In 33 A.D., according to our current calendar, the Lord’s church was established on the first Pentecost following His resurrection. That occurrence is recorded in Acts 2:1-4. Jesus announced this to the apostles as Matthew 16:17-19 tells us.

Jesus called what He would establish, “My church.” He also called it the kingdom of heaven, as Daniel had done. The church is God’s kingdom on earth, the earthly phase of the heavenly kingdom. In spite of the teaching of some, it has been in existence since 33 A.D. as shown in Acts 2:29-36. Christ has had a kingdom on earth ever since, in the hearts of His followers. It will never be otherwise. It will never be an earthly kingdom restored in Jerusalem again.

The Jewish kingdom centered in Jerusalem ended in A.D. 70. Jesus prophesied of that in Matthew 24:1-34. Do not overlook v. 34. It happened in that generation in which Jesus spoke.

The church/kingdom of Christ came in fulfillment of the prophecies of old given in Joel 2:28ff and Daniel 2:44 and the promises of Jesus given to the apostles in John 14:26; 16:13 and Acts 1:4, 5, 8.

Daniel spoke of a kingdom that would never end. It never has and never will. Interpretations that teach otherwise are a contradiction of God’s word.

It is important to note that the promises concerning the Holy Spirit in John and Acts were given only to the apostles. Those promises were for no one else living then and they are not for any living today. The apostles were the ambassadors of Christ and His lawgivers. They had no successors. They received their authority from Christ and their revelations from the Holy Spirit. These inspired, authoritative revelations received from the Holy Spirit were taught and recorded in the New Testament scriptures for all eternity as we see from 1 Corinthians 2:11-13.

The apostles had no right to, did not, and could not change God’s revealed word. The Holy Spirit through inspiration assured that would be the case. They could not add to, take from, change, or contradict what was revealed to them. They spoke and wrote without error.

The apostles all died following the completion of the scriptures through the writings of the New Testament and we have had since that time God’s completed, authoritative, definite and absolute rule of faith.

Our task is to read, study, understand and follow God’s inspired word in the scriptures. Ages following the apostles’ death have done little to follow successfully God’s word as it is written, including this generation we are living in now, the 21st Century. What we have in the world today at best can be described as - - -

Following the death of the apostles, from the 2nd to the 7th century, change followed change until the 1st full-blown denomination was created in 606 A.D., which called itself “The Holy Catholic Apostolic Roman Church.” It is known to most as the Roman Catholic Church.

In the 16th century attempts began to reform the corruptions of the Catholic Church, becoming known as the Protestant Reformation. Those efforts resulted in the formation of the Lutheran, Reformed and Anglican (Church of England) denominations and further divisions have multiplied into the hundreds.

The claims of the Catholic Church to be the first century church established by Christ are simply unbelievable for those who know the Bible and church history. In the 13th Century, the Cardinals (An order directly under the Pope, but unknown to the scriptures) of the Catholic Church, said to the Pope, “Our teachings are often different from the Bible, and oftener still, contrary to it.” Their recommendation was that the laity (members of the Roman Church) not be allowed to read the scriptures so that they would not discover that. Doubters can read this for themselves in the Catholic Encyclopedia.

The claim is that the Apostles taught verbally things that authorized the many changes made. But what they wrote does not bear this out in the least. They would not, and could not, teach one thing and write another because they were inspired. The apostle Paul said that what he taught in one church he taught in all. The other apostles could do nothing less.

Modern day Christianity should be in all of its permanent aspects the same as First Century Christianity. What the apostles taught concerning salvation is exactly what should be taught today. How they taught the church to worship, serve God and live in holiness is exactly what should be taught today. How they organized the local churches should be exactly how they are organized today.

Down through the ages, many have had the attitude of Job before God said to him, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding (Job 38:1-4ff). They, as Job spoke “words without knowledge” and began changing the structure of things in the church as if they had knowledge.

Many today need to do as God told Job and prepare themselves like a man and answer God concerning the additions, subtractions, changes and contradictions they have made in His word. Christianity founded on the wisdom of God has been corrupted by the supposed wisdom of men. None had the right to change the teaching of the apostles. But they did, and continue to do so today.

