What Does the Bible Say About Why Am I A Member of the Church of Christ #3?

Arnie, Fred and Glenn continue their discussion of why am I a member of the Church of Christ. We begin this episode by looking at a few passages that help us to determine where and when the Lord's Church would be established or started beginning in the Old Testament. We learn that it would be in what are described as the latter days and in Jerusalem. We move to the New Testament and talk about what both John the Baptizer and Jesus said when they expected the church or kingdom would come. We note that on Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, Peter quoted what Joel had prophesied about what would occur in the last days. We discuss a number of things that Acts chapter 2 reveals concerning Jesus and the Church that tells us exactly when and where the Lord's Church was established. We close out this episode by noting when, where and by whom the most prominent denominations were established. We encourage our listeners to examine the identifying factors of the Lord's Church and make changes if you find you are not associated with the Church that belongs to Jesus Christ. Take about 30-minutes to listen in on our discussion. Have your Bible handy so you can verify what we are saying. There is a transcript of this Buzzsprout episode provided for your convenience.

Transcript

Fred Gosnell: 0:00

This is a presentation of the Woodland church of Christ meeting at 3370 Broad Street in Sumter, South Carolina. We meet for worship on Sunday at ten thirty am and five thirty pm. We meet for bible study at nine thirty am on Sunday and seven pm on Wednesday. If you have questions or comments on this lesson, you may email them to Fred Gosnell at fgosnell@ftc-i.net or to Arnie Granke at agranke440718@twc.com or to Glenn Landrum at scbamaboy2003@yahoo.com.

Arnie: 0:43

Good afternoon. This is Arnie Granke, and Fred Gosnell and Glenn Landrum. And this is what does the Bible say that's brought to you by the church of Christ at Woodland here in Sumter, South Carolina. We're certainly glad to have you listening in. We hope that that perhaps you'll consider worshiping with us on on the Lord's day, at nine thirty for Bible study, ten thirty for worship service, and then again in the evening, at five thirty. We also meet on Wednesday evenings for Bible classes there. And we've been talking about why one should be a member of a church of Christ. Fred and and Glenn and I, all three are and talking about some Bible aspects of of that. And Glenn, you want to pick up with that and and tell us where we are?

Glenn: 1:45

Yeah. We've been looking at at some of the reasons why we are members of the Church of Christ, and the next one we're going to look at is when the Church was established. And you may ask, Well, why is that important? Well, we have over two 2000 denominations today that call themselves Christian, and each one was established or founded at a different time. So we're looking at the scriptures to tell us when the church that Jesus built, and that's what we've been talking about the church that Jesus built, when was it established? And then you can compare when the church that Jesus built was established with when the church that you may be associated with was established. And we have several passages that we're going to look at that's going to give us the answers to what we're looking for. The first one is in Isaiah, two, two through four. And this is a rather long passage. Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem, He shall judge between the nations and rebuke many people. They shall beat their swords into plowshare shares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. This passage says that the time will be in the latter days. It also says where, and that is Jerusalem. It mentions that actually two times it says Jerusalem, and just before that, it says For out of Zion. Zion is Jerusalem. Just looking at this scripture alone. It doesn't narrow down the day, but it does let us know that it will be later. It is generally understood that the latter days refers to the dispensation, or the period of time after Christ. That's after the period defined as under the Law of Moses. This would be the days or the time that's governed under the rule of Christ.

Fred Gosnell: 4:29

Of course, this is not the only Old Testament prophet that told us about this. Micah had a similar rendition, almost, almost exactly the same. In Micah, four, one through three. Now notice he says, Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills, and people shall flow to it. Many nations shall come and say, Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God, of Jacob, He will teach us of His ways, and we shall walk in his paths. For out of Zion, there's Zion again, the law shall go forth, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem, He shall judge between many peoples and rebuke strong nations afar off. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. So again, almost a direct repeat of what Isaiah had prophesied. And when we get to the New Testament portion of this, we'll find out that there will be similar set that some of these passages will be quoted partially by Peter and Paul and other writers. So so again, it's going to be in the latter days in Zion, in Jerusalem that the Lord's house would be established.

