{"id":17980,"date":"2009-01-07T20:03:00","date_gmt":"2009-01-08T02:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=17980"},"modified":"2020-01-07T20:08:12","modified_gmt":"2020-01-08T02:08:12","slug":"the-church-in-1492","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-church-in-1492\/","title":{"rendered":"The Church in 1492"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\tby Kent Heaton\n

\"\"The world of 1492 was very small. Men knew very little about the earth as we know it today. Christopher Columbus sailed this important year with a crew of 87 to discover a new world. His adventure literally changed the face of the world and man came to realize the world was a much larger place. The world of 1492 was very different in regards to religion. We are familiar with the multitude of churches in our community. Today there are hundreds of different churches that fill the landscape. The Bible is interpreted as responding to current thoughts and understanding of doctrine. But how does 1492 fit into this formula?<\/p>\n

In almost every community, there are varied types of churches that bear different names with their own creed books and dogmas and beliefs. There are churches called Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Church of Christ, Mormon, Nazarene, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, Catholic, Episcopalian and a myriad of different forms of faith systems. In 1492, Columbus would not find a Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Mormon, Nazarene, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists, and Episcopalian church. At best, the Lutheran church was still 38 years away; the Presbyterian did not form until 1535; John Smyth established the Baptist church 115 years later and John Wesley organized the Methodist church 237 years after Columbus sailed to the new world.<\/p>\n

The Roman Catholic Church had been in existence for centuries as the apostate church prophesied by the Holy Spirit in 1 Timothy 4. Other churches such as the Mormon, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Seventh-Day Adventists were nearly 400 years away from the beginning. When Columbus sailed in 1492, the modern-day representation of \u201cworship the church of your choice\u201d was non-existent. Yet, there were in 1492 people of God devoted to Christ who worshiped in the simple form of the New Testament pattern throughout the known world. How do we know this?<\/p>\n

The church of the Lord began in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost. It was called the \u201cchurch<\/em>\u201d (Acts 2:47); \u201cchurches of Christ<\/em>\u201d (Romans 16:16); \u201cchurch of God<\/em>\u201d (I Corinthians 1:2); \u201cchurches in Judea which were in Christ<\/em>\u201d (Galatians 1:22);\u00a0\u201cthe body<\/em>\u201d (Ephesians 1:22,23); \u201csaints in Christ Jesus<\/em>\u201d (Philippians 1:1); \u201cchurch of the living God<\/em>\u201d (1 Timothy 3:15); \u201cchurch of the firstborn<\/em>\u201d (Hebrews 12:23); among other descriptive terms. The book of Acts is filled with the early work of the church and the epistles show the fulfillment of that early work. This pattern continues to this day by those who follow the New Testament pattern given by God concerning His church.<\/p>\n

It is important to understand that man has created a varied form of doctrine that has suited his own needs and wisdom of interpretation creating a myriad of churches. Does it matter if a church is not found in the Bible yet found in the history of man as beginning by man? If a man lived in 1246 could he worship in the same manner as people do today with the many churches? God has given a simple book to follow and understand for all men \u2013 those living in the year 1246, 1492 or 2006 \u2013 or those living in 3006 (if the Lord wills). The Hebrew writer said the kingdom of his day \u201ccannot be moved\u201d (Hebrews 12:28). This kingdom has remained for nearly 2,000 years. This kingdom is the church patterned after the New Testament alone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Kent Heaton The world of 1492 was very small. Men knew very little about the earth as we know it today. Christopher Columbus sailed this important year with a crew of 87 to discover a new world. His adventure literally changed the face of the world and man came to realize the world was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[726,279],"class_list":["post-17980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-church-history","tag-history"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17978,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-happened-before-the-restoration-movement\/","url_meta":{"origin":17980,"position":0},"title":"What happened before the Restoration movement?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been discussing with a lady about the importance of worshiping God in \"spirit and in truth.\" I told her that the seed was planted in America according to the biblical pattern.\u00a0\u00a0Her question is \"what happened to all the people between the time of the early church and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38505,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-could-revelation-be-about-the-fall-of-rome-when-rome-didnt-fall-until-ad-476\/","url_meta":{"origin":17980,"position":1},"title":"How could Revelation be about the fall of Rome when Rome didn’t fall until AD 476?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I intend to start teaching on Revelation soon.\u00a0 I have a decent basic understanding of the book so far, but I have some unanswered questions about it. I believe that John wrote the book around 95 AD during Domitian's reign.\u00a0 From what I've read, John was released under Nerva's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55631,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-the-churches-of-christ-suffer-from-amnesia\/","url_meta":{"origin":17980,"position":2},"title":"Do the Churches of Christ Suffer from Amnesia?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 9, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Hugh Fulford In the October 2022 issue of the Christian Chronicle (identified as a subsidiary of Oklahoma Christian University), a book review is set forth under the headline, \"New book explores where Churches of Christ fit\" (p. 37). The name of the book reviewed is In the Great Stream:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33696,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/love-it-or-leave-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":17980,"position":3},"title":"Love It or Leave It","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 25, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ed Harrell Vanguard Vol 3, No 21, November 11, 1977 It is difficult to keep one's thinking truly un-denominational. Proud, carnal attitudes constantly make their way into spiritual affairs. The sources of jealousy and strife today are the same carnal attitudes that plagued the Corinthian church (I Corinthians 3:1-5).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19293,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-makes-the-church-of-christ-different\/","url_meta":{"origin":17980,"position":4},"title":"What Makes the Church of Christ Different?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Billy Moore Question: \"You say the Church of Christ is not a Protestant denomina\u00adtion, but I know you protest the Catholic religion for I have read a lot of your writings, so what makes you different from the other churches. You look like one of many churches to me.\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89963,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/seeker-friendly-churches\/","url_meta":{"origin":17980,"position":5},"title":"Seeker-Friendly Churches","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 1, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Perry Hall \"How can we get the unchurched to come to church?\" This important question was asked by a certain soon-to-be \"mega-church\" Pastor. His answer came from listening to the radio. Soon, his church was modeling its worship services after what the world liked in music. Their attendance grew.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17980\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}