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Chapter 3: The Definition Of The Church
Before proceeding further it will be necessary to examine into the meaning of the word "church." This word has come to be used in such a broad sense that it takes in and is applied to any religious organization, or society, whether a Scriptural church or not. By some writers it is made to "include the entire body of professed…
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Chapter 4: The First Church
The night before his crucifixion the Saviour formally assembled his disciples in an upper room in Jerusalem, and with them he instituted the Memorial Supper. This was the closing act of his life as far as it related to his church, and was well calculated to remind it continually of the responsibility which rested upon it as the executor of…
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Chapter 5: The Expansion of the Church
A.D. 29. After the day of Pentecost the disciples went everywhere gladly preaching the word, while great success attended their ministry. In a very short time a second church was planted at Samaria, and soon another at Antioch. Persecutions were now inflicted upon the Christians everywhere, and Saul was on his way to Damascus, with authority to arrest men and…
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Chapter 6: Heresies and Persecutions (A.D. 34-426)
Heresies and corruptions begun to creep into the churches very early in their history. Even during the time of the apostles there was a strong tendency to introduce Jewish rites into the Christian churches, and if the apostles had not learned that "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty," they did learn that the most untiring vigilance was necessary to…
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Chapter 7: Waldensean Period (1260 Years)
"And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and three score days. And to the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, times, and…
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Chapter 8: Waldensean Period (Continued)
A.D. 500 ANABAPTISTS.—In the year A. D. 500, we find Anabaptists existing in France and Spain. ''In the language of councils at this period, Christians are denominated, either from their opinions, heretics, or with a view to their discipline, schismatics; but there was one article of discipline in which they were all agreed, and from which they were frequently named,…
