1729 and, for the reasons noted above,
it could not be the church mentioned in the New Testament. The
Methodist Discipline versus the New Testament.
4. The Baptist Church was established in Holland, in 1607 or
1608, by John Smyth, a former clergyman in the Church of Eng-
land. The man who started it was called a "sebaptist," which
means that he had baptized himself. He then baptized Thomas
Helwys and thirty-six others, and that marked the beginning of the
first Baptist Church. It, therefore, could not be the church estab-
lished by Jesus, for it was founded by the wrong person, at the
wrong time, and in the wrong place.
5. The principles upon which the Presbyterian Church was
founded were first preached by John Calvin, in Switzerland, in
1535. The Presbyterian Church, therefore cannot be the New
Testament Church, for the reason that it was established by the
wrong person, in the wrong place, and at the wrong time. The
Westminster Confession of Faith.
6. The Episcopal Church was established in England in the
days of Henry VIII. The people there were ready for a revolt
against Roman Catholicism, and when Henry VIII furnished the
occasion, by declaring himself the head of the Church of England,
after the pope had refused to annul his marriage with Catherine
of Aragon, so that he might marry Anne Boleyn, the people sup-
ported him and the Church of England came into existence. That
church, therefore, cannot be the church of the New Testament, for
it, too, was founded by the wrong person, in the wrong place, and
at the wrong time. "The Book of Connnon Prayer."
7. Roman Catholicism gradually grew up as the leaders in
post-Apostolic times began to depart from the truth as set t forth
in the New Testament. Paul, in the second chapter of Second
Thessalonians, speaks of this departure and the appearance of the
man of sin, the Roman Catholic hierarchy, and the book of Reve-
lation sets forth a vivid picture of it. That church, therefore,
cannot be the church the Lord established.
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