The Church of Christ is built upon the new gospel that Jesus himself preached when he walked upon the earth. Needless to say he was authorized by the Father to do so, and most likely he was even commanded to. The mission of the Church was to spread this new Gospel to every nation, kindred, tongue and people.

But why did he organize a new Church? Before Jesus came to this earth to live, he was known as Jehovah. Wasn’t it Jesus, as Jehovah, who gave commandments to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and all the other holy prophets to obey the laws of outward ordinances? Wasn’t it Jehovah himself who commanded the Israelites to build temples and tabernacles, and make sacrifices unto the Most High God?  

Why would one and the same God create two separate churches, as it were? Why did he not create the Church of Jesus Christ from the very beginning, allowing people to live the full gospel from the beginning? Since Jesus came to fulfill the law and the prophets, why didn’t he give the perfect gospel to start with?

And if he now decided to start with, a not fully developed church, why didn’t he hold on to that church, and put the fulfillment that he came with into that very church? Doesn’t this mean that two authorized churches were in conflict with each-other? Let’s look at these questions.

…at the time of Moses…

The children of Israel had lost their true religion in the land of Egypt. That is why God wanted Moses to deliver them from the Egyptians and bring them to the promised land. God wanted his people to be restored to the true faith once more. But restoring an idolatrous people is not an easy task. When the Lord saw the wickedness of the people this is what happened;

9 And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people:

10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation. (Exodus 32: 9-10)

But Moses would not that God should consume his people. Moses did not want to start a great nation all on his own. Moses became a mediator between the people and…Jehovah!

12 Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, for mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people.

13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever. (Exodus 32:12-13)

Before this conversation between God and Moses, God had already prepared the stone tablets with the higher law, and given them to Moses. Moses was successful in pleading the case of his people before the Lord, and went down the mountain to present the wonderful law of the gospel given by God.

15 And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written.

16 And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.

17 And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp.

18 And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear.

19 And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and break them beneath the mount. (Exodus 32:16-19)

When Moses came down from the mount with the stone tablets, he brought with him the higher law and gospel of God. When he entered into the camp of the Israelites and saw the gold calf and the festivities surrounding it, it became obvious to him that the beautiful gospel that he carried, written by the very finger of Jehovah (later to be known as Jesus), could never be obeyed by the idolatrous and carnal people that he was the leader of. Jehovah had been willing to give the Law of the Gospel to his covenant people.

Moses went up unto the Lord again. He explained the situation unto the Lord, and the Lord prepared new stone tablets, with other laws and gospel on a lower level, laws that would help prepare a stiff-necked people for the law of the Gospel. These lower laws are known as the Law of Moses. It is important to remember that it was the desire of Jehovah to give the higher law, the Law of the Gospel to his covenant people. Such is the nature of God, for he is the same, yesterday, today and forever.

…at the time of Jesus…

Many centuries later, when Jehovah, as Jesus, gave the higher law again, most people rejected this Law of the Gospel. But quite many were ready to receive Jesus and his gospel, so Jesus did not retract his gospel Law as Moses had to do. Jesus really did give the Jewish church a chance to be the vessel in which this Gospel Law was to be preached, but the priests and high priests would not have it. It was more than once that he was driven out of their synagogues and that they tried to kill him. But he kept going to the temple, trying to make that place of apostasy into a place worthy of this old, but new, gospel. But mostly he had to preach in homes and streets, on the shores and on the hills, yes, everywhere where the proud and the haughty could not chase him out and away and where his followers could gather freely. And there it was, the offspring of the children of Israel, who received the Law of Moses as a crutch instead of being consumed by God, now fought that very same God, with that very same crutch, instead of accepting the Law of the Gospel this time around. Wise from all this Jesus said:

21 No man also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse.

22 And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles. (Mark 2: 21-22)

As it was clear to Jesus that the ‘new’ gospel could not be filled into the ‘old’ church, he had to see to that a new bottle was made for the new wine. This new bottle was made with prophets, apostles, evangelists, pastors, teachers etc, as building materials.

11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: (Ephesians 4:11-13)

The prophets of all times, who walked and talked with God, they always had the full Law of the Gospel. This is obvious by the way they lived their lives. They were filled with love and compassion. They lived every whit according to the beautiful principles taught by Jesus when he was upon the earth. There were, however, some necessary additions, since the law and the prophets were not fulfilled before the atonement of Christ, which they had to live by. For example, sacrifices were given to remind the people of the great and last sacrifice of Jehovah, which would come in the future. These sacrifices had to be adhered to even by those prophets ho lived the Law of the Gospel.

God has always wanted to give the same gospel, the same laws, and the same blessings. But since the people have not been willing at all times to receive the fullness of the gospel, there have been time when contraptions, such as the Law of Moses, have had to serve as teaching masters, to subdue an insubordinate flesh, to prepare the elect for the full gospel of Jesus Christ.