THE 1^ST REASON:

To impress upon us that the warnings, the prophecies, in a sense, which were made in the New Testament about what would eventually happen to the church indeed came to pass. We reviewed some of those earlier in this lesson. Jesus, of course, had promised to build His church, Matthew 16, and verse 18, but He had also warned that we should beware of false teachers, that there would be those who would come—wolves in sheep’s clothing—and the would have the express purpose in mind of leading people away—leading people away from the Truth, the Truth of the Gospel.

And we also saw that Paul, in his epistle to Timothy, as well as in his churches to Galatia, would also warn that individuals would depart from the faith—they would leave the Truth. He also said that there would be those who would pervert the Gospel. He would also say that there would come a time when men would not endure sound doctrine, but they would seek out—and he expressed it in this sense—that they would have “itching ears,” looking for someone, in effect, to soothe that “itching ear,” but not an itching ear for the Truth, but rather, an itching ear for something that was, perhaps, more palatable. And indeed, that is exactly what we have seen happen, that down through the years, down through the ages, and beginning, really, not long after the apostolic period had ended, not long after the end of the 1^st Century—that indeed, all of these things would come to pass.

We also noticed Paul’s warning that he gave to the elders of the church in Ephesus, Acts, chapter 20, stating that from their own ranks—in other words, from the ranks of elders themselves—would come who would arise and lead people into apostasy. And, once again, we see that those things came to pass.

So, that’s the 1^st reason for us to engage in a study like this.

THE 2^ND REASON:

The 2^nd reason, I think, is, perhaps, more one of interest, maybe one of curiosity, to see how some of the things that we see in our world continuing today—the literally hundreds and hundreds of denominations that we see about us, the very large groups, such as the Roman Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, some like these—developed. Where did they come from? What is their origin? What were the circumstances behind their coming into being?

Well, a look, a study, like we are having here is giving us that information. And, as I have mentioned on more than occasion, we’re really just “scratching the surface” here about much of this information. There is really a great deal more information that would look at, but for the sake of time—and also, not to get bogged down—we’re just kind of scratching the surface just to give us some background, just to give us some reference, about where these bodies, where these groups, have come from.

And I think that, also, can be helpful to us as we engage in discussion with those in these various denominations. If we know some things about where a denomination has come from—what its origin was, what some of the background and history is—I think it can be useful to us as we engage people in conversation in an attempt to persuade people that there, indeed, is one church, the church.

THE 3^RD REASON:

As the well-worn, but, nonetheless, very appropriate cliché says, “Those who don’t pay attention to history are subject to repeat it.” And indeed, the church in every age must remain vigilant—constantly vigilant, because the church is under attack. It’s under attack from without; it’s attack from within. And so, by being familiar with some of the history, and seeing what has happened over the past, well, two-thousand years, I think, will serve us well by being aware that, indeed, we cannot “rest on our laurels”; we cannot be lulled into a false sense of security that these things, which happened long ago, can never happen again, because indeed, even as we speak, there are those who are attacking the Lord’s body, the Lord’s church. There are those who would lead the body of Christ into denominationalism. And so, by being aware of what has happened in the past, we may see the attacks and not repeat the errors, the perversions. And each one of us—of course, we look to our elders primarily to keep us, to guard us, and indeed, they do—but each one of us have a responsibility to be aware of past history.

That is my purpose for presenting this series, and I know from the feedback that I have been getting from quite a number of you that you are enjoying the series. And we want to continue on. As we continue on, it will become more and more apparent to us, when we are looking at what has happened to the church, that we are, indeed, not talking about the body of Christ—that we are not talking about the Lord’s people. But as time goes on, it becomes more and more apparent that we are, first of all, talking about what would become the Roman Catholic Church, and eventually the Easter Orthodox, or the Greek Orthodox, Church. And then as the denominational groups begin to spring up, we’ll be talking specifically about them. So, there should not be any confusion about our references there.