The same obscurity which has rested upon the landmarks of the various Divine institutions of which we have spoken, has naturally enveloped, also, the origin of the Christian Church. Some suppose its foundation to have been laid in eternity; others, concluding to await the creation of man, make Adam its first member; others postpone it to the days of Abraham; and not a few make it coeval with Moses. To any one, however, who will trust the Scriptures upon the subject, nothing can be plainer than that the Christian Church commenced its formal existence on the day of Pentecost which immediately succeeded Christ's ascension into heaven. I need here only briefly notice soma of the Scriptures from which this is abundantly evident.

      In the first place, in order to show that it did not originate before Christ's personal ministry, it will be sufficient to quote the express language of Christ himself, who, in reference to Peter's acknowledgement that he was the Messiah, says: "On this rock I will build my church." He here uses the future tense--" will build. So that the church was not yet founded upon this rock, its only true foundation. Christ himself, indeed, became the chief corner stone of this spiritual edifice, which is said to rest also upon his Apostles and Prophets, who were the earliest members and supports of the church.

      There are, indeed, some passages which seem to imply that the church had already an existence during the ministry of Christ on earth. These must, however, in harmony with others which are more definite, and with the facts of the case, be understood as spoken prospectively; [349] of which style we have various examples, as, for instance, in the institution of the Lord's Supper, in which Christ speaks of his blood as shed, before the event actually occurred. It is true that the body, so to speak, of the church, was prepared during Christ's ministry; and this body was, on the day of Pentecost, quickened by the impartation of the Holy Spirit, just as God first formed the body of Adam, and afterwards "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." Just so, also, in the types of the Jewish religion, the tabernacle and the temple were first prepared, and then the Shekinah or Divine Presence took up his abode in them as the necessary sanction, without which all their religious ministrations would have been unacceptable and invalid. It was not until every thing was finished and the ark of the Lord placed beneath the Cherubims, that fire descended from heaven to consume the offered sacrifice, and that the glory of the Lord filled the temple.¹ Without the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Church of Christ could have no life, nor power to exercise its functions, nor could it be recognized as distinctly and formally established in the world. Hence the disciples were commanded to "tarry at Jerusalem" until they should be "endued with power from on high,"² and they were then to proceed to preach the gospel among all nations, "beginning at Jerusalem." This was in accordance with the prophecies of Isaiah and of Micah, that out of Zion should go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. So that we have thus distinctly fixed both the place and the time at which the Christian institution should commence. It was then and there only that all things were prepared. Christ had there offered himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world, and had thence ascended into the truly holy place, to appear in the presence of God, and, having been there exalted and crowned "a Prince and a Saviour, to grant repentance and remission of sins," and having, also, received of the Father the promised Holy Spirit, he communicated, upon that eventful day, those gifts and life-giving energies to his waiting disciples, by which the church was quickened into being, and enabled to assume, for the first time, its distinct and appropriate character and functions. Hence thousands were on this day converted, as related in the second chapter of Acts; and it is in the close of this same chapter that we, for the first time, find the church distinctly spoken of as an existing institution. "The Lord," we are told, "added daily to the church such as were saved."

      We find, then, that the three things required in order to the establishment of the Christian Church, were all present upon the day of Pentecost referred to, and at no antecedent period. A body of disciples was then prepared. The Lord Messiah having humbled himself to the death of the cross, was then exalted, and glorified, and constituted head [350] over all things to his church, "which is his body, the fulness of him who filleth all in all." And, lastly, this glorious head then imparted to this body that Holy Spirit which he himself received of the Father, in order that his church might be thus fitted to discharge its appropriate functions, and that its members might be all animated by one spirit, and be thereby united to each other and to God, through him. Thus, as the mission of Jesus was to the Jews, that of the Holy Spirit was to the church and that of the church to the world.

      We find, further, that the first Christian Church was that at Jerusalem; so that in a literal, as well as in a figurative sense, Jerusalem is the mother of all the churches of Christ on earth, and the pretensions of the Roman hierarchy, based upon the antiquity and authority of the church afterwards founded at Rome, are as false and unfounded as they are arrogant and presumptuous.

[ROBERT RICHARDSON.]      

Source:

Robert Richardson. "Principles and Purposes of the Reformation: A Brief Account of the Principles and Purposes of the Religious Reformation Urged by A. Campbell, and Others.--V. Commencement of the Christian Church." The Millennial Harbinger 23 (December 1852): 688-690.

NOTE: Included in Robert Richardson's The Principles and Objects of the Religious Reformation, Urged by A. Campbell and Others, Briefly Stated and Explained. 2d ed., rev. and enl. Bethany, VA: A. Campbell, 1853, pp. 59-63.

[MHA2 349-351]