Jarrel - Baptist Church Perpetuity - Landmark Baptist

CHAPTER 2. — CHURCH PERPETUITY. A
FUNDAMENTAL TRUTH OF THE BIBLE.
1. Inasmuch as many deny the Bible teaches that the Church of Christ should
never totally apostatize, I will here prove that it teaches its preservation until
the Second Coming of Christ. Let us first settle what is the church.
The M.E. Discipline defines the church:
“The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men in which the
pure Word of God is preached, and the sacraments duly administered
according to Christ’s ordinance in all things that are of necessity requisite to
the same. f2 Substituting ordinances for “sacraments” and adding Scriptural
Church Government, this definition is good.
Dr. Hiscox:
“A Christian Church is a congregation of baptized believers in Christ,
worshipping together, associated in the faith and fellowship of the gospel;
practicing its precepts; observing its ordinances; recognizing and receiving
Christ as their Supreme lawgiver and ruler; and taking His Word as their
sufficient and exclusive rule of faith and practice in all matters of religion.” f3
This expresses what the Methodist Discipline seems to mean, but with much
more clearness. With equal clearness J.M. Pendleton, D.D., f4 E. Adkins, D.D.,
f5 f6 f7 f8
H. Harvey, D.D., Henry M. Dexter, D.D., W.W. Gardner, D.D.,
William Crowell, D.D., f9 say the same thing.
The New Hampshire Confession says:
“We believe that a visible church of Christ is a congregation of baptized
believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel;
observing the ordinances of Christ; governed by His laws; and exercising the
gifts, rights and privileges invested in them by His Word,” f10 etc.
Ekklesia — the word for church — (ekklhsi>a) occurs 114 times in the New
Testament, In all but three it is rendered church. It refers to the Christian
Church once typically, ( Acts 7:38) the remaining 110 occurrences
antitypically. In 99 instances, by counting, I find it denotes local
organizations; in 12, by synecdoche, it means all the local organizations. It is
used by synecdoche in Matt. 16:18; Ephesians 3:10, 21; 5:23, 24, 25, 27,
29, 32; Hebrews 12:23, and, possibly, one or two other occurrences.
Says E.J. Fish, D.D.: