By
Shelby G. Floyd
Credit: Google Images
About 32 A.D., or one year before the day of Pentecost, Jesus declared, “Upon this rock I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18). Did Christ in fact do what he said he would do? Yes he did. On the day of Pentecost the apostles received the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4). And all of them stood up and preached the good news in languages that everyone could understand (Acts 2:5-14).
We have one of the apostles sermon recorded—the apostle Peter. Near the end of his sermon the audience cried out, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” His answer was, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). The Bible declares, “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls” (Acts 2:41). And in the last verse of that chapter, the Bible says, “And the Lord added to the church daily such as were being saved” (Acts 2:47). Jesus said “I will build my church” and one year later the church is spoken of as being in existence.
Now the question is can we identify that church in our day and time? The church existed on the day of Pentecost and up to the end of the first century. Can we identify that same church today? It would be a reflection upon your intelligence to suggest that all of the churches today with their different doctrines and practices would in fact be the church we read about in the Bible. Continue reading “Identity Theft Prevention–Identifying the New Testament Church Today!”