THE NORTHERN KENTUCKY SEARCHER
"Search the scriptures: for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. " (John 5:39)

VOLUME 7, NUMBER 15, APRIL 15, 2007

AS ANSWER TO A FALSE TEACHER
PART 3

          This week we will begin to answer the questions set forth by David Martin, a preacher at the Solid Rock Baptist Church in Barlett, Tennessee, in his short tract, “Common Sense Questions a ‘Church of Christ’ Preacher Cannot Clearly Answer.”  By the way, he still hasn’t returned my phone calls, even after I asked him to call collect.

“HERE ARE THE QUESTIONS FOR CAMPBELLITES”

            For thirty-one years now I have been asking individuals, and particularly Baptist preachers, to name one thing that I believe, teach, or practice that originated with Alexander or Thomas Campbell.  To this date no one has given me an answer to that question.  Wait a minute, that last statement is not entirely true.  On a call-in radio program in Louisville, Kentucky, I asked a caller who had referred to me as a Campbellite, to name one thing that I taught, believed, or practiced that originated with Alexander Campbell.   His response was “Acts 2:38.”  To refer to someone as a Campbellite certainly implies that the individual adheres to doctrines and practices that originated with Campbell and that are peculiar to Campbell.  One ought to be able to name at least one such doctrine or quit using a term that is meant to do nothing but prejudice the minds of those who read it or hear it.

“1. According to the history of the ‘Church of Christ,’ God used certain men to ‘restore’ the New Testament Church in the early 1800’s.  Where was the true New Testament church before then?  Jesus said that the gates of hell would not prevail against His church (Matthew 16:18).  What happened to the church and where was the truth it was responsible for preaching before God restored it?”

            This is a good question and it deserves an answer.  The Lord’s church began on the day of Pentecost that we read about in Acts 2.  There are so many ways that this can be demonstrated including numerous prophecies such as Isaiah 2:2-4, Micah 4:1-3, Daniel 2, Joel 2:28-32.

            The Lord Jesus made at statement in Mark 9:1.  He said, “Verily I say unto you, that there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.”  In Luke 24:49 He said to His apostles, “And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.”  That “power” came when the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles in Acts 2:2-4.  Verse 4 tells us, “And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”  In verse 16 Peter would say that what was happening was in fulfillment of Joel 2:28-32.  Also, in Acts 11:15, Peter would refer back to this event as “the beginning.”  It is also interesting that before Acts 2, the church was always spoken of as something yet to come.  After Acts 2, it is always spoken of as being in existence.

            The Lord Jesus did say in Matthew 16:18 that the gates of Hades would not prevail against His church.  The early history of the church in the New Testament is an account of tremendous growth in the face of growing opposition.  Yet even in the first century, in the pages of the New Testament, there are indications that apostasy was already beginning and would continue.  In 2 Thessalonians 2:7, we find, “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work; only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.”   In 1 Timothy 4:1-3 we are told, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.”  In 2 Timothy 4, Paul wrote in verses 3-4, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

            Jesus did not say that the church would continue in uninterrupted progress.    In fact, the New Testament teaches that there would be a falling away from within.  Men in the church would start to teach error.  This occurred.  Simply consider the Roman Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, and every Protestant denomination now in existence.  Were there groups from the first century up to the eighteenth century who remained faithful?  Undoubtedly, but I am sure Mr. Martin would not accept that.

            He asked “What happened to the church and where was the truth it was responsible for preaching before God restored it?”  If we can determine where the truth was, we have determined where the church was.

            The natural law of propagation is that seed produces after its own kind.  This is clearly set forth in the account of creation in Gen. 1:11-12.  This basic truth applies in the spiritual realm as well as the physical.  That fact is fundamental to the parable of the Sower.  In the Lord’s explanation of the parable in Luke 8, He said in verse 11, “The seed is the Word of God.”  When a person becomes a Christian, their new birth is by that seed.  1 Peter 1:23 says, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.”

            The principle by which the church is maintained and perpetuated is by preaching the truth – not by some unbroken fleshly line of succession.  Let me give an illustration.  Wheat had been placed in some of the pyramids in Egypt – and obviously then not planted for centuries.  But when it was excavated and found to be in a perfect state of preservation, it was planted and produced the same wheat, after its kind.  That is what happens with the seed that is the Word of God.  Even if one argues that the church was lost to sight in the centuries, the seed of God’s word that produces it is in a perfect state of preservation – therefore in the seed the kingdom has its uninterrupted existence.  Find the truth and you have the seed of the church.  

      To be continued.