THE SUCCESSION OF TRUTH FROM AGE TO AGE.

THE SUCCESSION OF TRUTH FROM AGE TO AGE

In the patriarchal age the teaching of truth was mostly confined to home (Job 1:4-5). This was continued into the Mosaic dispensation (Deuteronomy 4:9-10; 6:7-9; 11:19-20; Psalms 78:l-7).

This teaching of truth in the home continued even into the New Testament Testament dispensation. (II Timothy 1:5; 3:15; Titus 2:3). As father and mother taught son and daughter the truth, God's truth had a succession from one to another.


The nation of Israel had priests who publicly taught the people (II Chronicles 17:7-9; 35:3; Nehemiah 8:9; Malachi 2:7). There was a succession of truth in that nation. There were also special theological schools for the prophets at Naioth (I Samuel 19:20), Bethel (II Kings 2:3) Jericho (II Kings 2:5,15), Gilgal (II Kings 4:38), and most likely Jerusalem (II Kings 22:14; II Chronicles 34:27). Individual believers taught other people the truth (Psalms 51:12-13; Daniel 12:3).

In the New Testament we see Christ as the Master Teacher who practiced what He preached (Acts 1:1). "And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, ..." (Matthew 4:23). "Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught." (John 7:14 cf. Luke 24:27).

Before leaving this world Jesus Christ committed the public teaching ministry to His church: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." (Matthew 28:19-20).

John Gill comments on the words, "I am with you alway, even unto the end at the world," thusly: "... meaning, not merely to the end of their lives, which would be the end of the world to them; nor to the end of the Jewish world, or state, which was not a great way off, though this is sometimes the sense of this phrase; but to the end of the present world, the universe: not that the apostles should live to the end of it but that whereas Christ would have a church and a people to the end of the world, and the Gospel and the ordinances of it should be administered so long, and there should be Gospel ministers till that time;

Christ's sense is, that he would grant his presence to them, his inmediate disciples, and to all that should succeed them in future generations, to the end of time ..." (Exposition of New Testament, Volume I, page 377).

In the Book of Acts and the epistles, we see the churches doing what Christ commanded them (Acts 5:42; 21:28; Galatians 6:6).

CONCLUSION

God has preserved His truth from generation to generation in the homes of true believers, by a God-fearing nation, and by New Testament churches.

There has always been true churches with God-called ministers who taught the next generation. This is why we have true churches today, who continue to hold up Jesus Christ who is the Truth. It will continue to be so until Jesus comes.

Evolutionists speak of "missing links" between man and beast. Some Baptists speak of missing links in the chain of our Baptist succession.

These anti-successionists say, "You cannot connect the European Anabaptists with the English Baptists," or "You can't get Baptists across the English Channel."

Let these followers of William H. Whitsitt scream and shout there is no such thing as Baptist succession back to Christ. Notwithstanding all the efforts of our foes, there is no break in the chain of the succession of true churches and true ministers since the time of the apostles.

Baptists are the only people on earth who reach all the way back to John and Jordan.

The gates of Hell have never prevailed against our churches which existed across the centuries independent of the Church at Rome.

Why has God preserved the truth in the Bible? Because it has been preserved and propagated by true churches and true ministers in every age since the ministry of Jesus Christ. Christ said He would preserve the truth in His churches. I had rather take His word on the matter than the critic of Baptist succession.

If Christ has failed to preserve true churches and true ministers on this earth, then He lied and there is no truth on earth today!

I wish to conclude this article with the words of two Baptist successionists of the past.

The first is D. B. Ray. He wrote: "No point in history has been found, this side of the days of Jesus Christ on earth, where the Baptist denomination had it's origin.

Notwithstanding all the efforts of bitter foes, no break has yet been discovered in the chain of Baptist succession.

There has been no point of time since the apostolic age, when it can be said, in truth, there was no witness for Christ on earth holding the faith and practice of Baptists ...

The Baptists are the only people on earth who claim as succession from the apostolic age, independent of the Church at Rome; and as Jesus Christ has a church against which the gates of Hell have never prevailed, which has existed independent of the Romish hierarchy, therefore, the Baptists are really the only claimants to this succession" (Baptist Succession, page 406). I agree totally with this statement from Brother Ray, notwithstanding the fact that W. A. Jarrell disputed it (See Baptist Church Perpetuity, page 2).

James Alfred Shackelford stated: "Baptists have never held to the doctrine of apostolic succession but have generally believed in church succession, and have always claimed that all authority is vested in the churches as the executives of Christ" (A Compendium Of Baptist History, page 122).

My last witness is Robert Barclay, a Quaker historian.

He wrote: "We have strong reasons for believing that on the continent of Europe, small hidden societies, who held many of the opinions of the Anabaptists have existed from the time of the Apostles. In the sense of the direct transmission of divine truth and the true nature of spiritual religion, it seems probable that these churches have a lineage or succession, more ancient than the Roman church (Inner Life of Religious Societies of the Commonwealth p. 12).

Any man who denies Baptist church succession is more poorly informed than a Quaker.

...