http://apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=11&article=1334
In Defense of...Christ's Church
“But when the fulness of the time came,” the apostle Paul wrote, “God
sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that he might
redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption
of sons” (Galatians 4:4-5). God-incarnate had come to Earth, bringing
the “good news” about the last and final covenant that Heaven would make
with man. The series of events that began with the birth of Christ in
Bethlehem, and culminated in His death, burial, and resurrection outside
Jerusalem approximately thirty-three years later, stirred a whirlwind
of controversy in the first century. Twenty centuries later, it still
does.
To the Christian, there is little of more importance than the
proclamation and defense of the Old Jerusalem Gospel that is able to
save men’s souls. Christianity did not come into the world with a
whimper, but a bang. It was not in the first century, neither is it
intended to be in the twentieth, something “done in a corner.” Instead,
it arrived like a trumpet’s clarion call.
Christ spent three-and-a-half years teaching in order to make
disciples. When finally He was ready to call them to action, it was not
for a quiet retreat into the peaceful, nearby hills. He never intended
that they be “holy men” who set themselves apart to spend each hour of
every day in serene meditation. Rather, they were to be soldiers—fit for
a spiritual battle against forces of evil (Ephesians 6:10-17). Jesus
called for action, self-denial, uncompromising love for truth, and zeal
coupled with knowledge. His words to those who would follow Him were:
“If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his
cross, and follow me” (Mark 8:34). And many did.
The teaching did not stop when Christ left to return to His home in
heaven. He had trained others—apostles and disciples—to continue the
task He had begun. They were sent to the uttermost parts of the world
with the mandate to proclaim the gospel boldly through preaching and
teaching (Matthew 28:18-20). This they did daily (Acts 5:42). The result
was additional, new disciples. They too, then, were instructed and
grounded in the fundamentals of God’s Word (Acts 2:42), and sent on
their way to teach still others.
The results were extraordinary indeed. In a single day, in a single
city, over 3,000 constituted the original church as a result of the
teaching they had heard from Christ’s apostles (see Acts 2:41). In fact,
so effective was this kind of instruction that the enemies of
Christianity attempted to prohibit any further public teaching (Acts
4:18; 5:28), yet to no avail. Two millennia later, the theme of the
Cross still is alive, vibrant, and forceful. Christianity’s central
message, the manner in which that message was taught, and the dedication
of those into whose hands it had been placed, were too powerful for
even its bitterest foes to abate or defeat. That Christianity continues
to be taught, and to thrive, is evidence aplenty of this fact.
While it may be true to say that some religions flourish best in
secrecy, such is not the case with Christianity. It is intended both to
be presented, and to be defended, in the marketplace of ideas. In
addition, while some religions eschew open investigation and critical
evaluation, Christianity welcomes both. Of all the major religions based
upon an individual rather than a mere ideology, it is the only one that
claims, and can document, an empty tomb for its Founder.
Furthermore, Christians, unlike adherents to some other religions, do
not have an option regarding the distribution and/or dissemination of
their faith. The efficacy of God’s saving grace—as made possible through
His Son, Jesus Christ—is a message that all accountable people need to
hear, and one that Christians are commanded to proclaim (John 3:16;
Matthew 28:18-20; cf. Ezekiel 33:7-9).
CHRIST’S CHURCH—HIS SINGULAR,
UNIQUE BODY OF SAVED BELIEVERS
At Caesarea Philippi, situated at the base of Mount Hermon that rises
over seven thousand feet above it, Jesus asked His disciples how the
public viewed Him. “Who do men say that the Son of man is?,” He inquired
(Matthew 16:13). The reply of the disciples was: “Some say, John the
Baptist; some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets”
(16:14). But Jesus delved deeper when He asked the disciples: “But who
say ye that I am?” (16:15). Ever the impulsive one, Simon Peter quickly
answered: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (16:16).
Jesus’ response to Peter was this:
Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah: for flesh and blood hath not
revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven. And I also say
unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my
church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it (16:17-18).