Arnie: 5:50

They, those aren't the only two passages on that, on that topic, either. Daniel, chapter two is significant in in that regard, beginning in verse 31; You, Oh king. And the king, by the way, was, was Nebuchadnezzar, who was, who was the king of what's now Iran, actually, there. You, Oh king, were watching, and behold a great image, this great image whose splendor was excellent stood before you, and its form was awesome. The image's head was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. You watch while a stone was cut out with, without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were crushed together and became like chaff from the summer threshing floors. The wind carried them away, so that no trace of them was found, and the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. This is the dream. Now we will tell the interpretation of it before you, before the king. And here, here's the quote of what he said, You, Oh king, are a king of kings, for the God of heaven has given you, has given you a kingdom, power, strength and glory and whatever the children of men, wherever the children of men dwell, or the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven, He has given them into your hand and has made you ruler over them all. You are this head of gold, and after you shall arise another kingdom inferior to yours, then another, a third kingdom of bronze, which will rule over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be as strong as iron, in as much as iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything, and like iron that crushes, that kingdom will break in pieces and crush all the others. Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided, yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay, and as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile. As you saw iron mixed with ceramic clay, they will mingle with the seed of men, but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay. Verse 44 ends this, In the days of these kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and the kingdom shall not be left to other people. It shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. You probably have some comments that you'd like to make.

Glenn: 9:36

Sure. I'll make some comments concerning that passage. It was a rather long passage, but Daniel was in Babylon and had become known for his ability to interpret dreams, and that is what he was doing in his passage. He is interpreting a dream of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, where Judah was in exile. Daniel had become an important man in the service of King Nebuchadnezzar, and his ability to interpret dreams was a gift of God. In this dream, Daniel is interpreting several kingdoms are identified. The first was a kingdom that was the world power at the time, Babylon, and that is where Daniel was at that time. The next kingdom, kingdom identified is the Medo Persian Empire, which would defeat Babylon, and become the world power. After that, the Grecian Empire, or the Greeks, would take over as a world power. The Greeks fell to Rome as a world power. And it is in this kingdom that verse 44 is concerned with. So in the days of these kings, that's in the days of the kings of the Roman Empire, rep, represents Roman Empire, Daniel prophesies that a kingdom will be established that will never be destroyed, and that kingdom is the kingdom of Christ, or the Church of Christ, as we've covered before. This this kingdom is the one that will never be destroyed and will last forever.

Fred Gosnell: 11:13

And of course, remember what was said that in the latter days, this is when this would occur. And of course, we looking back in history. We can see everything that Daniel said to be true. We can see all of those kingdoms that have come and gone. But then when we get to the New Testament, we have in Matthew three, one and two, there's a, Matthew writes, and he says, In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So now, rather than in the latter days, now it seems to be a little closer. John says it's at hand. So of course, it's in recorded in Matthew the kingdom, the kingdom of Christ, is at hand, being in meaning that it will be established soon. So this is while John the Baptist, John the Baptizer, as we've noticed, was starting to prepare the way for Christ, which was his job to do. And then in Mark one, Mark records in Mark 1, 14, and 15, he says, In those days, John the Baptizer came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So, yeah, this is the same as the last scripture that Matthew wrote, saying that John the Baptizer was preparing the way for Christ and the kingdom was at hand, or will be coming soon.

Arnie: 12:38

Be coming soon. Yeah. This is the same as the last scripture there, saying that John the Baptizer was preparing the way for Christ and the kingdom was at hand and coming soon, there, Matthew five, beginning in verse nine, is a passage that relates to that as well. In this matter manner, therefore pray, and this is, this is part of Jesus sermon on the on the mount there, where he's teaching a number of things, not only principles with regard to government, but also man's relationship to God. So, In this manner, therefore, pray, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And probably most of our listeners are familiar with that, as as the Lord's Prayer. Of course, this is a part of what most people know as as being the Lord's Prayer. I don't know if they still still have have that a part of the beginning of the school day anymore, but, but at the time that we went to school, that was that was surely the case. It's not actually the Lord's Prayer, per se, a specific prayer to be prayed exactly as as Jesus used it. It's a model prayer that Jesus was using to teach his disciples how to pray. So there are number of items in that prayer that we should address, and they don't have to be in the words that Jesus used exactly, but we should address those, those topics as we pray. Nevertheless, it fits into our purpose here to show that the Kingdom hasn't yet come, but the disciples were to pray for it.

Glenn: 14:49

Yeah. And then there's another one in Matthew and that's in chapter 16, verse 18, and we've read this one before, And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. Well, notice that he's he's speaking in future tense. We have covered this one before, but we're using it here because Jesus is saying that he will build, will build his church. That is future tense. He had not built it yet, but he was going to do it soon. I'll read another one as well. Mark nine, verse one, And he said to them, Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power. All the passages we have used are important passages to identify when Christ's Church was established. But this one really narrows it down even more. Jesus said that it would come during the lifetime of some of those who he was talking to at that very time.

