I. Scriptures Teaching the Perpetuity of the Church
Perpetuity: The Church has continued and will endure through all centuries from the Lord’s personal ministry on the earth until He returns.
1. Matt 28:20: The Lord promised to be with His Church until the end. Unless the Church exists until the end, the Lord could Not be with it.
2. Matt 16:18: The Lord said the gates of hell would Not prevail against His Church. The “gates of hell” signify the powers of darkness. If the
Church failed to exist till the end, the powers of darkness would prevail.
3. Eph 3:21: In order for God to receive glory by the Lord in the Church “throughout all ages”, the Church has to exist throughout all ages to the end
4. Heb 12:28: This verse states that the Church Kingdom is one that cannot be moved. When an institution is unmovable, it is Not liable to disorder or overthrow. This being the case with the Church, it will endure to the end.
5. John 14:16-17: The Holy Spirit is to abide within the Church and Not in the world. The world is unable to receive the Holy Spirit. The Church will abide with the Holy Spirit forever (vs 16) so it will endure until the end.

II. History Teaching the Perpetuity of the Church
1. German Lutheran Historian, Dr. Mosheim
A Common Belief and Practice: Notes than many had before and did then adhere to the following: That the Kingdom of Christ, or visible Church which He established upon earth, was an assembly of true and real saints and ought, therefore, to be inaccessible to the wicked and unrighteous, and also exempt from all those institutions which human prudence suggests to oppose the progress of iniquity or to correct and reform transgressors.
Before reformation: held by groups in Bohemia, Moravia, Switzerland, and Germany and found among Waldenses, Wickliffites, and Hussites
- Baptists of today can endorse this ancient article of Christian faith
- These existed before the Protestant Reformation pointing out that Baptists can neither be Protestant or have origin with John Smythe of England.
- True origin...is hid in the depths of antiquity, statement by Mosheim.
2. Dutch Reformed Church Historians, Drs. Yepij and Dermont
- King of Holland appointed these men to write history of groups there.
- ...the Baptists may be considered as the only Christian community which has stood since the days of the apostles, and as a Christian society, which has preserved pure the doctrines of the gospel in all ages.
- This deserves to be memorized by every true Baptist!
3. Swiss Reformer Zwingle
- ...Ana-baptism...for 1300 years has caused great disturbance in the Church...has acquired such a strength...to contend with it appeared
futile…
- Zwingle wrote this in 1530. Taking 1300 from this, we find that he was referring to the year 230AD as how long anabaptism had been a thorn in
the side of the popular “Church” crowds.
4. Rees’s Reply to Wall
- The Ana-baptists are a pernicious sect, of which the Waldensian brethren seem to have been. Nor is this heresy a modern thing, for it existed in the time of Austin.
- Austin was the Catholic monk in 354 AD.
5. Founder of church of Christ, Alexander Campbell
- From the apostolic age to the present time, the sentiments of Baptists, and their practice of Baptism, have had a continued chain of advocates,
and public monuments of their existence in every century can be produced.
DB Ray – Chp 10 – The 1641 Discovery and Welsh Baptists
There is no one age of Antichrist, even in the darkest times, but ecclesiastical historians mention by name, who manifested an abhorence
of the pope and his idolatrous worship, and pleaded for the ancient purity of doctrine and worship. God was pleased to maintain an uninterrupted
succession of many witnesses through the whole time, in Britain, as well as in Germany and France; private persons and ministers; some
magistrates and person of great distinction. Edward’s History of Redempt

Questions
1. What is meant by Church perpetuity?
2. Which scriptures can you give supporting Church perpetuity?
3. What promise did the Lord Jesus make regarding the Holy Spirit?
4. How long is the Holy Spirit to dwell in the Church?
5. Who cannot receive the Holy Spirit?
6. What did Yepij and Dermont say about Baptist Perpetuity?
7. What did Alexander Campbell say about Baptist Perpetuity?

Optional written assignment
In three pages or less, answer the question “Are you a Baptist” and provide scriptures you are convinced support your claim.

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