Jesus had come “in the fulness of time” to bring the one thing that all
the Earth’s inhabitants needed. From Cain, the first murderer, to the
lawless men who eventually would put Him to death on the cross, mankind
desperately needed the salvation that the heavenly plan would provide.
In writing to the young evangelist Timothy, Paul observed that it had
been God’s plan to save men through Christ even before the foundation of
the world. He wrote of God, “who saved us, and called us with a holy
calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal” (2
Timothy 1:9). Through His foreknowledge, God knew that sinful man one
day would need redemption from sin. In fact, throughout the history of
Israel, God made both promises and prophecies concerning a coming
kingdom, and its King. The promise was that from David’s seed, God would
build a “house” and “kingdom” (2 Samuel 7:11-17—a promise,
incidentally, that was reaffirmed in Psalm 132:11, and preached as
reality by Peter in Acts 2:29-34 when the church began). Seven hundred
years prior to Christ’s arrival, the great prophet Isaiah foretold:
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government
shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the
increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, upon the
throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness from henceforth even for ever. The
zeal of Jehovah of hosts will perform this (Isaiah 9:6-7).
Thus, Christ’s exclamation to Peter that the building of His church
would be upon a “rock” was nothing more than what the Old Testament
prophets had foretold hundreds of years before. Isaiah prophesied:
“Therefore, thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I lay in Zion for a
foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone of sure
foundation: he that believeth shall not be in haste” (Isaiah 28:16).
Later, Peter himself—through inspiration, and no doubt with the events
of Caesarea Philippi still fresh on his mind—would make reference to
this very rock foundation when he wrote about the “living stone,
rejected indeed of men.... The stone which the builders rejected, the
same was made the head of the corner” (1 Peter 2:4,7). In fact, even
Jesus Himself mentioned the “rejected stone” of Old Testament allusion.
In Matthew 21:42, Mark 12:10, and Luke 20:17, He made reference to the
psalmist’s statement about “the stone which the builders rejected is
become the head of the corner” (Psalm 118:22), and applied the rejection
of the stone by the builders to the Sanhedrin’s rejection and
repudiation of Him.
Sadly, some today erroneously teach that Christ’s church was
established out of desperation, as an “emergency measure” set in motion
when the Jews rejected Him as Savior. The basis for such a view is the
idea that Jesus presented Himself to the Jewish nation as its Messiah,
but was rebuffed—a rejection that came as an unexpected surprise to Him
and His Father. Christ’s failure to convince the Jews of His rightful
place as their King forced Him to have to re-evaluate, and eventually
delay, His plans—His intention being to re-establish His kingdom at some
distant point in the future. In the meantime, the story goes, He
established the church to allay temporarily the complete failure of His
mission.
However, such a view ignores the inspired writers’ observations that
“before times eternal” God had set in motion His plan for man’s
salvation as His Son’s church. [The Greek word
ekklesia,
translated “church” in the English, denotes God’s “called out.”] It
ignores the Old Testament prophecies that specifically predicted
Christ’s rejection by the Jews. And, it ignores Christ’s own allusions
to those prophecies during His earthly ministry. But worst of all, it
impeaches the omniscience of both God and His Son by suggesting that
they were “caught off guard” by the Jews’ rejection of Christ as the
Messiah, thus causing Heaven’s emissary to have to rethink His plans.
What an offensive, and unscriptural, view this is!
Jesus was a man with a mission—and He completed successfully what He
had come to accomplish. Deity had come to Earth, taking the form of a
servant (Philippians 2:7) to communicate to man the truth (John 8:32)
about the lost state in which man now found himself (Romans 3:23; 6:23),
and to pay the ransom for man (Matthew 20:28), thereby extricating him
from a situation from which he could not extricate himself (Jeremiah
10:23).
