Baptist History, Heritage & Distinctives –Historic Baptist Ecclessiology – IF GOD’S WORD IS TRUE, THE CHURCH THAT JESUS STARTED STILL STANDS–HAS ENDURED! Matthew 16:18 – Part 2 of 11

Thomas E Kresal Admin · February 4, 2020

Baptist History, Heritage & Distinctives –Historic Baptist Ecclessiology– Part 2 of 11

IF GOD’S WORD IS TRUE, THE CHURCH THAT JESUS STARTED STILL STANDS–HAS ENDURED!

1. The Gates Of Hades His Promise of Perpetuity

“Upon this Rock,” (said Jesus, referring to Himself) “I will build my church; and the gates of hell [Hades] shall not prevail against it.” (Matt. 16:18.)

We may find various interpretations of this statement of Jesus, but despite a great variety of ideas in detailed interpretation it is fairly clear to all that we have here a PROMISE of our Lord that His church would not be overcome by the powers of evil. Whatever this church was, it could not fail if Jesus spoke the truth. We believe that this church was what would now be called a Baptist Church, and anyone who will honestly examine the organization and doctrines of this New Testament institution in comparison with the organization and doctrines of Baptist churches today will reach the same conclusion.

If the church that Jesus built was not a Baptist church, then we need to find out what kind of church it was, and join that church, if we want our service to be pleasing to Him. One thing we can be sure of: if Jesus spoke the truth–and what real Christian would deny this?–the church that Jesus built has been in the world ever since and will be here till He comes again.

The popular Protestant dogma in this connection speaks of an “invisible” church to which all Christians belong. More on this as we go along, but for the present note a few simple facts:

a. Neither the expression “invisible church” nor the idea of such an expression can be found in the New Testament.

b. The whole purpose of the “invisible church” dogma is to justify the Protestant splits from Roman Catholicism. But since Baptists are not Protestants and were never a part of the heretical Catholic system, we have no need of any such dogma to justify our existence.

c. Most Protestants and many ignorant Baptists suppose that Christ built two churches: the “invisible church” of their own vain imagining and the organized assemblies that they cannot help recognizing in the New Testament. Then, to add insult to injury, they call their imaginary monstrosity the “true” church! But the Bible says that there is only one body (church), that is, one kind of body, just as there is only one baptism, that is, one kind of baptism. (Eph. 4:4, 5.)

d. Since there is no just reason to do otherwise, we must understand that Jesus used the word “church” (Greek”ekklesia”) in Matt. 16:18 in the same general sense that it has everywhere else in the New Testament: that is, an assembly, almost always an organized assembly. The word here is used abstractly; that is, it expresses an idea whose realization is to be found in a particular organized assembly.

Presented by Thomas E. Kresal from: “Ten Bible Proofs Of Baptist Perpetuity” by Rosco Brong http://baptisthistoryhomepage.com/brong.sermon.bapt.perpet.html