Introduction

Do Christians really need another book concerning the church that has been the subject of so much study, preaching, teaching, and writing since Christ walked on this earth? The world is already filled with numerous ideas concerning the church; so is it possible to sort out the truth? When one thinks of all the study that has been done over the years and the different ideas which still exist concerning the church, he realizes there is still a great need for more study about the body of Christ. The Lord built one church, but though the years man has formulated many ideas concerning the meaning of this great institution. Out of man's thinking has grown hundreds of different organizations, all claiming to be the Lord's church. Even within the true church there are numerous ideas about different aspects of the one body. Surely there must be a way of arriving at a common understanding of Biblical teachings concerning the church.

Possible ways of studying about the church are many, but we feel there is one way which has long been overlooked and may possibly be the most effective way of all to understand the spiritual institution that Christ gave us. Old Testament prophecies, which foretell of the first coming of Christ and describe the church that he would establish at that time, give us beautiful descriptions of the church before it was established. We know that Jesus established the church exactly as he planned to do. If we therefore study these Old Testament descriptions, we learn more about the church that exists today. Actually, the main problem in this type of study is selecting the prophecies to discuss. There are so many prophecies concerning the church that it would be impossible to study them all. In this book we will attempt to deal with some of the most familiar people, places and events of the Old Testament and determine how they relate to the church today.

Now that we have stated how we plan to study the church, the obvious problem is our understanding the meaning of these Old Testament prophecies. To many people the study of Bible prophecy is fascinating, and many of the proposed interpretations do not coincide with the teachings we know to be true about scripture. We have all heard of the dooms day prophets who prey on people by claiming they can predict the date of the end of the world by using the Bible. Many of those dates have come and gone, so we must not be fooled into believing such predictions. There are others who attempt to predict the end of time by identifying certain nations as symbols of Bible prophecy. The Soviet Union was once a favorite subject of these types of interpretations, but it is no longer a nation. Once again those types of prophecies have failed. Still others predict the coming of an "anti-christ" whom they say will rule the world and gather the nations to battle against Christ and his followers. 1John 2:18 tells us that many anti-christs were already in the world during the first century. An anti-christ is not coming; many of them are already here, and have been for two thousand years. These predictions too fail when tested by the scriptures.

With all these false predictions being made by using Bible prophecies, is it possible to understand them correctly? The answer is, yes! The method that must be used is to let the Bible supply its own interpretations. If we use this approach, we have a foundation for interpretation that everyone could use to reach the same conclusion as to the meanings of these Old Testament prophecies. The purpose of this book is, therefore, to build a foundation for interpreting prophecy and then use that to learn more about the church today.

This study will not be the last which needs to be written about the church, but hopefully it will increase our understanding and appreciation for the greatest institution on this earth which was established by God himself - the church of Jesus Christ.

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