This article is intended to show firstly, that before the end of the first century the church then was holding the same doctrines as we find in the church of Rome today (and also in the protestant churches) and that in their assertion of that fact the church of Rome claims that they constitute the true church of Christ. Secondly, as there was a fundamental difference in the faith of the church that Jesus established based on the Old Testament promises, and that which followed the influx of gentile converts based on gentile philosophy which gradually infiltrated into the church, that the church of Rome being a continuation of the latter, their claim to be the true church of Christ, notwithstanding the honour in which his name is held by them, cannot be sustained. The promises on which Jesus based his church form no part of the faith of the Roman or Protestant churches.
The quotations made in the article are taken from the vulgate, the Roman Catholic Bible.
Ancient Gentile philosophy was largely based on their imagination and on fear of their gods, which they believed presided over the various forms of nature, some benevolent, others vengeful and cruel. They also believed in the continuance of life after death.
The Hebrews, on the other hand, presented God as a unity, underived and having undivided authority, with infinite power, wisdom and love. The Hebrew written records are also of the highest ethical standards for the practical guidance of people in their private and national lives. They believed that death is the extinction of being.
Gentiles form the vast majority of the peoples of the earth. The Hebrews were but a fraction in comparison, and of this fraction only a small percentage remained loyal to the Hebrew philosophy and law. The great difference between these two philosophies is in respect, firstly ,to the Creator and, secondly, to the death state.
Gentile conceptions of creation are confused and absurd. Their gods were like humans, except for their superior powers and continuity. They believed also that the signs in the heavens, in the sun and moon and stars, and in the great storms which swept over the earth, and other calamities, were the result of the malevolent powers exercised by their gods. The prophets of Israel warned their people against these absurdities thus: “Walk ye not in the ways of the gentiles, be not afraid of the signs of the heavens which the heathen fear” ( Jer. 10. 2). To appease the angry gods they sacrificed both children and adults. Cortes. in his conquest of Mexico in the 16th century, fully testifies to this practice on a prodigious scale: and this was a universal practice.
The Hebrew concept of creation corresponds with reason and science. They believed in the Creator as a beneficent being with feelings as of a kind father towards his children.
Regarding the death state, their conception was the same as that held by most of the Christian churches of today, namely, that man has within him an indestructible element they call the soul, which is supposed to survive the body at the time of death. The Hebrew records teach the contrary—that man is a creature of the dust and lives only by the infusion of the spirit of God, as Job puts it, “The spirit of God is within my nostrils”, or again, If God set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust” (Job 27. 3; 34. 14).
Among the Gentiles there were “gods many and lords many”, but to the Hebrews there was but one God (1 Cor. 8. 4). Today much of the Gentile plurality has disappeared with the spread of Christianity, but there still remains a plurality in the Christian God-head—the Father, Son and Holy Ghost is in direct contradiction to the Hebrew formula, “Hear, 0 Israel, the Lord thy God is one Lord”. The Hebrew scriptures know nothing of a Trinity.
Regarding the death state, the difference between the ancient Gentile and the Christian is only in a matter of detail. The Gentiles disposed of the spirits of men into the aerial, from whence the demons, as they were called, could affect the living upon earth either beneficially or adversely, and this latter view is frequently mentioned in the New Testament. The Christian, on the other hand, sends some to heaven, others to hell to suffer torments for ever, others to purgatory preparatory to entering paradise. These ideas are the logical result of the Gentile idea of the continuance of the individual after death. But there is no such idea to be found in the Hebrew scriptures, and Jesus himself declares it to be a lie. The divine record of the Old Testament is very simple; the word of God is, “Thou shalt surely die” (Gen. 2. 17). Death is defined as a return to the ground (Gen. 3. 4). Few people hold to the first declaration. The foregoing remarks are briefly intended as an introduction to the distinction between the Jewish church as established by Jesus and the Christian church into which it developed. The church established by Jesus was essentially Hebraic.
Jesus was a Jew and was brought up in the Jewish way of life and faith; he was also a diligent reader of the Old Testament scriptures; he was renowned for his goodness in his early years. At the age of thirty he was baptized of John and was there and then revealed as the promised Messiah, so that from that time he began to preach that the kingdom of God was nigh at hand. He was opposed by the Pharisees and priests, who demanded his authority for the claim. He referred them to the work he was doing; “Tell us plainly”, they asked, “if thou be the Messiah”, and Jesus answered them, “The works that I do in the name of the Father, they give testimony of me” (Jno. 10. 25). His claim was based on Old Testament promises made by God to Abraham and David; thus, to Abraham, “In thee and in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 12. 3; 17. 8). Paul explains the seed here mentioned to refer to Jesus as Messiah (Gal. 3. 16). The promise to David was, “Thine house shall be faithful, and thy kingdom before thy face, and thy throne shall be firm for ever”. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews calls these promises “the anchor of the soul, sure and firm” (Heb. 6. 19).
Surely, then, these must be the foundation on which Jesus established his church; but both the Roman and Protestant churches are silent upon them. When Jesus put the question to Peter as to his claim, Peter replied, “Thou art the Messiah, the son of the living God”. Jesus thereupon said, “Thou art Peter and upon this rock will I build my church”. Although there is a play here upon the words Petra and Petros, Jesus was most obviously referring to the confession made by Peter, which formed the foundation truth of his church (Matt. 16. 18). The Pharisees and priests disputed the claim of Jesus to be the Messiah, but many Jews did acknowledge him. For instance, at the time of his baptism there were Andrew, Peter, Philip and Nathaniel; then when Jesus moved to Capernaum we read of John, James and Matthew who left all and followed him; others came a little later, Bartholomew, Thomas, Thaddeus—all of Galilee—Judas was the only Judaean among the twelve.
As, therefore, Jesus was declared to be the Messiah, king of Israel, it was fitting that he should be assisted by twelve apostles according to the twelve tribes of Israel (Matt. 19. 27). Now, as the synagogues were closed against acknowledging his claim, Jesus had no option but to “call out” from the synagogues those who did support him, and these Jews formed the nucleus of his church—his ecclesia—a term which signified a “calling out”. Here, then, we have the establishment of the Jewish church, which continued completely Jewish till about the year A.D. 41, at which time a great change took place in the church.
Peter was authorised to open the door of faith to the Gentiles. There was, however, no change authorised in the foundation principles of the faith as described above, a fact fully supported in Paul’s various epistles and especially as he stood before Agrippa to defend the faith, when he declared, “For the hope of the promise that was made by God to the Fathers do I stand subject to judgment, unto which our twelve tribes serving God night and day hope to come” (Acts 26. 6-7).
Before the end of the first century his hope seems to have become quite forgotten: th flood of Gentile converts had impercep- tibly infiltrated their philosophy into the church, which quite changed the character of its faith and complexion and accounted for the decline and eventual extinction of the Jewish element. The church then became completely Gentile, and has remained so till the present day.
The doctrines which were gradually introduced into this Gentile Christian church are utterly at variance with the Jewish Christian church, which based its faith on the Old Testament promises made to the Hebrew Fathers. They were also opposed to the Gospels and Epistles, for we read in them nothing like the citations from the Apostolic Fathers of the first century, Barnabas, Clement, Ignatius and Polycarp.
The foregoing brief summary is intended as an introduction to the basis upon which the beliefs of the church were changed. We will deal with this aspect in the next part of this article.
Is Pentecost Happening Today? (Part 7) – Tongues Shall Cease