Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 20, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 16.

1493.—The First Church and its Name.

What was the name of the first church? Was the Roman Catholic worshiped any time before the seventy years after the crucifixion of Christ? Did the church of which Christ was the Corner-stone in Zion have any name? L. E. A.

We do not know as God gave His church any definite name. The first church carries us back to the very beginning. “Congregation of the Lord” it is often called in the Old Testament. Deut. 23:3. We can go back to the beginning and read, “Then began men to call themselves by the name of the Lord.” Gen. 4:26, margin. In Gen. 6:2 they are called “the sons of God;” in Ex. 19:6, “a kingdom of priests,” “a holy nation.” In the New Testament this congregation, this nation, is called “the church in the wilderness.” Acts 7:38. The word “church” comes from ekklesia, meaning a company regularly called out. Sometimes it is “the church of God,” sometimes “the church of Christ,” sometimes only “the church.” In Eph. 1:23 and elsewhere these called-out ones are called “the body of Christ,” and in ch. 2:19, 20, “the household of God,” on which both prophets and apostles builded, Jesus Christ being the chief Corner-stone. All these refer to “the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” 1 Tim. 3:15. Twice the term “Christian” is used. Acts 11:26; 26:28. One epistle is addressed, for instance, to “the church of the Thessalonians;” another, “to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse;” another, “to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi;” another, “to the saints which are at Ephesus;” another, to “the churches of Galatia;” another, “unto the church of God which is at Corinth;” another, “to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints;” sometimes, “the church that is in their [or his] house.” From these, and other references, it is evident that the “church” dates from the time that souls responded to God’s call to come out from the world, and that God has given that church no definite, specific name. The Roman Catholic Church dates from the apostasy in Rome. It began when the mystery of iniquity began to work and men should arise in the church and draw away disciples after themselves. 2 Thess. 2:7; Acts 20:29, 30. The true church of the living God centers in that body of believers which has the twofold witness of the Scriptures and God’s law translated through Christ Jesus in her own life.

1494.—The Sabbath for the Gentiles.

Where is the mention of the Sabbath during the long period of years of Noah’s time, and the 400 years while the children of Israel were in Egypt? By an unbiased mind the Sabbath was given to the Jews, just as they reached Sinai. It was not intended for the Gentiles. Ex. 35:1-3.

The book of Genesis covers a very long period, over 2,500 years, according to Usher’s chronology. It is not a book of laws, but a very brief history of God’s dealing with mankind and a record of the ancestry of Christ. It is not a book of laws. All that are mentioned are mentioned incidentally. Yet the institution of the Sabbath is mentioned in the very beginning of that period. Gen. 2:1-3. And the record in Genesis 6 and 7 shows clearly that days were reckoned by sevens. The sojourn in Egypt is covered in a very few chapters in the last of Genesis and first of Exodus, and again no laws are given. This has not been the purpose of the writer of these records. The same thing is true during the period between the entrance to Canaan and the time of David, when much fuller history is given, and when there is no dispute as to the observation of the Sabbath. For hundreds of years it is not mentioned.

God gives special promise through His prophet to the strangers who take hold of His covenant, and keep His Sabbath. Isa. 56:1-7. And it may be said that there is absolutely no promise, whatsoever, to the Gentiles, only as they get it through Israel; for “salvation is of the Jews.” John 4:22; Rom. 9:4.

Two more scriptures which ought to settle the Sabbath question forever in the minds of all believers of the Bible: “The Sabbath was made for man” (Mark 2:27); “God that made the world . . . hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation” (Acts 17:24-26). Gentiles are men.