History Of The Church
Lesson 1: The Church In Prophecy

Speaker: John Phillis
Date: May 26^th, 2004, Wednesday Evening Adult Bible Class

Is there a more misunderstood, a more misused, a more abused, New Testament doctrine than the doctrine of the church? If the church is a divine institution, and, indeed, it is, then it is from God. It was planned by God. It was established by Him on His timetable, in His Own good time. It is organized and it is governed by Him. Its practices are prescribed by Him. In short, the church belongs to God.

But what of the hundreds upon hundreds, even thousands, of religious groups that exist in our world today? What about all of these organizations calling themselves “churches,” hundreds of them claiming an affiliation with Christ? What is their origin? Where did the come from?

What is the origin of the one true church, if there is one true church? If there is one true church, where did it come from? What is its history? Does it still exist today? And if it still exists today, then how can it be identified? And what happened along the way, from the time that it was established, throughout the history of time, whatever timeframe that is—and we’ll be identifying that—but what happened along the way which has resulted in the hundreds of denominations that exist today? What is, what was, the process of restoring the one true church?

Well, I have posed a list of many questions. I’m wondering if you have ever thought about these questions. I’m sure that you probably have. But another question I have for you is this: Can you answer those questions and others about the church? And are you convinced by your answers, or about your answers? When someone challenges you about your belief in the one true church, are you able to answer the challenge? Are you able to answer the challenge with facts, facts that come from the Scriptures—in other words, a Scriptural argument, a Scriptural defense, if you will, and also, reasoned rhetoric, reasoned thoughts, from the historical record itself? Well, if not—if we don’t have this information, if we don’t know this information and have it such that we are able to respond—then we should prepare ourselves to have this information, know this information and respond “with meekness and fear.” Peter said, “…be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you….” [1 Peter 3:15-16: “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; 16 having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.”] Actually, that word “answer” could be correctly translated “defense.” Be ready…be prepared always to make a defense. If someone challenges us on a Scriptural matter, we should be prepared, we should be knowledgeable, we should be able, to make a defense.

And all of that has to do with our hope. Well, does that include the church? Well, of course it does. The church is a key part of our hope. We have the hope of our eternal reward because we are part of the church, the glorious bride of Christ, which He will deliver up to the Father in the last day [“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish,” Ephesians 5:25-27. “Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God,” Revelation 21:2-3.].

So it is, then, with these things in mind, with these questions that we have posed and with a desire to know and understand more about the church, that we begin this study, which is, well, a study of the church, a history of the church. We plan for an in-depth study about this subject, and we want to go back even before the beginning, even before the establishment of the church, and we want to bring our study forward to this day. It is an important study. The more we know about the church, the better we will be. And so, from the standpoint of it being important, I don’t think there’s a subject that is more important. But I hope, also, that it will be interesting for us. I hope that it will even be enjoyable, enjoyable to look at and to examine the Scriptures having to do with the Lord’s church, of which we are a part, and, also, interesting from the standpoint of looking at historical data, both from church history as well as from secular history. In this lesson, we want to retrace the origins of the church in Scripture.

I’m sure that most of us are aware that there is a common concept that, the Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth, and when He came to this earth, He came with the purpose, with the intension, of establishing an earthly kingdom that He was planning, and this was the plan of heaven, to establish a literal, earthly kingdom and rule and reign over the earth.

Well, according to that common concept, that plan was thwarted. That plan was not able to come to pass because the Jews, the people that Jesus came to, rejected Him. And more than just rejecting Him, they hated Him, and the leaders of the Jews sought ways from early on in His ministry to destroy Him, to kill Him, which they eventually did, as we know. Because of their actions, because they did not accept Him as their Messiah, as their literal earthly king, then He saw fit, along, of course, with the heavenly Father, to postpone the establishing of that kingdom and, instead, established the church. Proponents of this doctrine, this false doctrine, I might add, believe that Jesus will set up His kingdom on earth when He returns the second time. This is what is referred to as a “Millennial Reign,” the millennial reign of Christ.

But if we think about this false doctrine, and we think seriously about it, we have to note that this concept relegates the church, really, to the role of “a stop-gap measure,” kind of an afterthought, that was conceived by the Lord to provide something to “fill the gap” as an interim between the time that He left the earth following His rejection by the Jews, following His death, His burial, and, yes, they believe in a resurrection, but They had to do something, heaven had to do something, because man, mankind, had overturned Their plan. So, in this millennial concept, the church, then, represents that stop-gap measure, that afterthought.

It is also commonly believed that the prophets of old had nothing to say about the church. They saw in their writing, in their prophecy, only the first coming of Christ and His “yet to come earthly kingdom.” In other words, those who entertain this thought, who accept this false doctrine of the Millennial Reign, will acknowledge that there is prophecy in the Old Testament concerning the coming kingdom, but their belief is that that is a kingdom yet to be established, that it has not yet been established.

Well, in this lesson, our first lesson in this study, we want to make it our aim to show that the New Testament church was something that was planned by God, and it was something that was prophesied by the prophets, and that these prophesies were fulfilled on the first Pentecost following the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

First, let’s think about this question: Was the church predicted by the prophets? Well, in order to arrive at a correct answer, it is imperative that we understand that in the Bible, “the kingdom” and “the house of the Lord” in the prophecy of the Old Testament often refer to the church of the New Testament. Jesus predicted, that is, He prophesied, that He would build His church, Matthew 16:18 [“And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”]. And He called His church, “the kingdom,” Matthew 16:19 [“And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”]. Therefore, “the church” and “the kingdom,” as used in this sense, are the same.

Christ is both the head of His church, and He is the King of His kingdom. The terms of admission are the same for both the church and the kingdom. Those of us who are in the church are also in the kingdom. The apostle Paul said that “the house of God” is “the church of the living God,” 1 Timothy 3:15 [“These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly; 15 but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the Truth,” 1 Timothy 3:14-15.]. From these Scriptures and many, many others that we could cite if need be, we may conclude that “the Lord’s house,” “the kingdom” and “the church” often refer to one and the same thing.