Fred Gosnell: 16:01

Yeah, and Jesus told them again in Luke 22, 18, he said, For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. Of course, he's already told them that some of them were going to still be alive when it came. And he says that it's even this close, because I'm not going to drink any fruit of the vine until that happens. So once again, Jesus is speaking in future tense. It's it's to come. It's not come yet, but, but it's soon. So this was just prior. This was only days before his death, and the kingdom had not come yet. So all the passages used up to this point have identified the church as being started or established in the future. Of course, when it refers to the kingdom, the the church is also referred to as the kingdom. So now we're going to look at some of them that identify, that tell when the Church was established.

Arnie: 16:58

Well, Acts, chapter two certainly is one of those passages Fred and I'll begin in verse 17, here where, It shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young man shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams, and on my servants and on my handmaids, I will, my maid servants. I will pour out of My Spirit in those days and they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of of smoke, the sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. So that those are verses 17 through, through 21, of of of Acts chapter two. Let me pass it to you, Glenn.

Glenn: 18:09

Yeah, if we read the previous chapter, Acts one and the portion of chapter two up to verse 13, we learn exactly when this was, it was the day of Pentecost, following the death, burial and resurrection and the ascension of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, had come upon the apostles. That's in Acts two, one through four. The apostles were speaking in languages or tongues of all the people gathered in Jerusalem, though they had not been educated in those languages. Then starting in Acts two, verse 14, Peter stood up and started preaching to them, the quote Peter has used in the passage cited from the Old Testament prophet Joel 2, 28, through 31, Joel had prophesied that it would be the last days when God would pour out His Spirit. We are in the last days today. It began with the ascension of Christ when his kingdom was established. So we see that it was at this time that these things were happening. Take note that this passage also states where all this would happen, in Jerusalem.

Fred Gosnell: 19:25

And of course, in verse 41, Acts 2, 41, when Peter preached the gospel there and told them what, you know, you crucified the Messiah. Now he is at God's right hand. So then they, in verse 41 those who gladly received his word were baptized, and that day, about 3000 souls were added to them. So this was the result, of course, of Peter's preaching, the first gospel sermon. And it tells us that there were 3000 people who responded to be baptized, and they were added to them that day. You may ask who they are, because, of course, we will learn that in a moment. So notice in Luke 24, 46 through 49 Jesus is speaking to the apostles here, just just before He ascended, he said to them, Thus it is written, thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. Of course, that's what Peter had, did on Pentecost, it tells us. And you, you apostles, Are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you, but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high. Of course, we know that the Holy Spirit fell upon them on Pentecost, and that's when the power came. So we see in this passage that Jesus had said that he would be put to death and rise on the third day, and after that, repentance and remission of sins would be preached in Jerusalem, when the power came from on high, was given the Holy Spirit falling from the apostles. So Jesus, just before his crucifixion, death and resurrection, said these things to his apostles.

Arnie: 21:12

Well, let me take you to Acts. Chapter one there, since that, that's part of what we're talking about. And verse 12 tells us that they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, or the Mount of Olives. Jesus had had taken the the apostles out to that place and and it was near Jerusalem. It was said to be a Sabbath day journey. Well, that would probably be only about a couple 100 yards at the at the very most. And the apostles did what Jesus had instructed them to do. They returned back to Jerusalem, and it was of course, after Jesus ascension into, into heaven in Acts chapter one, verses nine through 11, talk about that. Chapter Two begins in verse one, saying, When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord, in one place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing, mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. They then there appeared to them, divided tongues as of fire, and one sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. They were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And I might just make the comment, I suppose everybody would know that speaking in tongues didn't mean that you had a different tongue in the in your in your mouth, from the one that you spoke with, or eat with, or whatever on a daily basis, but it's talking about a language, so they're speaking in different languages. And of course, as Glenn has pointed out, there were a number of languages represented there in the audience, and all of them were hearing in the language that they spoke.

