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HOW THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH BEGAN
The Christian Church began on the Jewish day of the Feast of Pentecost when the followers of Jesus received the promise of the Father, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:4.) The Lord Jesus had commanded them to wait in Jerusalem until they received power from God. As they were filled with the Holy Spirit the 120 disciples began to speak in tongues (unlearned languages) as Jesus had promised. (Mark 16:17.) They knew that they had been Spirit filled in a new and wonderful way that had never been available before. Having received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, they thus became the first members of the Body of Christ - the Church. (1 Corinthians 12:13.) As prophesied by the prophet Joel, the time had come when God was prepared to pour out His Spirit upon all flesh. (Acts 2:16-17)
EARLY DAYS- THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES A crowd of onlookers gathered. The apostle Peter, now filled with and inspired by the Spirit of God as never before, explained to the crowd the meaning of what they saw and heard. They asked him what God expected of them if, as he claimed, Jesus was the risen Messiah and had made available this remarkable gift. What God inspired Peter to answer that day set the divine pattern for salvation once and for all. First, he said, a person must turn to the Lord in repentance. That is, to change direction - more specifically to turn to God's way. Then in obedience to Jesus' commandment they were to be baptised in water. Next they must receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit from Christ himself. (Acts 2:38.) Jesus had previously pointed out that God was more than willing to give people His Holy Spirit if they asked for it. (Luke 11:13.)
For years after the day of Pentecost the book of the Acts of the Apostles records that time after time groups of people were saved. They were all baptised by immersion as they turned to the Lord in obedience and they all received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. In each case they received the promised sign or proof of speaking in other tongues. (Acts 19:4-6.) Just as Peter knew that the gentiles had received the Holy Spirit, because he heard them speak in tongues, so we today still depend on God's promised supernatural sign to know that we have received the same blessing. (Acts 10;44-47.) This is a vital part of God's salvation plan and has never changed. Jesus Christ still saves us "...by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost." (Titus 3:5-6 )
Jesus died on the cross so that all who repent and turn to Him can be born again by the Spirit. This is the faith that was once delivered to the saints on the day of Pentecost. We must "... earnestly contend (strive, argue, fight) for the faith," which was in the early Church - the common salvation pattern. ( Jude 3.)
ERROR AND CONFUSION CREEP IN:
The Encyclopedia Britannica records that glossolalia (speaking in tongues) has occurred during Christian revivals down through the last 2000 years. Whenever people turn back to the Bible and do just what it says to do, Holy Spirit revival breaks out. However, as Jude explains, even in the early days there were unsaved people infiltrating their meetings and were introducing and promoting their own ideas. They might have been lovely, religious people who talked about Jesus and God, but they were introducing their own ideas contrary to scripture. Many of their man made religious ways have become respected traditions, even though quite wrong. They were introduced by people who had never received God's Spirit ( Jude 10 ) and who can never really understand God's word. (I Corinthians 2:14.) So the Bible tells us there are basically two groups calling themselves Christians in the world and basically two kinds of churches. To distinguish between them let us call them the true Church and the pseudo church.
At first, there were those who received the Holy Spirit as at the beginning, with God's sign, proof, and seal of approval of speaking in tongues. As a result they could confidently say with Bible authority that they were Christians, members of the true Church. Then came those who began by calling themselves Christians without God's confirming sign. These are members of the pseudo church and assume that if they call themselves Christians they must have received the Holy Spirit. This, of course, is totally back-to-front and is not the faith that was once delivered to the saints. They believe in another gospel, which the apostle Paul warned us to shun. (Galatians 1:9.) They worship another Jesus, who no longer baptises people in the Holy Spirit, even though the Bible clearly states that this specified experience is for all, (Acts 2:39.)
Most of so-called "church history," with its arguments, intrigues, inquisitions, killings, and wars is not the history of the true Church at all. It is just the record of a whole series of man-made religious groupings where God's clear instructions are set aside in favour of unscriptural traditions. This is an age-old problem that even Jesus came up against and which eventually resulted in His crucifixion. (Matthew 15;79.) Only when men and women follow the Bible pattern precisely can they please God and demonstrate to Him that their hearts are right. It is God they have to convince, not man, and He cannot be fooled. God, who knows the hearts of all, confirms His acceptance of us when Jesus fills us with the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. Only when we allow the Lord to minister to us in His specified way can we legitimately call ourselves Christians. Only then can we correctly claim to be members of the true Church of Jesus the Christ.
THE FORMER AND LATTER RAIN OF GOD'S SPIRIT:
In the early days of the Christian Church thousands of people received the Holy Spirit. The seed of the gospel germinated and sprang to life as Joel had prophesied when God poured out the former rain. (Joel 2:23.) History then records a decline in the numbers who received this specific experience. It was not because this blessing was no longer available or no longer necessary. It was rather that the true gospel had been replaced by superstition and doctrines devised by natural men who had never received the Spirit themselves. Very few expected to be blessed as the Bible promised, so very few were. Not only that, access to the Bible was severely restricted and very few knew what the Bible said in any case. Most of those who did have access to it did not really understand it, for they had never received the Holy Spirit - in spite of their claims to the contrary. God's confirming proof or sign was no longer expected and thus no longer sought and received. True Bible faith was a rare thing. No wonder this period is called the Dark Ages. It lasted for well over 1200 years.
THEN CAME THE REFORMATION:
With the advent of the printing press the Bible became much more readily available. People began to see that what the pseudo church taught and what the Bible declared were vastly different. There were scattered showers of God's Spirit as some believed God's word rather than the pseudo church. Many read the Bible for themselves, saw some of the problems, initiated changes, and formed new groups, but still did not understand the essential nature of what happened on the day of Pentecost. They never received the baptism of the Holy Spirit as at the beginning, but made the same old assumptions and continued the basic errors that caused problems in the true Church in the first place and destroyed the faith of many.
A few read the Bible and obeyed it. They called on the Lord to fill them with the Holy Spirit as at the beginning. They personally received their own Pentecostal experience, exactly as described in Acts of the Apostles, chapter 2. They were made members of the true Church by Jesus Himself. Often, as Jesus had warned, they were persecuted, imprisoned, tortured, and murdered by the pseudo church. No wonder that many today are not very impressed with what they mistakenly understand to be the history of the Christian Church. They are looking in the wrong direction and at the wrong group.
This century has witnessed a great out-pouring of the Spirit. Literally millions have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the accompanying sign of speaking in tongues. This is what the prophet Joel described as the latter rain. Just as farmers hope for a good rain shortly before the harvest to fill out the ears of wheat, so God is pouring out His latter rain of the Spirit. This is in preparation for His harvest when the Lord Jesus will return to reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. For those who have substituted another gospel, who have diluted or polluted the gospel, there are warnings. Such behaviour angers the Lord. Such blind error causes many others to remain blind to the glorious gospel, which saves and heals and prepares us for Christ's return. God's warning in the Bible is that His wrath is upon those who, having access to His word, will not obey the gospel. (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9.)
When this Church age ends and a new age called the millennium begins. The anointed ones, the Christians, the Body of Christ will meet Jesus on His return and join together with Him to live and reign on this earth. It is the end of the Church age but not the end of the true Church, for it is His body and will live with Him forever.