Rediscovery of the True Church

IN OUR TODAY’S CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIANITY there is an awareness of a need for a personal knowledge of Christ in the basics of church’s ministry. This is often evidenced by such phenomena as what we call several years ago the Jesus Movement, the charismatic renewal, etc. Most thinking Christians have come to realize something else is needed, the rediscovery of the historic Church.

Often, in a contest of heated reaction to an outdated and dead liberalism and sin in the modern church, we hear cries coming and pleading for a return to the faith of our fathers. But, it doesn’t last long. There is very little action taken to fulfill the need. The need now is greater than ever of the presence of Jesus in His people to build the church. We really need Jesus to build His Church through us. Did not Jesus promised, "I will build My Church..." (Matthew 16:18)?

The crucial question then becomes which church is the Church? The easy answer, of course, and a correct answer is, the "New Testament Church in the Apostle’s Order." But this isn't A.D. 65, and we aren't in old Jerusalem. We are in the twentieth first century, and our challenge is to find the New Testament Church in our day, being sure it is the same as the Church of the Apostles - the one Christ established.

Starting in the twentieth first century with the abundance of choices available to us is difficult, for we have hundreds of denominations and sects claiming to be the New Testament Church. The Roman Catholic Church makes that claim based on its apostolic succession. Baptist Churches are unwaveringly confident they hold to the New Testament faith. Earlier in our church’s history, this sign was placed outside a "Christian Church who confess faith in Christ" which often reads, "Founded in Jerusalem, 33 A.D.," thereby the church was making the claim to be the original Church. We (Churches of God in Christ, USA-International) as a body of this original Church joins in the list of these New Testament Churches and so it goes on with thousands of others who join us in the Apostle’s ministry of the early church. Many church groups have maintained, or even rediscovered, importance of the New Testament’s Order, Pattern and Faith. The truth of the New Testament church is right. This is God’s order until He returns to take His Church back with Him. Is it not essentially that the very eternal plan of God given to us from the very beginning of time is the church, “we have been purpose in Him before the foundation of the world to be call as Holy people unto Him.” The true call of God is the body of the church in Holiness (Ephesians 1:4)?

Back To The First Church

 THERE IS A NEED to understand the pattern and to EXPLAIN with understanding the problem in most of today’s church establishments. The question is who is right or wrong in the understanding the Theology and Doctrine of the church as we go back to the First Church. Rather than trying to explain well over 2,500 Christian groups and denominations in North America alone, is it not best to explain the original faith and doctrine of the church? By studying what the Founder of the Church established and gave in the beginning, “we can start from the beginning of the Church itself and work our way through history to the present.”

The birthday of the Church was Pentecost, the day the Holy Spirit descended on the twelve Apostles and one hundred and twenty (120) in the Upper Room. That day some 3,000 souls believed in Christ and were baptized. When the first Christian community began, "they continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread (Communion), and in prayers" (Act 2:42).

From Jerusalem, the faith in Christ spread throughout Judea, to Samaria (Acts 8), to Antioch and the Gentiles (Acts 13), where we find new converts and new churches throughout Asia Minor and other countries of the Roman Empire.

From the pages of the Epistles and the book of Acts, we learn that the Church was not simply another organization in Roman society. The Lord Jesus Christ had given the promise of the Holy Spirit "will guide you into all truth" (John 16:13). That promise was fulfilled at Pentecost, when the Church was given at birth as divine institution far above all earthly organizations. In Ephesians (Eph. 2:21) St. Paul called it "a holy temple of the Lord." The Church was a dynamic organism, the living Body of Jesus Christ. She made an indelible impact in the world, and those who became part of her were inwardly renewed.

But we also discover in the New Testament itself that the Church had her share of problems. All was not perfection in her movements and procedures. Individuals in the Church sought to lead her off the path of the Apostles established order, and they had to be dealt with and the various errors they propagated. There were several errors from doctrines taking place in the churches demanding repentance. The Church in Laodicea is a vivid example (Revelation chapter 3). Discipline was administered for the sake of purity in the Church. But there was growth and a maturing even as the Church was attacked from within and without. The same Spirit who gave her birth gave her power to correct and purify her members. The Church grew and became strong until she eventually covered the whole of the earth and the Roman Empire.