A Brief History of the Church of Christ

Before we begin this amazing journey, I lack the words to express how important history is to a people. Wayne E. King¹ said “humanity is a continuous process and without a past there is no future.” I concur with that statement. I also agree with Henry S. Commager² that “For a people to be without history, or to be ignorant of its history, is as for a person to be without memory”

Church history plays a very significant role in understanding what the church is or is supposed to be. Through church history you will be able to eliminate unnecessary traditions and practices from the church which are a hindrance to the fulfilment of the Great Commission and the mandate of Jesus Christ. It is a journey that I welcome you to take with me. Please note that this is not a detailed history of the church of Christ, I might have skipped some areas that you deem important, I did not do that intentionally, it is because of lack of enough time. Hence I ask you to bear with me.

A Brief History of The Temple

It is with utter pleasure that I take this opportunity to walk you through a journey of the history of the Temple. If you are influenced by a tradition that was established in the past, then the past should be clear to you, because, as George Santayana put it, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”¹ . Hence I welcome you to this journey of discovery.

The history of the temple can be traced back to the desire of God to dwell among his people. This goes back to Genesis when God would visit Adam and Eve in the cool of the day so he could hung out with them. Later sin created a rift which separated man from God and for many years God used specific chosen people to communicate his will to his people. Although God hid his face from his people, his desire to dwell with his people was never quenched. It is God who initiated the move to restore man to fellowship with Him.

The Passover and the Lord’s Table

Throughout  history, there is one denominator that cuts across all cultures and nations when it comes to communication, or passing on of information from one generation to the next, and that is symbols. A symbol is a thing that represents or stands for something else, especially a material object representing something abstract. Hence symbols are not in themselves the idea or the event but rather a representation of the idea or the event that they symbolize. All world religions have symbols which bear some sacred truths and Christianity and the church has its share of the same. Among the many symbols and sacred rituals in Christianity, I feel obliged today to write about the Passover and the Lord’s Table.

Your Guitar

Lord reach out and take,

Your guitar

Your stringed instrument in me,

From eternity fashioned

Play me like a guitar,

The melody of your eternal orchestra

The strings of my will tuned,

To follow the rhythm of your song

Let the nations wiggle,

At your song may the tribes jiggle

Play me like a guitar,

The melody of your eternal orchestra

God

You command Reverence
Of Sages in all ages

Your ways inspire adoration
Yet Scorners at you sneer

Peers at me jeer,
But I, in you trust.

~>Dunmo

The Grace of God

In 2 Kings chapter 5 we find the story of Naaman who was a great general in the Syrian army. He had secured victory for Syria against her enemies and as a result had become the king’s favorite commander. Naaman had it all but good health. In the prime of his success, leprosy, a deadly killer disease then, checked in, threatening to nip his life in the bud. Luckily for him, in one of his army’s military expeditions against Israel, had captured a girl who knew about the prophet Elisha’s miracle working ability, at the time, the girl was his wife’s maid, hence Naaman having learnt about the prophet set out to Israel to secure his healing. He carried a lot of gold, silver and expensive clothes which he intended to give in exchange for his healing.

Freed

Lust dangled her attractive tentacles

Passion got lured, he became lust

He who walked on sacred grounds

Became enslaved  in the dungeons

Hungry as hell, passion is now lust

The End Times

 King Solomon in his wisdom stated that "there is a season and time for everything under the sun, a time to be born and a time to die" (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2).. Time is one of the greatest mysteries that has baffled scientists and philosophers for centuries. The Oxford English dictionary describes time as "a period of minutes, hours, days etc."  This description does not explain what actually time is but rather how time is measured. You cannot stop time, neither can you invest time nor lend time in order to get more of it in the future, the best you can do is to spend time wisely. Time without God in the full picture is very troubling, it is meaningless, as Solomon would have it.

The Power Of Pain

I recently watched a Nigerian movie and in the movie, the main character, who happened to be a young man, full of life and vigor, announced to his parents, who were stereotypically poor, that he had won a scholarship to a prestigious university abroad. The movie ended in a common cliche where after returning from his studies abroad, poverty was replaced by affluence and the young man was spoiled for choice on who to marry, because every girl was after him, of course he married the best and they lived happily ever after.

The common thought that flies through most individuals in developing nations is that if one got a chance to go abroad, and especially to western nations, they no longer will be associated with poverty, that poverty will be a by gone case. In reality life gets messed up at times. What we plan for at in most cases gets reversed and we end up in a worse state than we were at in the beginning or vice versa. There are people who left their countries in search of greener pastures abroad who are currently sleeping under bridges, no home, begging for food, desperate, ashamed and depressed. Who gets the blame in such a case? Statistics has it that most people blame God for their problems.

Daniel, He Purposed in His Heart

Daniel is a perfect example of someone who determines to walk with God and keeps on that lane throughout. There is no mention of any failure in the character and walk with God in Daniel which I find a bit strange because most of the great men and women who God used had one or few issues that waylaid them, but for Daniel all we see is excellence portrayed by a godly character. This flawless portrayal of Daniel at times makes it hard for many people to relate with him but a careful study of the book shows that the focal point is not Daniel’s character or details of his life and how he conducted his life but rather the sovereignty of God over all nations.

Jonah, The Prophet who fled from the Call

When we think of Jonah, what comes to mind is a rebellious and disobedient prophet who rather than going towards the direction ordered by God, chose to march to the opposite direction. Have you ever wondered why Jonah fled the call? What might have gone through his mind when he made that fateful decision?

Jonah prophesied in a time when the Assyrians were the super power of the then known world. They were a cruel nation to any opposing kingdom. They are accredited for the invention of a form of torture to death whereby one was skinned alive and left to die.

Moses, The Most Humble Man

Through Moses we see the redemptive plan of God. Through this man we see Jesus Christ, for Christ claims that Moses wrote of Him John 5:46, Deut 18:15 and Deut 18:18, so who was Moses?

Moses was born a short while after Egypt in order to curb the growth of the Jews in the land, decided that all male Hebrew babies born should be killed. He was born when all survival odds were against him. Seems like the enemy had caught wind of the arrival of a deliverer and just like in the time of Christ, he chose to exterminate all male children. Moses like Christ, escaped the dragnet of the enemy and lived to accomplish what he was born to.