Chapter X
The
True New Testament Church Identified
It is important that one be identified with the true
church, the one that Jesus founded. It is unfortunate for any one to belong to
a church that was started by some man when they can have membership in the
church that Jesus started. This of course does not relate to salvation. I
recognize that there are many truly saved people in the various denominations.
Likewise there are many saved people who have never taken membership with any
church. When Baptists make legitimate claims concerning the origin of their
church, the sneering remark is often made, "Oh those narrow Baptists; they
don't believe that anybody is saved except a Baptist." This charge is
either made in gross ignorance of what Baptists believe, or else it is
intentionally prejudicial. Baptists don't believe anything of the kind!
Baptists believe
that born-again believers in Jesus Christ for salvation are saved regardless of
their church affiliation or no affiliation. But while it does not affect
salvation, Baptists believe that those who affiliate with a man founded church,
teaching doctrines contrary to the Scriptures, will have to answer for their
actions before the Judgment Seat of Christ. They believe likewise that to go
off after the unscriptural Universal theory, is dishonoring to Christ and
dishonoring to the church He founded, and will have to be answered for in the
judgment, with consequent loss of reward.
BUT HOW CAN ONE KNOW
WHICH CHURCH IS THE TRUE CHURCH - THE ONE JESUS FOUNDED? One way to arrive at
the truth is through the PROCESS OF ELIMINATION. Let us think about this for a
few minutes.
1 - WE CAN EASILY
ELIMINATE THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. While the heresies of the Catholic church
originated - many of them - earlier, the full-fledged Catholic Church did not
come to exist until the advent of Gregory the Great, the first of the
"proper popes." The pontificate of Gregory lasted from A.D. 590 to
604. This is the testimony of Schaff's "History of The Christian
Church;" Dr. J. T. Christian's "History of the Baptists" and
plenty of others.
Further, even a
casual examination of the doctrines, organization and policies of the Roman
Church, enables us to know that nothing could be further from what Jesus
started.
Yet further, as
already pointed out, the book of Revelation calls the Catholic Church in its
final form a "whore" and the "mother of harlots."
That in itself should eliminate the Catholic Church as relating to the church
that Jesus started.
2 - WE CAN EASILY
ELIMINATE THE PROTESTANT DENOMINATIONS. The Protestant groups (and keep in mind
that Baptists are positively and historically NOT Protestants) came out of the
Catholic Church about fifteen hundred years after Christ started His church.
They are thus too late on the scene to identify with the church that Jesus
built. Besides, as previously pointed out, they are daughters of Rome and since
the Roman Church is called the "mother of harlots," they are
necessarily the harlot churches of Revelation 17. This utterly disqualifies the
Protestant Churches.
3 - WE CAN EASILY
ELIMINATE THE MANY MODERN SECTS AND GROUPS. These have sprung up in recent
times, and cannot in any sense qualify as belonging to what Jesus started. They
have come on the scene too late, and besides this Jesus didn't start them -
they were started by a man, or in some cases by a woman. (As in the case of
Christian Science.) These various groups know perfectly well that they can't
claim identity with what Jesus started, unless they can slip over the idea that
what He started was a Universal Invisible Church, composed of all the saved
everywhere. They have done a pretty thorough job of putting over this idea too,
such that even deceived and deluded Baptists join in the chatter about the
"Choorch."
JESUS ALWAYS TOLD
THE TRUTH. He said, "I am the way, the TRUTH, and the life."
Our salvation and our eternal destiny depends upon the truthfulness of Christ.
He said that He would rise from the dead, and He kept His word. He said that He
would be three days and three nights in the tomb. (Good Friday observance and
the Easter fiasco would make a liar out of Jesus for if He was crucified on
Friday and arose on Sunday He could not have been three days and nights in the
tomb.) Good Friday is the lie, and Jesus told the truth and was actually in the
grave three days and three nights. Jesus said, "If I go away, I WILL
come again." We believe that He will keep His word - that He is
coming! Listen: The same Jesus who kept His word about other things, said that
HIS CHURCH WOULD NEVER GO OUT OF EXISTENCE. "The gates of hell shall
not prevail against it." (Matthew 16:18)
IT'S BAPTISTS OR NOBODY!
The Catholic Church and the Protestant groups that sprung
from that Church are too recent to qualify as fulfilling Christ's promise. All
of the various modern church groups cannot qualify for they are centuries and
centuries too young. Let us face a startling fact? The only church group that
can't be traced to a human founder this side of Christ, are the BAPTISTS. Men
have tried to date the Baptists this side of Christ, but the effort has
resulted in utterly conflicting testimonies. We all know what happens in court
when every witness gives a story that conflicts with every other witness. It
doesn't take long for the judge to say, "Somebody's lying! It sounds like
all of you are lying!" When those who try to date the origin of Baptists
in recent centuries disagree and tell divergent stories, we soon come to the same
conclusion voiced by the judge!
Since no other group
can qualify as dating back to Christ, then we are faced with the proposition
that Baptists are to be identified with the church Jesus started, or else He
told a falsehood and made a promise that He failed to keep. Both of these are
unthinkable.
We Baptists do not
make the claim that we are to be identified all down through the centuries BY
THE BAPTIST NAME. Our claim is that assemblies holding to the doctrines that
characterized those of New Testament times, have continued all down through the
centuries since Jesus was here.
These were the
groups that were hounded and persecuted and driven from place to place. They
were given different names by their enemies - nicknames - but there was one
name that was more often applied to them than any other. That was the name
ANABAPTIST. The term signifies re-baptizer. These New Testament groups would
not receive those who came to them from unscriptural groups, without their
being baptized over again - hence the term Anabaptists. This name persisted for
centuries. I recall reading a history of Baptists in Kentucky, and it was
recorded that even as late as that, they were some times called Anabaptists.
Eventually however the "ana" was dropped and the name Baptist came to
be currently used.
The persecuting
Catholic Church knew exactly who they were persecuting as dissenters against
their doctrines and practices. One of their cardinals - Cardinal Hosius, wrote
back in A.D. 1554. He was the president of the Council of Trent, and he is
quoted in J. T. Christian's History of the Baptists as follows:
"If the truth of religion were to be judged by the readiness
and boldness of which a man of any sect shows in suffering, then the opinion and
persuasion of no sect can be truer and surer than that of the ANABAPTISTS,
since there have been none for these twelve hundred years past that have been
more generally punished - than these people."
Get that will you! The Catholic president of the Council of
Trent, who wrote in 1554, dates the Anabaptists back twelve hundred years
beyond the time he wrote. That is a startling admission.
I could go ahead and
mention some of the names other than Anabaptist, that were applied to these
groups who suffered for their faith, but I am not giving a detailed history of
the Baptists. Attempt has often been made to discredit some of these people by
saying that some of them sometimes practiced things not believed in by Baptists
today. Let us remember that their churches were independent and self governing,
and no doubt some of them sometimes veered from the truth. Baptists sometimes
do that today, but those who do are not representing the great body of Baptist
churches. In my book, "The Church That Jesus Built," I go into detail
as I trace Baptist churches back through the centuries to apostolic days. More
over, I prove the continuity of Baptist churches through the centuries, using
the statements of historians who were not Baptists.
When the beginning
of all other religious groups can be historically traced to human founders, far
this side of Christ; when it becomes evident that Baptist churches only are
left through which Christ's promise can be fulfilled, and when we find evidence
of their continued existence all through the centuries, we need be in no
further doubt that they are to be identified with the "church that Jesus
built."