When Christ died upon the cross, it was not for any sin that He
personally had committed. Though He was tempted in all points like as we
are, He did not sin (Hebrews 4:15). When Peter wrote that Jesus “did
not sin,” he employed a verbal tense which suggests that the Lord never
sinned—not even once (1 Peter 2:22). Isaiah repeatedly emphasized the
substitutionary nature of the Lord’s death when he wrote: “But he was
wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the
chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are
healed.... Jehovah hath laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah
53:5-6). When the prophet declared that our “iniquity” was laid upon the
Son of God, he employed a figure of speech known as metonymy (wherein
one thing is used to designate another). In this case, the cause is
being used for the effect. In other words, God did not actually put our
sins upon Christ; He put the
penalty
of our wrongs upon His Son at Calvary. Yet, in spite of the fact that
all sinners deserve to be lost, God provided a way to “escape the
judgment of hell” (Matthew 23:33).
Jesus made it clear that He would provide this way of escape through a
plan that would result in the establishment of His church—i.e., His body
of “the called out.” The first messianic prophecy was to be fulfilled:
Satan would bruise the Lord’s heel, but the Lord would overcome, and
bruise Satan’s head (Genesis 3:15). Against the building of Christ’s
church, not even the Gates of Hades could prevail (Matthew 16:18).
Further, there would be one and only one church. Paul wrote that Christ “is the head of
the body, the church”
(Colossians 1:18). In Ephesians 1:22, he stated concerning Christ that
God “gave him to be head over all things to the church,
which is his body.”
Thus, Paul clearly identified the body as the church. Three chapters
later, however, in Ephesians 4:4, Paul stated: “There is
one body.” Expressed logically, one might reason as follows:
There is one body (Ephesians 4:4).
But Christ is the Savior of the body (Ephesians 5:22).
Thus, Christ is the Savior of
one body.
And,
Christ is the Savior of one body.
But the body is the church (Ephesians 1:22-23; Colossians1:18,24).
Thus, Christ is the Savior of
one church.
The body, Christ’s church, would be known as “the church of the Lord”
(Acts 20:28), “the church of God” (1 Corinthians 1:2; Galatians 1:13),
“the house of God” (1 Timothy 3:15), “the household of faith” (Galatians
6:10), and “the kingdom of God” (Acts 28:23, 31). The Lord’s people
were to bear Christ’s name (Acts 11:26; 26:28; 1 Peter 4:16). The church
would be His bride (Revelation 21:2), His wife (Revelation 19:7-8), and
His kingdom (Revelation 1:9). Those in it would be victorious over
Satan and death forever (1 Corinthians 15:26,54-56; 2 Timothy 1:9-10).
Unfortunately, men sought to alter the divine plan, and to infuse it
with their own personal belief systems. Thus, the concept of
denominationalism was born. Denominationalism, however, is unknown to,
and unauthorized by, the Word of God. A denomination is defined as: “a
class or kind having a specific name or value.” We speak of various
monetary denominations—a five dollar bill, a ten dollar bill, etc. They
are all different. The same is true of religious denominations. They are
all different.
Denominationalism ignores the singularity and uniqueness of the true
church, and establishes various groups teaching conflicting doctrines
that are antagonistic both to the Bible and to each other. It also
ignores the church’s relationship to Christ, described so beautifully in
Ephesians 5 where Paul reminded first-century Christians that “the
husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the
church” (5:23). The apostle’s point was this: In a physical context, the
wife is the bride, and the husband is the bridegroom; in a spiritual
context, the church is the bride, and Christ is the bridegroom. [John
reiterated this in Revelation 21:9.] In Acts, Peter discussed Christ’s
relationship to His church when he observed that “neither is there any
other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be
saved” (Acts 4:12).
Denominations are man-made institutions that neither are recognized in,
nor sanctioned by, the Word of God. The simple truth of the matter is
that John the Baptist—while a marvelous harbinger of the Messiah—did not
die to establish the church. Why, then, be a member of a denomination
bearing his name? As great a reformer as Martin Luther was, the fact
remains that he did not die to establish the church. Why, then, be a
member of a denomination bearing his name? The early church’s presbyters
(i.e., elders, bishops, overseers) did not give their lives on a cross
to establish the church. Why, then, be a member of a denomination named
after such men? The Bible—although it prophesies the coming of the
church and documents its arrival—did not make possible the church. Why,
then, be a member of a “Bible church”? Instead, should not Christians
seek to be simply a member of the singular church that honors Christ’s
authority, and that He purchased with His blood? It is His bride; He is
its bridegroom. His congregations are called the “churches of Christ”
(Romans 16:16).
