A History of the True Church

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Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

Founded on the Rock

While the term "Protestant" originated in Reformation times, when strong fearless men boldly protested against the false doctrines of the Roman Catholic church, we shall use the same term to represent a people who, long before the days of the reformers, stood for the faith of Protestantism. The Scriptural name applied to these people at the time of our Savior was the "Church of God," and this work will prove, as it has set out to do, both from Scripture and secular history, that this New Testament church was not the church which later ruled the world from Rome, known as the Roman Catholic church.

The church set in order by Jesus Christ has remained separate and distinct down through the gospel dispensation to the present time, and, even amidst the most severe persecution, it has held forth the true light, carrying the torch of freedom and religious liberty down to our own day and time.

The word "Protestant" should not apply only to the people who in the days of Martin Luther protested against the error and corruption of the Church of Rome; but it rightly applies to a people who have since the days of Moses, and even before that time, protested against error, superstition, idolatry, mythology, witchcraft, and every form of pagan religion and philosophy. Hence this work, as it sets forth the true history of these protesting people, cannot have for its beginning the time of the Protestant Reformation, or even the days of our Savior. Mention is made of the "Church," as found in Acts 7:38, which takes us to a much earlier period. The text reads, speaking of Jesus, "This is He that was with the church in the wilderness." The same church being constituted of, as it always has, God's true children here upon earth, existed in the wilderness. Instead of Jesus endeavoring to reform it with so much corruption, error, and superstition, he immediately set out in the work of reorganization, choosing anew the twelve and the seventy.

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