We talk this time about the foundation of God’s Church and show why it is impossible that the Roman Catholic Church was founded on the same. I will trace who the prophet is that shall build or rebuild this specific church, using the Bible as reference as usual. From here, we will see why there is no semblance of the same foundation.
The prophet that God will raise among the Israelites in the prophecy He declared to Moses was Christ Jesus. This was explained by an inspired authority in the New Testament, Peter.
ACTS 3:22, 20
22 For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.
20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
Deuteronomy puts this declaration further: “I will put my words in his mouth”.
DEUTERONOMY 18:18
I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.
God the Father had intended that He would build His church or rebuild His church as the case was that the Tabernacle of David was fallen.
AMOS 9:11
In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:
The Tabernacle of David is symbolic of His people or the church.
THE ACTS 15:14-17
14 Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.
15 And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, 16 After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up:
17 That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things.
The phrase “build again” in modern grammar is expressed as “rebuild.” And what is to be rebuilt? The Tabernacle of David symbolic of His people, Israel, or His church, which when fulfilled will include the residue of the people of Israel and the Gentiles. It must be understood in the biblical context that the Israelites are called “the people of God” or “His church” called in the Bible as “the church in the wilderness”!
THE ACTS 7:37-38
37 This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.
38 This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sinai, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:
PSALMS 22:22
I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
From Strong's Hebrew Lexicon -
H6951
קהל
qâhâl
kaw-hawl
From H6950; assemblage (usually concretely): - assembly, company, congregation, multitude.
The word קהל, qâhâl “assemblage” was translated by the Apostle Paul in the New Testament when he cited Psalms 22:22 in the book of Hebrews as ἐκκλησία or “church.” Meaning that the people of Israel is the qâhâl in the wilderness of Sinai or the “church in the wilderness,” the people of God, symbolic of the tabernacle of David which has fallen.
What is the cause of the fall of the tabernacle of David, or the people of Israel, or the qâhâl in the wilderness, or the church in the wilderness?
HOSEA 4:6
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
They lacked knowledge, not because it is not available but because they have rejected it! In fact, God rises early to teach them knowledge.
JEREMIAH 32:33
And they have turned unto me the back, and not the face: though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction.
Who were the culprits?
JEREMIAH 32:32
Because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
From the leaders to the subjects, they turned into evildoers because of the hardness of their hearts! The leaders were deeply mired in profits and lusts.
EZEKIEL 34:2-5
2 Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?
3 Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock.
4 The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.
5 And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered.
MICAH 3:11
The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.
Such evil was found among the people of God, Israel, or the “Church in the wilderness”.
JEREMIAH 5:26-27
26 For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men.
27 As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich.
This is the same scenario happening among false churches in our times! And then came the time that the Church in the wilderness or the people of God was destroyed! This fact necessitated an action from the ever-loving God to rebuild His church or the Tabernacle of David. There was drought from the word of God as there was no teacher.
II CHRONICLES 15:3
Now for a long season Israel hath been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law.
Thus, God declared:
AMOS 9:11
In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:
But what is the manner by which God will rebuild the Tabernacle of David or the Church or the People of Israel who experienced destruction because of their utter rejection of God’s will? God will use a “branch.”
ZECHARIAH 6:12
And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD:
The prophecy using the word “temple” is symbolic of the “Church,” the “Temple of God.”
I CORINTHIANS 3:16
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
Paul, in speaking to the Church in Corinth, said that “they,” the Church in Corinth, is the “Temple of God.” A man called “the branch” will build or rebuild “the Temple of God” or “the Church” or “the People of God.” And who is this “branch” mentioned in the prophecy?
JEREMIAH 33:15
In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land.
JEREMIAH 23:5
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
This “branch” coming from David to build the Tabernacle of David is the Lord Jesus Christ!
REVELATION 22:16
I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.
The word “offspring,” translated in English, should have been “branch,” as related to “root,” that was mentioned in the prophecy, “branch of David.” In the sense of horticulture, the science and art of cultivating plants, we have now branch and root that are related.
One thing is definitely true: God will rebuild the “Church in the wilderness” which was fallen using a “Branch of David”, to build the “Tabernacle of David.” The original builder is God, and Jesus Christ as the instrument.
HEBREWS 3:4
For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God.
Thus, when Christ uttered through His mouth “upon this rock I will build my church,” the Father, owner of those words coming out of Christ’s mouth, is the one building the church or rebuilding it. The reality is that when the work is done, the result is “the Church of God.” II CORINTHIANS 1:1
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia:
It is legal and logical to call the church as the “Church of God” because God is the owner and the builder of the original church in the wilderness then to be rebuilt by His instrument, His Son. All that pertains to God is called in His name.
ISAIAH 43:7
Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.
Even Christ, the true Christ is called in the name of God.
LUKE 9:20
He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Peter answering said, The Christ of God.
The Holy Spirit is called the “spirit of God”.
GENESIS 1:2
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
A man that belongs to God is called a “man of God”.
II TIMOTHY 3:17
That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
An angel not of Satan is called an “angel of God”.
THE ACTS 27:23
For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve,
REVELATION 12:9
And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
The true “church” or the “people of God” in the Bible is called by His name.
II CHRONICLES 7:14
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
DANIEL 9:19
O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.
Although the people of God may be called “the people of Moses” but the official title by which they must be called is “the people of God.”
DEUTERONOMY 9:12
And the LORD said unto me, Arise, get thee down quickly from hence; for thy people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves; they are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them; they have made them a molten image.
I KINGS 8:16
Since the day that I brought forth my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a house, that my name might be therein; but I chose David to be over my people Israel.
The Law of God for the Israelites maybe called by the connotation, “the Law of Moses” but in reality it is “the Law of God”.
MALACHI 4:4
Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.
In the Christian era, the law is called “the Law of Christ” but in the truest sense of it, it is “the Law of God”!
GALATIANS 6:2
Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
JOHN 12:48-50
48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.
49 For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.
50 And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.
The Law of God is occasionally called in the Bible as “the commandment of Christ”.
I CORINTHIANS 9:21
To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.
Thus, the church built by God through the instrumentality of Christ is sometimes called “the churches of Christ” but in the truest sense of reality it is the “Church of God”!
THE ROMANS 16:16
Salute one another with a holy kiss. The churches of Christ salute you.
GALATIANS 1:22
And was unknown by face unto the churches of Judea which were in Christ:
I THESSALONIANS 2:14
For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews:
To conclude: God rebuilt the fallen “church in the wilderness,” the “Church of God,” composed of the apostles, prophets, teachers and the like; and was built upon a strong foundation, “the rock” which is Jesus Christ - not Peter!
I CORINTHIANS 12:28
And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.
EPHESIANS 2:20
And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
I CORINTHIANS 3:11
For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
This gives us the certainty that it is impossible that this is the Roman Catholic Church!
The Roman Catholic Church was built upon another foundation! In contrast, the Church of God was built on the foundation, Christ.
More to come.
God bless you.
Sincerely yours,
Brother Eli
