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The Perpetuity of the Church
Ecclesiology · Doctrinal study

The Perpetuity of the Church

Christ promised that His church would endure. He kept His promise, through real and imperfect churches, in every age.

Theologica Editorial15 min read
Overview

Why Perpetuity Matters

“Where was your church before Luther?” Roman Catholic writers have pressed that question for five centuries. Behind it lies a deeper one: has Christ kept His promise to His church? We believe He has. In every age since Jesus and the apostles, there have been churches that substantially held to the principles of the New Testament.

That conviction is called the perpetuity of the church. It is not a claim that Baptists can trace a family tree back to the Jordan River. It is confidence that Christ meant what He said when He promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against His church.

It matters for three reasons. It honors Christ's faithfulness: what He promised, He kept. It shows what a church is: not whatever institution has the longest pedigree, but a congregation that holds the New Testament faith and order. And it explains who Baptists are. We are not Protestants who left Rome, because Christ's churches were never part of Rome.

The Key Question

When a history book says that “the church” did something, which church does it mean?

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Further reading

For Deeper Study

  • The Pilgrim ChurchAmazon E. H. BroadbentA survey of churches that practiced New Testament principles through the centuries (1931), from a Brethren perspective. Sympathetic to the dissenters, and generous in reading the hostile sources.
  • The Reformers and Their StepchildrenAmazon Leonard VerduinExplains why the Reformers' state churches, like Rome, persecuted the Anabaptists and other free churches (Eerdmans, 1964).
  • The Anabaptist StoryAmazon William R. EstepA Baptist historian's introduction to the Anabaptists, their convictions, and their persecution.
  • Martyrs MirrorAmazon Thieleman J. van BraghtThe Mennonite classic (1660) recording believers baptized on confession of faith through the centuries and the Anabaptist martyrs of the Reformation era.
  • The Baptist Heritage: Four Centuries of Baptist WitnessAmazon H. Leon McBethThe standard survey (Broadman, 1987) from the view that Baptists began among English Separatists. Useful for hearing the majority academic view in its own words.
  • Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.

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