Well, as you know, we started these Lessons by looking at Jesus’ promise to build His church, Matthew 16, verse 18: “…thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church….” Of course, that is the confession of Peter. It is not an indication, as those who practice and follow the Catholic teaching, the Catholic doctrine, that Peter was the first pope. No, not at all. As a matter of fact, there is no evidence at all of Peter ever being in the city of Rome, and certainly Jesus’ statement there in Matthew 16:18 is not a confirmation of Peter taking that position.

But we also even went back a little bit further, as we started this study [this series of Lessons]. We went back and looked at the church in prophecy [Lesson 1 – The Church in Prophecy]. And we established the fact that the church was not something that was a secondary plan—some kind of an “emergency plan” that God had to come up with when the Jews rejected His Son and crucified Him. No, this church, this kingdom, this earthly kingdom, was prophesied in times past.

And so, Jesus makes the promise that He will establish His church. And then on AD 33, recorded for us in the 2^nd chapter of Acts, we see that promise come to pass. And this, of course, fulfilled all of the prophecy that had to do with the coming of, with the establishing of, the church—that it would be established in Jerusalem; that the Holy Spirit would come upon these ones with powers, and so on—all of these things prophesied fulfilled.

Now, as we saw the establishing of the church, we looked at the New Testament record that goes along from Acts, chapter 2 and through the book of Acts, and through the epistles, all the way through the book of Revelation. And so, what we have is a period of approximately 70 years—70 years from the time of the establishing of the church until the end of the period of revelation, not just the book of Revelation itself, but God’s revelation to man.

And so, we looked along the way at the church there as it was established in the 1^st Century and as it developed, as it grew, as it spread, and we saw there that all of the things that had been prophesied concerning all of the promises that had been made regarding the church indeed came to pass.

But, when that period of revelation came to an end, about AD 95 or 96, depending on the date of the writing of the book of Revelation, then the light, in effect, goes out from the standpoint of divine revelation. Well, what happens to the church from that point onward? From roughly the end of the 1^st Century, what happens to the church onward?

Well, for that, we must rely upon history—secular history, the writings of a number of ones who are referred to as “the church fathers,” reliable historians, like Josephus, Eusebius and others. And that is the information, or some of the information, at least, that we have been relying on as we have been going along thus far in our study.

Now, I want for us to notice a couple of key passages, or actually several key passages of Scripture, which I think are important. [These Scriptures are listed above.]

The first one, of course, Matthew 16:18, we have already referenced. There is, of course, the section in Acts, chapter 2, where we see the church established. But then, turn over to 1 Timothy, chapter 4, and let’s look at a section of Scripture there in Paul’s letter to the young evangelist, Timothy. 1 Timothy, chapter 4 and beginning with verse 1. Paul writes and says, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, 3 forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the Truth” [1 Timothy 4:1-3]. Well, what’s Paul’s message here to Timothy? Obviously, it is, first of all, a warning, but it is also a prophecy, a prediction, if you will, that there will be those who will “depart from the faith”—they will leave the faith, they will leave the Truth of God’s Word, they will leave the apostolic doctrine that is still in the process of being recorded even as Paul writes this to Timothy. But, he says, people…will…depart—they will leave, AND…AND you notice there in verse 3…whether Paul or the Holy Spirit, perhaps, had specifically in mind some later doctrines that would be developed and practiced by the Catholic church. Well, I think that is what Paul had in mind through his inspiration by the Holy Spirit. But we notice there that Paul said that there would be those who would be forbidding some to enter into marriage; there would be those who would be forbidding people to eat certain foods, and so on. Well, we know that that is a part of the Catholic doctrine.

The next Scripture I want for us to notice is 2 Timothy 4, verses 3 and 4. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the Truth, and be turned aside to fables.” This is another warning, another prediction, another prophecy, about what is going to happen and the direction that some people are going to go in leaving the apostles’ doctrine, the apostles’ teaching.

Let’s notice also, in this vein, a warning from Jesus Himself—Matthew, chapter 7, and verse 15. We see Jesus here saying, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.”