I. "The Eternal Purpose"

Since Adam was the "first man" (1 Corinthians 15:45), apparently the "sons of God" who "shouted for joy" when the universe was created (Job 38:1-7) must have been angels. Before that mighty creation, the One whose "understanding" is "infinite" and whose "mercy" is "everlasting" (Psalm 100:5); 147:5) had already planned to build the church (Ephesians 3:11).

That church, before the admiring eyes of myriads of angels, would display "the manifold wisdom of God" (Ephesians 3:10). Long before Jesus came to the earth and built that church, angels knew that something marvelous was coming, about which they ‘desired to gain a clear look," and of which the Old Testament prophets spike (1 Peter 1:10, 12).

But neither to the angels nor to the prophets was the divine purpose for that church revealed. It was even styled a "mystery" (Ephesians 3:3-4). No eye had seen, no ear had heard, and no heart had imagined the good things to be realized in the church (Isaiah 64:4; 1 Corinthians 2:9-10). Concerning the meaning of some things that the prophets themselves had written, "many prophets and righteous men" sought fruitlessly until God "revealed them to us through the Spirit" (Matthew 13:17; 1 Corinthians 2:9-10).

But "when the fullness of time came" (Galations 4:4), according to the divine computer that sets "the hour and day and month and year" (Revelation 9:15), finally was made known to "the principalities and powers in heavenly places" (Ephesians 3:10, the angels?) that the Lord was going to build the church!

Accordingly, Jesus announced in 29 A.D., "I will build my church, and the gates of Hades [death itself] will not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18).

The church, then, is a building, a structure however not of dead bricks or concrete stones, but a "spiritual house" (1 Peter 2:5). Of this spiritual house, Jesus is both the builder and "the foundation" (1 Corinthians 3:11) and "the keystone" (Ephesians 2:20-21). The church, therefore, is a spiritual building composed of all Christians, who are called "living stones" (1 Peter 2:5) in "God’s building" (1 Corinthians 3:9).

II. The Church in Existence

About 3000 penitent believers, on the birthday of the church (Pentecost Day, Sunday, May 28, A.D. 30), were baptized to wash away their sins (Acts 2:38; 22:16). As they "were being saved" (Acts 2:47) they were becoming "living stones" in a "spiritual house" called the church.

In addition to the 3000 dead stones ("dead in trespasses," Ephesians 2:5) who had become "living stones" (now cleansed and purified, katharizo, 2 Peter 1:9), "multitudes both of men and women … were the more added to the Lord" (Acts 5:14), were added to that spiritual house called the church.

These new Christians were, first of all, committed to the Lord, and then to the church, that is, to one another: "they had all things common" (Acts 4:32), and so loved each other they were willing "to lay down" their "lives for" one another (1 John 3:16).

The commitment of those Christians to the church was exactly the same as the commitment of the Corinthian Christians to Paul, that is, as he followed Christ: "Be followers of me, even as I also am of Christ" (1 Corinthians 11:1). Christians are committed to the church as long as the church is wholly committed to Jesus. The church was not ans is not anybody’s Savior, a quality that belongs only to Jesus (Ephesians 5:23).

III. The Change in Church Government

Unfortunately, some Christians let their commitment to the church supersede their commitment to Jesus. As early as 58 A.D. Paul warned the elders of the church at Ephesus:

In 63 A.D. Paul was forced to write that

In 67 A.D. Paul was far from letting a commitment to the church take precedence over a commitment to Jesus:

The first outstanding falling away from "the apostles’ doctrine" (Acts 2:42) was in the matter of church government. In the Lord’s plan for his church, each local congregation was to be under its own elders, with deacons to assist (Acts 14:23; Philippians 1:1). The elders were also called "overseers" (Acts 20:17, 28; Titus 1:5-7), mistranslated "bishops" in some versions: "a high-ranking clergyman with authority over a church district" (Webster).

Under God’s arrangement there was no distinction among the elders; one was not above the other. But it was not long until the first stage in apostasy showed itself. In 110 A.D. Ignatius wrote of a "monarchical bishop." Who is this strange church officer? A distinction was drawn making one elder the bishop while the rest were still only elders.

More authority was assumed by the bishop, and he began to be called a "monarchical bishop." Thus God’s plan for church government was changed from a plurality of elders to "the pastor system," rule by one man, a miniature papacy. Someone has used the illustration of God’s government plan as a train going through a tunnel. As it started through the tunnel the government of a congregation was by a plurality of elders, but when it emerged in 110 A.D., standing on the cowcatcher was a newcomer, the monarchical bishop.

The next development was for one man to be in control of all the congregations in the area, and was called a metropolitan. There came to be five of them in the Christian world, in Alexandria, Jerusalem, Antioch, Constantinople, and in Rome. The next step was for one man to be over all congregations in the world, and he was call the "universal bishop" or pope. The first to make the claim stick was Boniface III in rome in 606 A.D.

Other departures from ‘the doctrine of the apostles" (Acts 2:42) became popular. In the days of Tertullian, about 190 A.D., infant baptism was started.

Then the first example of baptism by sprinkling was in 251 A.D., when a sick man, Novatian, afraid he would die unbaptized, had himself sprinkled in bed (Neander’s CHURCH HISTORY, I, 325). In 753 A.D. Pope Stephen III announced that "in cases of necessity" pouring water on the head "was acceptable" (EDINBURGH CYCLOPEDIA, III, 245-246). The practice came to be called clinical or hospital baptism (baptismus clinicorun).

In 1311 A.D. a council of bishops meeting at Ravenna in Italy voted that either sprinkling or immersion was acceptable. The practice of sprinkling then took over universally (except in the Greek Catholic Church), and has spread into many Protestant denominations.

Mechanical music in worship is believed first to have authorized by Pope Vitalian I in 616 A.D.

A revolt against many doctrines and practices of the Roman Catholic Church caused Protestant denominations to arise, beginning with the Lutheran Church in 1517 A.D.

V. The Restored Church

But, thank God, in the 19^th century, several saw the need, not for more reformation denominations, but for a restoration of the New Testament church. A 100% commitment to Jesus demands a 100% commitment to "the apostles’ doctrine" (Acts 2:42). Among those so minded were the Haldane brothers in Scotland, Robert and John, and in America were the Methodist James O’Kelly in Virginia, the Baptists Abner Jones and Elias Smith in Vermont and in Massachusetts, and the Presbyterians Barton Stone, Thomas Campbell, and Alexander Campbell in Kentucky and West Virginia.

Two great statements were emphasized by Thomas Campbell: "We speak where the Bible speaks; we are silent where the Bible is silent," and "In matters of faith, unity; in opinions, liberty; in all things, charity."

Now, at the close of the 20^th century, no improvement can be made on Campbell’s two statements. A commitment, not to the church as such, but a commitment to any congregation holding only to what one finds in the New Testament, in "the apostles’ doctrine," is altogether safe and praise worthy: