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By God's grace, still presenting the same old message from the same old Book...

A church makes another church. You start with a true church, and Jesus founded that church, and there is promised perpetuity, the right Head, the right baptism, the right gospel, and so today there is a true church to be found. All the various denominations and all the various assemblies are not churches that have Christ as the Head. 

There is a distinction, showing a difference between the family of God and the New Testament Church. Quoting the book, The Bride of Christ, by Oscar B. Mink:

There is not the least inference in Scripture which teaches that regeneration brings one into a Bridal relationship with Christ, but it does experientially make the subject a member of the family of God (Ephesians 3:15; Revelation 19:9). Being born again does not make one a Baptist. but it makes him/her a proper candidate for Bridalship, or membership in a New Testa­ment Baptist church. Acts 2:41 - "Then they that gladly received His word (gospel), were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls." Baptism in this text is a secondary action, whereby they who had "received His word" (i.e., the gospel) were "added" to the church.

Oscar B. Mink goes on to show it was Christ that founded the New testament Church during His earthly ministry:

In Luke's gospel, we are given the account whereby Christ called Peter, James, and John from their fishing business. The Lord encourages them, saying: "Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men- (5:10). (See also Matthew 4:19 : Mark 1:17 John 4:1,2) With the calling of these first three disciples, Jesus had His infant church. But it did not long remain in this stage, for with quick succession the other nine disciples were called and added to the church.

No doubt, there is some variance of thought among pre-Pentecostal Baptists as to how many of the original twelve disciples the Lord called before He actually had His church. However, while I am convinced the church had its birth with the first three disciples of our Lord, it is not a question of great import. All New Testament Baptists know that the church existed during the early ministry of Christ, for the church was witnessing and baptizing in the beginning of Christ's ministry (John 1:45; 4:1,2).

The contention that the New Testament church existed prior to the Pentecost of Acts 2 is an unmitigated truth, for as Paul says: "God hath set some in the church, first apostles" (1Corinthians 12:28). And the account wherein the apostolic office originated is recorded in Luke's gospel (6:13), and it reads on this wise: -And when it was day, He (Christ) called unto Him His disciples: and of them He chose twelve, whom He also called apostles." The church had to exist at the time for the Lord to -set" the apostles in it.

What happened on the day of Pentecost was not the incorpo­ration of the church, but the empowering of the church for its worldwide and age long mission (Acts 1:8). The baptism that John the Baptist and Christ spoke of (Matthew 3:11; Acts 1:5) was not a baptism by the Spirit in the Spirit, but it was a baptism of the church by Christ in the Spirit (Acts 11:14). The Holy Spirit is the element into which Christ the Administrator immersed His church. Church membership applicants are baptized in (en in the Greek) water (not merely "with" water) by the authority of the Lord's church(es).

Prior to Pentecost, He had given His church disciplinary authority (Matthew 18:17) and the universal and age long commission to evangelize the earth (Matthew 28:18-20). The truth is, the church had the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper before Pentecost, as well as a democratic form of government (Matthew 28:19; John 4:1,2; Luke 22:15-20; 1Corinthians 11:23-25; Acts 1:21-26). The deaconship is about the only thing the post-Pentecostal church has that the pre-Pentecostal church did not have (Acts 6:2,3).

End.

Thomas Paul Simmons, A Systematic Study Of Bible Doctrine, shows some identifying marks of a true church:

XI. THE IDENTIFYING MARKS OF THE CHURCH

If, as we believe, the church of Christ has been perpetuated, then it is in the world today and has been in the world since its founding. By what means, then, are we to identify this church in any age?

In order to have a church, there must be-

1. A LOCAL INDEPENDENT BODY.

The Roman Catholic Church cannot qualify as the church of Christ. Neither can any branch of the Methodist Episcopal persuasion. Nothing such as these existed in New Testament times. New Testament churches were local, independent bodies. No hierarchal institution can qualify as a church.

2. HOLDING THE TRUTH AS TO THE WAY OF MAKING DISCIPLES.

The primary purpose of Jesus in putting the church in the world was that His gospel should be preached. No institution that preaches a false gospel is recognized of him who even threat­ened the church at Ephesus with the removal of its candlestick because it had merely lapsed in its zeal and grown negligent concerning the work He had committed to His churches.

No institution that teaches any form of salvation by works is holding to the truth about the way of making disciples. A church must teach salvation wholly by grace through faith.

3. HOLDING THE TRUTH AS TO BAPTISM.

Scriptural baptism is essential to a true church because it is the door into the church. Cf. I Cor. 12:13. Hence there can be no church without baptism. An organization that practices anything but immersion, or that does not hold to believers' bap­tism, or that baptizes people in order that they may be saved, surely is not recognized of Christ as one of His churches.

4. RECOGNIZING CHRIST ALONE AS ITS HEAD, AND SEEKING TO CARRY OUT HIS WILL AND COMMANDS.

The church is a mystical body. Consequently it belongs to its head. If its head is Christ, it is His church. If its head is the pope, it is the pope's church. If its head is a conference, then it is the conference's church. If its head is a presbytery or synod, then it belongs to the presbytery or synod instead of to Christ.

Wherever is found a local body possessing all of the attributes, there is a church. Without all of them there can be no church.

And we do not hesitate to say in closing that, as regards the regular denominations, at least, only Baptist churches today can, by the foregoing tests, be identified as New Testament churches.

End.

Bible Study Letters

A message of comfort from the Scriptures,
that we through patience and comfort
of the scriptures might have hope.

Come and hear, all ye that fear God,
and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.
Psalms 66:16

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Bob Krajcik
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