Those who are true New Testament Christians are those who have done
exactly what God has commanded them to do to be saved, in exactly the
way God has commanded that it be done. In so doing, they have not
“joined” some man-made religious denomination that, like a five-dollar
bill is one denomination among many others, is simply one religious
group among many others. If the church is the body, and there is only
one body, then there is only one church. Further, one does not “join”
the church. The Scriptures teach that as a person is saved, God Himself
“adds” that person to the one true church (Acts 2:41) that bears His
Son’s name.
CHRIST’S CHURCH—HIS DIVINELY DESIGNED,
BLOOD-BOUGHT, SPIRIT-FILLED KINGDOM
During His earthly ministry, Jesus taught: “All authority hath been
given unto me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). Having such
authority from His Father, He alone possessed the right to be Head of
the church, His singular body of believers (Ephesians 1:22-23;
Colossians 1:18). Recognizing Christ’s position as authoritative Head of
the church, Paul was constrained to remind Christians: “And whatsoever
ye do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of [by the authority of—BT] the Lord Jesus” (Colossians 3:17).
Christ announced while on Earth that He would build His church (Matthew
16:18). It would be divinely designed (John 10:25; Acts 2:23),
blood-bought (Acts 20:28), and Spirit-filled (1 Corinthians 6:19-20;
Romans 8:9-10). On Pentecost following the Lord’s death, burial, and
resurrection, Peter rebuked the Jews for their duplicity in killing
God’s Son, and convicted them of their sin of murder (Acts 2:22-23).
Luke recorded that they were “pricked in their heart” and sought to make
restitution and be forgiven (Acts 2:27). On that fateful day, at least
3,000 people were added together by God to constitute Christ’s church
(Acts 2:41). Later, Luke noted that great fear fell upon the
whole church
as a result of God’s having disciplined sinners within it (Acts 5:11).
There is no doubt that the church was established in Christ’s
generation.
The Bible speaks of the church as Christ’s kingdom. Jesus said the time
for its coming had been “fulfilled” (Mark 1:15), and that the kingdom
was as near as the generation of people to whom He spoke, since some of
them would not taste of death before they saw the kingdom of heaven come
(Mark 9:1). Paul taught that the church is constituted of saints (1
Corinthians 1:1-2). But when he wrote his epistle to the Colossians (c. A.D.
62), he specifically stated that by that time the saints in the church
at Colossae were subjects in “the kingdom of the Son of his love”
(Colossians 1:13). If the kingdom had not been established, then Paul
erred in saying that the Colossians already were in it. [Those who teach
that the church and the kingdom are separate, and that the kingdom has
yet to arrive, must contend that there are living on the Earth today
some of the very people to whom Jesus spoke nearly 2,000 years ago—since
He stated that some who heard Him
would not die until the kingdom had come (Mark 9:1).]
The New Testament teaches that the
church is composed of individuals purchased with the blood of Christ (Acts 20:28), and that those so purchased were made to be a
kingdom
(Revelation 1:5-6; 5:9-10). Since the church and the kingdom both are
composed of blood-purchased individuals, the church and the kingdom must
be the same. And since the Christians that constitute the church were
themselves translated into the kingdom, it is conclusive that the church
and the kingdom
are the same. The establishment of the kingdom
coincided with the establishment of the church. Not only did the Lord
foretell both the establishment of the kingdom and the church in the His
generation, but the New Testament writers spoke of both the church and
the kingdom as being in existence during the very generation of His
arrival (i.e., the first century).
CHRIST’S TRIUMPHANT CHURCH
From the first to the last of His earthly ministry, Jesus admonished
those who would be His disciples that they would be both controversial,
and persecuted. He warned them:
Think not that I came to send peace on the earth: I came not to send
peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his
father and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law
against her mother in law: and a man’s foes shall be they of his own
household (Matthew 10:34-36).
Jesus wanted no misunderstanding about the trials and tribulations His
followers would endure. He constantly reminded them of such (Matthew
10:16, 39; 16:24; 24:9; John 15:2,18, 20; 16:1-2; 21:18-19). While He
desired that men be at peace with men, His primary goal was to bring men
to a peaceful, covenant relationship with God. In addressing the
Christians at Rome, Paul wrote:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or
anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?...
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that
loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, thing shall be able to
separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord
(Romans 8:35,37-39).
Christ alerted His followers to the pressure yet to be brought upon
them by other religions (Matthew 10:17), by civil governments (Matthew
10:18), and sadly, by some of their own (2 Thessalonians 3:1ff.). He
said: “And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake” (Matthew
10:22). History records that Christ’s words accurately depicted what was
to befall those early saints. As James O. Baird has noted: “In
actuality, Christianity was opposed more vigorously than any other
religion in the long history of Rome” (1978, p. 29).
Persecution against the church was, and is, rooted in the nature and
work of Christ: “But me it hateth, because I testify of it, that its
works are evil” (John 7:7). The world hated Christ because of the
judgment He brought against what the world is, does, and loves. It will
hate those in the church who remind it—by word and deed—of this
judgment. Jesus lamented: “If the world hateth you, ye know that it hath
hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18). Hatred often results in
persecution. The church, if true to its mission, will be opposed. But
Jesus also said:
Blessed are ye when men shall reproach you, and persecute you, and say
all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be
exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted
they the prophets that were before you (Matthew 5:11-12).
One thing, however, was beyond doubt. Those saints who remained
faithful—even unto death if necessary—would be triumphant (Revelation
2:10). As the great Restorationist, F.G. Allen, so beautifully wrote:
One by one will we lay our armor down at the feet of the Captain of our
salvation. One by one will we be laid away by tender hands and aching
hearts to rest on the bosom of Jesus. One by one will our ranks be thus
thinned, till erelong we shall all pass over to the other side. But our
cause will live. Eternal truth shall never perish. God will look down
from His habitation on high, watch over it in His providence, and
encircle it in the arms of His love. God will raise up others to take
our places; and may we transmit the cause to them in its purity! Though
dead, we shall thus speak for generations yet to come, and God grant
that we shall give no uncertain sound! Then may we from our blissful
home on high, watch the growth of the cause we love, till it shall cover
the whole earth as the waters cover the face of the great deep (1949,
pp. 176-177).
[EDITOR’S NOTE: In the March 1998 issue of
Reason & Revelation (
“In Defense Of...God’s Plan of Salvation”),
I addressed the biblical requirements for entrance into Christ’s
church. Space limitations precluded such a discussion in this article.]
REFERENCES
Allen, F.G. (1949), “The Principles and Objects of the Current Reformation,”
Foundation Facts and Primary Principles, ed. G.C. Brewer (Kansas City, MO: Old Paths Book Club).
Baird, James O. (1978), “The Trials and Tribulations of the Church from the Beginning,”
The Future of the Church, ed. William Woodson (Henderson, TN: Freed-Hardeman College).
Neo-Darwinian
evolution, the popular version of evolution today, asserts that
mutations provide the mechanism for the change required to evolve a
single-celled organism into a human over time. Upon examination of the
evidence, however, it is clear that mutations cannot provide the genetic
information required for such change.1 If mutations cannot
provide the mechanism for the change required by neo-Darwinian
evolution, what can? A recent area of study that some evolutionists are
hopeful will provide an answer to that question is epigenetics.2
Epigenetics is the term used to describe the mechanism whereby genetic
traits are inherited—passed on to offspring—not from the DNA itself,
like we usually think of inheritance, but rather, from “over and above”3 DNA (e.g., from our environment4).