WHERE DID ALL THE CHURCHES COME FROM?
Matthew 16:13-19 (KJV)
When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?
And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.
He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
This is the very first time the word church is found in the Bible.
We have a rule of interpretation called “The Rule of First Mention.”
Basically, it means, the first time a thing is mentioned defines every other time it is mentioned.
In the very first mention of the church Jesus said:
· It was His church
· He would build it and
· The gates of hell shall not prevail against it
I said last time that I did not grow up going to church, but I had been exposed to enough different teaching that, by the time I was burdened to surrender to obey the Lord, I wanted to make sure I went to the right church.
· We either have to assume that all of the different sorts of churches, no matter what they believe all make up Jesus’ church
· Or else we have to accept that the gates of hell did prevail against some of them – that’s why they teach wrong things.
Allow me to begin tonight be taking you back to one of the things I showed you last time.
I. THREE KEY DOCTRINES
In all of church history we have
· Some churches who trace outside of Catholicism
· Some churches that are Catholicism[1]
· Some that are Protestants
The Catholic church system found its full development around 314 AD
The Protestant Churches began around 1517 AD
The church that Jesus built would go all the way back to He and John the Baptist.
These churches are historically grouped together as ‘anabaptist.”
· They were always exactly the same.
· They didn’t always believe correctly.
Remember – we get what we believe from the Bible. Not from people who lived before us.
The anabaptists as various times were called
· Montanist
· Donatists
· Paulicians
· Cathari
· Waldensians
· Etc
But they were grouped together by the Catholics and anabaptist, because they insisted that those uniting with them be baptized after salvation, rejecting the infant baptism of the Catholics.
From those anabaptists[2] came the:
· Amish
· Quakers
· Mennonites
· Brethren and some
· Baptists[3]
If all of these groups come from the same anabaptist line, why wouldn’t we accept them all as good churches?
Because, biblically, we can find that those three key doctrines separate them.
· Preservation of the Scriptures
· Preservation of the Soul and
· Preservation of the Sanctuary
Amish, Quakers, Mennonites and the Brethren churches:
· Are not sound in the plan of salvation (adding works to salvation)
· Baptize improperly (by pouring instead of immersion) and
· Believe that a saved person can lose their salvation through sin
We fellowship around both like faith and like practice.
They fail in both.
II. WHERE DO ALL THE DENOMINATIONS COME FROM?
Point one should have explained where all the anabaptist type churches come from.
Let’s explore the Protestant Denominations a little bit.
 |
| This is from Carroll's "Trail of Blood" |
During the Reformation[4] three “mainline” Protestant Churches emerged.
· Lutherans
· Presbyterians[5]
· Episcopalians[6]
Please understand, I am not trying to be too detailed with this message. We could get bogged down in the details.
In very basic terms:
A. The Lutherans have been the Lutherans.
I am unaware of any major denominations that have sprung up out of the Lutheran Denomination.
There are a number of variations of Lutheranism.
B. Presbyterians
From them have arisen
· A denomination of Bible Churches[7]
· There is a denomination known as Independent Fundamental Churches of America
· Any sort of church (including some claiming to be Baptist) who subscribe to the Westminster Confession of Faith[8]
C. Episcopalians
Not surprisingly, given our country’s history, the majority of the denominations in our country come out of the Church of England.
The problem with the High Church is that it claimed to be Protestant but didn’t want to change any of their Catholic practices and beliefs.
The result was unrest and protests within the protest.
Early on the dissatisfied were known as
· Pietists
· Puritans
· Pilgrims
· Separatists and
· Some Baptists
In America they were
· The Congregationalists and
· The Puritans
During the 1700’s a Church of England minister named John Wesley was converted (due to the influence of some Baptists.)
Wesley and a college friend named George Whitefield, founded the Methodist Societies, which eventually became the Methodist Church.
From the Methodists come:
· The Nazarenes
· The Pentecostals
· The Charismatic churches of all sorts – Calvary Chapel, Assemblies of God, etc.
These days many Bible churches and Community churches will be Charismatic.
A lot of used to be Baptist churches just go by “church” now.
· Bethel church
· Berean church
· Calvary church
Etc.
III. WHAT DO THEY BELIEVE?
This subject is way too big to answer adequately.
Let me categorize it into three headings
A. Liberal vs Conservative
Some of them are liberal.
They don’t believe the Bible actual history and doctrine
Some of them are conservative.
They more or less believe the Bible is true and profitable
You will find some of each in every denomination.
B. Calvinist vs Arminian
This is way oversimplified, but it will have to do for tonight.
A Calvinist believes God chooses some to be saved and some to be doomed to hell.
· Those who God has chosen to be saved, will be saved no matter what they do.
· Those whom God has doomed to hell, cannot be saved no matter how much they want to be.
The Arminian will also believe you can lose your salvation through sin.
C. Charismatic vs Non charismatic
By Charismatic I mean they believe in the practice speaking an unknown tongue.
They believe God can supernaturally give a person the ability to speak a language only the Angels understand.
Though there are Charismatic churches of every denomination, including Catholics and Baptists, it is mostly found in those churches that came out of the Methodists.
One more thing
All of them, no matter what else they believe, believe that all “Christians” belong to a true, universal invisible church, even if they do not belong to any church on earth.
[1] I am including for my purposes in this message, Eastern Orthodox, Coptic and Russian Orthodox
[2] There are others but these are the most familiar to us.
[3] Anyone could take the name Baptist. We only accept as of like faith those Baptists who trace their origins outside of Protestantism.
[4] Usually given the birthdate of October 31, 1517 AD
[5] The result of Scotland’s battles with England. They didn’t want to come under the established Church of England, so they embraced Calvin’s doctrines.
[6] This is the American version of the Church of England, also called there, The High Church.
[7] I am aware that a number of Bible churches across America would not claim a Presbyterian heritage. The fact is, that it is common enough I would not believe they are not Presbyterian until I had a good examination of their statement of faith.
[8] Or any of the variations of it.
The powerpoint presentation for this message is at, https://www.slideshare.net/MarvinMcKenzie/matthew-16v18-where-did-all-these-churches-come-from
The powerpoint presentation for this message is at, https://www.slideshare.net/MarvinMcKenzie/matthew-16v18-where-did-all-these-churches-come-from
