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thing concerned with worship–
ping with others. Supposedly it
refers to the worship of God.
But if Goo is related to the
Church, what is His relationship?
How did the Church start?
Back in the early part of 1927
when my intense Bible study was
bringing me toward conversion, I
asked myself such questions. I
supposed questions of that
sort never enter the aver.age
mind.
The first mention in the Bible
of the Church, in time of exis–
tence, is Acts 7:38: where it
speaks of "the church in the wil–
derness" at Mount Sinai, under
Moses. So Old Testament Israel
was the "Church." Most general–
ly in the Old Testament, Israel, as
a church, is referred to as the
"Congregation of Israel."
Actually, in the New Testa–
ment Greek, it is called the
ek–
k/esia,
a Greek word meaning an
assembly, a congregation, a gath–
ering, a group. There is no sancti–
ty to the word
ekk/esia.
The
name
of tbe Church, however,
used 12 times in the New Testa–
ment is "Church of God," which
denotes that it is Goo's
Church- which NAME attaches
sanctity.
The first place in the New
Testament where the word
church
appears is Matthew 16:18,
where, speaking to Simon Peter,
Jesus said, "1 will build my
church," And in Ephesians 5:23
it is stated that Christ is the Head
of the Church.
So this we know. Whatever the
Church is, it belongs to Goo and
its name is the CHURCH OF Goo.
Jesus Christ is its founder, and
He its living HEAD.
That brings us back immedi–
ately to the theme we have been
covering in this volume.
1 have said before, if one enters
a motion picture theater .or tunes
in a movie on television at a point
where the movie is about two–
thirds along, he simply can't
understand what he sees. He
doesn't know what went before–
what sequence of events led up to
the point where bis eyes entered
the picture.
If we "tune in" on the·world in
6
this latter half of the 20th pen–
tury, observe the churches and
church customs of our day, not
having known what went be–
fore- what led up to the pres–
ent-we simply CAN'T UNDER–
STAND!
But if it is Goo's Church- if
Jesus Christ founded it and today
heads it-it is something IMPOR–
TANT TO Goo, and therefore
VITAL THAT WE COMETO UNDER–
STAND!
We must bear in mind what
went before- what
led up to it–
to understand
WHY
the living
Christ created
it-WHAT
it is,
and where it fits into the divine
PURPOSE being worked out here
below.
And that is something not even
the theo/ogians and church lead–
ers of our day understand.
Back now, therefore, to an
abbreviated synopsis of events
leading up to the founding of the
Church.
When the earth was first
created (Job 38:4, 7) God placed
angels on the eartb. Over tbem
He placed the Government of
God. On the throne of the earth
was the mighty cherub Lucifer
(lsaiah 14:12-14). But Lucifer
led the angels into rebellion
(II Peter 2:4). The Government
of God no longer was adminis–
tered ori earth. Lucifer became
Satan the devil, and his angels
demons.
The earth had become–
through angelic rebellion-chaot–
ic, waste (Genesis 1:2), and in six
days God renewed (Psalm
104:30) the fa:c.e of the earth for
MAN (Genesis 1:3-27). God was
going to reproduce Himself
through MAN!
The first man, Adam, was giv–
en the opportunity to reject Satan
and his way, to accept the Gov–
ernment of God and restare that
Government to earth. But Adam
rejected God as Ruler, Revealer
of spiritual knowledge, and Giver
of eternal life. God drove Adam
and Eve out of the Garden of
Eden and barred human reen–
trance lest humanity regain ac–
cess to the tree of LIFE and gain
immortality in sin and its result–
ing anguish.
Since MAN bad rejected God's
Government, God's revealed
knowledge, and the gift of im–
mortality, God CUT OFF ALL MAN–
KIND, except the infinitesimal
FEW He would specially call,
UNTIL
the second Adam, Jesus
Christ, should overcome Satan,
and RESTORE the Government of
God over the earth!
In the antedeluvian world prior
to Noah, only one man, Enoch, is
reported having walked God's
way. God mercifully blotted out
all humanity from further vio–
lence, suffering and anguish, to
be resurrected in the next second
of consciousness in the postmil–
lennial world of the Great White
Throne Judgment (Revelation
20:11-12).
After a few generations in the
new world, God called ONE MAN,
Abraham, who walked the way of
God. God gave him the promise
of Christ as his descendant, and
ultimate salvation of the world
through Him.
Four hundred thirty years after
the covenant with Abraham, God
chose ONE MAN, Moses, to lead
the two or more million descen–
dants of Abraham out of Egyp–
tian slavery into the Promised
Land. They professed to accept
the Government of God, but
rebelled. Yet the Holy Spirit of
God was not offered them. God's
Spirit could not come for God's
people
UNT/L
Jesus had quali–
fied to restare the Government of
God and had been glorified in
heaven (John 7:37-39).
In due time, Jesus was born of
a virgin Mary, having been begot–
ten NOT by a human father, but
by Goo. Jesus QUALIFIED to
restare the ÜOVERNMENT OF
Goo and set up the KINGDOM OF
Goo, by overcoming Satan (Mat–
thew 4:1-11).
The time then was fulfilled
when the GOOD NEWS (Gospel)
announcing the coming KINGDOM
OF Goo should be proclaimed as
a witness to the world.
'-
At this juncture it is important
to notice FOUR very important
"UNTILS."
1) Except for the
very
few
specially and individually called
(Continued on page 39)
' The PLAIN TRUTH