Glenn: 23:42

Absolutely. You know, with a lot of people think that speaking in tongues is some sort of jibber jabber, but that was not it at all. The the apostles, after the Holy Spirit came upon them and gave them ability to speak in tongues, they were speaking in the languages of the people that were there. They even said, how do we understand these people? Aren't they all was, but it was Galilee, and they were all from that area. They had not been trained in, in those languages that they spoke. Well. This passage that ArnieI just read tells the day, the place and the people involved. This passage also tells that those who were present were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in tongues. We see in the following verses that of what those tongues were, they were languages of all the people gathered in Jerusalem for the celebration of Pentecost. Jews who lived all over the world and spake different languages or different dialects of Greek, or Hebrew, at that time, returned to Jerusalem for the celebration of Pentecost. What an opportunity for the apostles to be able to preach to the Jews from all over the world the gospel of Christ. At some point, those who responded to the. Gospel would return home and a new, with new conviction and teach the gospel in their lands. I'll read another passage, Acts 2, 47, So, continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, Praising God and having favor with all the people. Now pay attention, And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. Now we have a shift. The language is now past tense. The Lord added daily those who were being saved. So up to this point, the language has all been about something going to happen soon or in the future, but now it has already happened. Now we can pinpoint when the Church was established. Also very important in this verse, we find out what the body those being baptized were added to, the Church.

Fred Gosnell: 26:05

And we learn who added them to the church. It said, the Lord added to the church daily, such as were being saved. Of course, now what that tells us is that you can't, you can't join the Lord's Church. You have to be added to it by Him. And of course, he has certain requirements. We know what Peter preached on Pentecost when they said, What must we do to be saved? He said, Repent and be baptized. And if you read it, read Acts, you'll find out that all of those that obeyed the gospel obey the same thing. Now notice in Colossians, we're told something in Colossians that we need to understand. In Colossians, 1, 13 and 14 Paul tells the Colossians, he says, He speaking of the Lord, He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed conveyed us into the notice kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we had redemption through his blood in the forgiveness of sins. So now we are told that the Colossians were conveyed or added to the kingdom of His Son. So and we find out in a number of ways that the kingdom and the church are the same thing. The church is simply a called out body. The Kingdom tells us that it is. It has borders. And of course, the Lord is the one that puts you in that, that that kingdom and in his church.

Arnie: 27:34

So you know what all of that, that you've read about, happened right there, then and there on the day of Pentecost. From these passages that we've been looking at, we see that the church was established, it was after the death and and resurrection and ascension of of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see that people who responded to the Gospel message in Jerusalem on Pentecost and were baptized were added to the Lord's church. So therefore we know without a doubt when the Church was established, and you can determine if the church you're associated with was established at the same time. We have here a group of the names of several churches and and when they were founded. We can look at those dates and and establish when they were established in some of the most prominent denominations. We don't have 2000 of them that that Glenn has has mentioned, but we have a few of, of course, one of them that may be the most prominent would be, would be the Roman Catholic Church, but it wasn't, wasn't instituted at that particular time. It was instituted in 606, AD in Rome, Italy, by Boniface the third. You have some others there, Glenn?

Glenn: 29:20

Yeh, and I'm going to try to go quickly and Arnie's mentioned. These are so you can take a look at some, some prominent ones. Lutheran Church was begun in 1520 AD, by Martin Luther in Germany. The Episcopalian Church was founded in 1534 by Henry the eighth in England. The Presbyterians were founded in 1536 AD by John Calvin in Switzerland, the Congregational church in 1550 AD by Robert Brown in England, the Baptist in 1607 AD by John Smythe in Holland, the Methodist in 1739 by John Wesley in England, the Mormon in 1830 by Joseph Smith in America, the Adventist in 1830 by William Miller, and in America, Christian Scientist in 1856 by Mary Baker Eddy in America and Jehovah's Witnesses in 1872 by Charles T Russell in America, there. You want to take this?

Fred Gosnell: 30:24

Sure. There are many other denominations that call themselves Christian, but the ones mentioned are some of the most prominent. We have made the point that the who, when and where of the establishment of the Lord's church is important, and we believe it is extremely important if we find that a group of people who claim to be Christians, who are worshiping with a congregation that was started or established by someone other than Jesus Christ, then that church is not the Lord's church. The same holds true for the date or the place of establishment. Most people pay no attention to these things, but they are absolutely important. Jesus Christ founded and built his church, and it began in Jerusalem on or before the day of Pentecost following his death. We believe that you should examine these identifying factors of the Lord's church and make changes if you find that you are not associated with the Lord's church. That is the church that belongs to Christ. So I'm a member of the Church of Christ because it was founded by Jesus Christ in Jerusalem shortly after his death, resurrection and ascension to Heaven. So we're out of time, and we'll continue this study next week, the same time, same station. We invite you to listen in, but mainly have your Bibles open as we speak of these things and make sure that what we're saying is, in fact, what the Bible says, Good afternoon.