Twisted said:
Biblebeliever said:
Twisted said:
Then why do 99% of Baptists preach that Matthew 16:18 is about the Church?
Good question. And this is my answer and response:
I also believe that Matthew 16:18 is about the Church, in that Jesus Christ is the foundation upon which His church is built and founded upon. And that His Disciples, His 12 apostles are were the first members of this Church, the Body of Christ.
Now of course among the Dispensationalists, there is quite a debate over when the Church (the Body of Christ) actually started, as some say and teach that it started in Acts 2, others teach it was Acts 9 when the church got started since that is when Saul was saved and converted and became Paul. And as odd as this sounds, there are even those out there who teach that the Church actually started in Acts 28.
Now from my study of the New Testament, I believe and am convinced that the Church officially began at Pentecost (Acts 2). And that the Church, the Body of Christ is made up of and consists of both Saved Jews and Saved Gentiles. And so while Jesus referred to His church that he would build in Matthew 16:18, I believe that it (the Body of Christ) started at Pentecost since at this point Jesus had already risen again from the Dead, and was already ascended up to His Heavenly Father.
It is therefore also important to note the transitions which take place in the Holy Scriptures. Another example of this, would be John 3:16 where Jesus Himself says that God (His Father) so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son (Jesus speaking of Himself) that whosever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Notice that Jesus spoke this very Scripture unto Nicodemus as if it already happened even though He had not been crucified yet for the sins of the world, still though, Jesus speaks it in the past tense. Because He knows that this Scripture was already going to be fulfilled by Him.
Of course Matt. 16:18 can't be referring to the Church, which is Christ's Body, since no Jew at that time was a part of it, and since that was a mystery not revealed until Paul. And why would that "Church" want to crash through gates and go into Hell?
I too hold the position that the Body of Christ started at Acts 2. Again, 99% of Baptist preachers make no such distinction. A horrible error of not rightly dividing.
I believe the scriptures clearly teach that the Church began
at the time of the cross. They were baptized with the Holy Spirit in Acts 1
for power to witness (Acts 1:4, 8-9). They had already received the Holy Spirit in John 20:22.
Ephesians 2:14-16 (NKJV)
Christ Our Peace
14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as
to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in
one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.
The
one body is the church. The confusion is assuming that because the
mystery of the church is revealed by the apostle Paul the church did not begin until he came along. Concerning the church Jesus talked about
Dr. Henry Morris had this to say about Matthew 18:17.
?The principles of dealing with an erring brother in the church are outlined in Matthew 18:15-17, yet Jesus was talking only to His disciples (Matthew 18:1). Evidently, He was speaking to them as if they were already, in effect, an organized local church. In fact, they had all been organized by John the Baptist and were John?s organized disciples until he directed them to Christ (compare John 1:35-37 to Acts 1:21,22).
The church that Christ would build ? or at least its first local representative ? was thus already organized, but it would not be energized with the Spirit for its great mission until after His resurrection, on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2).?
1 Timothy 6:3-4
3 If any man teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words,
even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, 4
he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions
Peter Ruckman and other hyper-dispensationalists have
wrongly divided the word. Where else can one find the ?wholesome words of our Lord Jesus Christ? but in the beginning of the Book of Acts and the Gospels? It is like the spiritual building of Ephesians 2:19,20 without a foundation. Ultra-Dispensationalism gives us that floating building.
The Book of Acts is a transitional book; but so are the four Gospels. You can give to the Jew what is the Jews; to the Greek what is the Greeks; and to the Church what is the church?s without discarding the whole book!
The Law of commandments contained in ordinances (Eph 2:15,16) was permitted for awhile alongside the preaching of the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world (John 1:29); however it was abolished at the cross as far as God was concerned. The Book of Acts records historically the phasing out of the old economy and the phasing in of the new.
The veil was rent in the Gospels; not in the epistles!
