Jarrel - Baptist Church Perpetuity - Landmark Baptist

The only possible way to deny that this is a positive promise of Church
Perpetuity is to affirm that God departs from His people, who do not depart
from Him, which is affirming that. He is unfaithful.
II. “In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which
shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but
it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand
forever.” — Daniel 2:44.
(1.) Here God affirms He will set up a kingdom — but one kingdom.
(2.) This kingdom includes the church or churches, as the United States
government includes the State or the States.
(3.) That this kingdom and church or churches are in-divisible, is certain.
(4.) He affirms this kingdom, including His church, shall not be left to other
people; i.e., under the law of the old covenant, the kingdom, because of
apostasy, was given to the Gentiles — “other people,” but under the law of the
new covenant there shall be no apostasy of the church, so as to cause it to be
given to “other people” — to Wesley, Calvin, etc., and their followers. No
room here for men to set up churches of their own on the ground of the original
churches having all apostatized.
(5.) This kingdom “shall NEVER be destroyed.”
(6.) This kingdom “shall stand FOREVER.”
(7.) This kingdom, instead of becoming apostate, shall be aggressive — “shall
break in pieces and consume all ‘other kingdoms.’”
(8.) The days of these kings refer to the days of the Caesars. The only possible
way of avoiding this promise of Church Succession is to deny that this
kingdom and church are indissoluble. That this denial is vain is evident, from
the fact, that, in the New Testament, the two are never separate, and the
promises of preservation therein to the one are equally to the other. So writers
of all denominations hold them one. Here, then, in the Old Testament are the
most unequivocal promises of Church Perpetuity.
III. “Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it.” — Matthew 16:18.
(1.) This is church, but one kind of church — a kingdom — not “branches.”
The New Testament says that, as individuals, Christ’s disciples are “branches”
of Him. But it nowhere so much as intimates there are “branches of the
church.” If there are “branches of the church” where is their trunk??