The first change was in the order of church organization, creating levels of authority above the local churches. This change made possible for all the other changes that followed year after year. Any denomination that has levels of authority over the local church is following the error of Roman Catholicism not the word of God.

Those who profess to follow the scriptures must do so, not just claim to do so. We all read in Acts 14:23 that “elders” were appointed in every church. That’s speaking of the local church, every local church that was established that had men who met the qualifications for the work. The elders were older men in the faith who met the qualifications in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. There was no organization above the local church in God’s plan. To create such is to add to God’s word by twisting the scriptures through lack of understanding or unwittingly following the tradition of the Catholic Church.

Different terms are used for the office of the eldership, which can be confusing for those who do not take the time to examine all that is said concerning elders. It is not all that difficult, however, to note that in Acts 20:17 those who are called elders are called overseers in v. 28. Then, in 1 Timothy men are called “bishops,” a word meaning overseer.

Both Timothy and Titus show that the elders/bishops were to be selected from those who were “the husband of one wife.” They were to be married men. Men married to a woman. Since around 1975 the Episcopal Church has been ordaining women priests. This led to their being bishops. Fairly recently the Episcopal Church here in the United States created a worldwide scandal in electing an unmarried man as bishop who is openly homosexual. More recently a woman was selected to lead the Presbyterian Church (USA). Even more recent, a United Methodist preacher told us in the Monticello News of his denominations celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the granting of full clergy rights to women and the Episcopal Church consecrating a female bishop as the presiding bishop of their denomination. And he says the world has been blessed by this. How is this something to be rejoiced in when the elders/bishops (and preachers/evangelists also) that we read of in the scriptures were males, not females; males married to females. God condemns the adding to and changing of his word, not blesses it.

Titus uses the terms “elders” and “bishop” interchangeably. These elders were “overseers.” of the local church in which they were appointed. There was a plurality of elders in every church. Their job was to shepherd the flock of God as a shepherd oversaw his flock (Acts 20:28). They were neither preachers primarily nor were they overseers of congregations other than the one in which they were appointed. They oversaw the work of the local church, including the work of any preacher/evangelist who worked with them. They were also called “pastors,” or shepherds. Their work in this office was not that of a preacher, though this term has been given today generally to preachers.

Because the leaders of denominational Christianity, modern day Christianity, have led their followers so far from the Christianity of the 1st century, the average person does not recognize what has taken place or that it is not in keeping with the scriptures. They have been taught that such things are all right; that it is not important that such things as presented in this paper are not agreed with.

The divisions among believers are rejoiced in, applauded, and advocated by many of their leaders, teaching that God provides all this so that each may make their own selection and choose that which suits them.

The greatest need in America is for 1st Century Christianity. Everett Ferguson’s The Church of Christ: A Biblical Ecclesiology for Today, points out that leading scholars among all faiths have come to the conclusion that the teaching and practices of faithful churches of Christ are, indeed the teaching of Scripture.

As Stafford North, a professor of Bible at Oklahoma Christian University since 1952 says, “We baptize for remission of sins, for example, because that is what the Bible teaches and because it is what the early church practiced.”

Friends, there is no denominational wall around us. We are Christians only, just as all were in the 1st Century. We are not perfect, nor do we claim that we have a monopoly on divine truth. We do claim to practice just what God’s word teaches just as multiplied thousands of congregations do who stand with us. We are absolutely free from all human authority in matters of doctrine, free to study and practice God’s word unhindered by any denominational creed, book of discipline, book of order, Church manual or Church laws. Those walls, which they have erected around themselves, separate and exclude us and all who will not agree to follow them instead of simply what the Bible says.

It is to such freedom that we invite all who desire to take the Bible and the Bible only as their rule of faith and practice, returning to Christianity as it was taught and practiced in the 1st Century. We invite you to investigate our claims and see for yourself. Jesus invites you to join Him and be His follower, just as the Bible teaches. ~A