Praise The Lord to All.        (St. John 5:39)
 
The church is the highest calling of the ages. Men who accept its teaching become both Kings and Priests. No other people have ever had the privilege of attaining this great honor.

 
The key of power and authority that unlocked this present church age was vested in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He alone had the key to everlasting life. Prophetically Isaiah spoke of this:
 
"And the key of the House of David will lay upon His shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut and none shall open." (Isaiah 22:22). Jesus laid claim to this power of the key of life and death when He said: " I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of
death." (Revelation 1:18).
 
He also went on to say, "And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, these things saith he that is Holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, He that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth." (Revelation 3:7).
 
Jesus Christ, through His death, burial and resurrection took from Satan the power of death, hell and the grave. This power and authority rests in His name. Jesus not only purchased the church with His own blood (Acts 20:28), but He alone has the authority to govern this great called-out assembly, which right He has never given up. (Ephesians 5:23; Philippians 2:9-11).
 
Jesus in turn has delegated His authority to His chosen and appointed men to act for Him. The Lord did not want us to be in doubt as to His plan for the church, He wanted us to know who to follow among His disciples. He, therefore, selected two men; one to open the door to the church, and the other to set up the proper government for church order. By this means, no one could become confused about the path to follow to become saved. Likewise, after a man/woman has entered the Kingdom of God through the New Birth, he/she need not go astray.
 
Jesus knew that many would follow the doctrines of men and be lost because of the deceit of there own heart. (Matthew 24:4). But He was not responsible for any of the ecclesiastical confusion that has infiltrated our church today. Had Jesus said to all of His disciples, "Here are the keys to the Kingdom. Go open the doors to the Church age." Then it could have been possible for a division to follow and one would say, "I am of John," another, "I am of Matthew" and so on. But, thank God, He did not use the keys on this manner. What He did do was to give a direct personal transfer of the keys to the Kingdom from Himself to Peter. With this unmistakable transfer, no man needs to be confused as to the path to follow for salvation.
 
Matthew gives us the account of this great transfer of power from the Lord to Peter:
 
"And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonh: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loose in heaven." (Matthew 16:16-19).
 
Because of his confession of faith in Jesus Christ, Peter was selected to open the doors of the Kingdom of God. Peter was to become the first evangelist to proclaim the saving grace of a Pentecostal experience. The power of Peter was unmistakable and his message stands in force today. On the day of Pentecost Peter used these keys in his message that binds or looses every man in this church age. The men who heard Peter deliver this message said,  "What shall we do?"  Then Peter said unto them:
 
"Repent, and be baptized everyone of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." (Acts 2:38).
 
This three-prong key governs admission into the church. It cannot be separated into three separate keys. One key-three definite moving elements.
 
1. Repentance-with Godly sorrow
2. Water baptism by immersion in Jesus Name.
3. The baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues.
 
This is the new birth that Jesus told Nicodemus about in St. John 3:3-7. This is the key to everlasting life. The key that unlocks Hell, releases from death, and opens Heaven. The church is built upon man's acceptance of Jesus Christ as the Lord of Glory. When Peter preached on the day of Pentecost he was only the (Under-Shepherd) acting under the authority given him in his office of an apostle. He never claimed more than this. He later humbly took the rebuke of Paul for seperating himself from the Gentiles and later still submitted to the decision of James at the council in Jerusalem. He considered these men in these matters to have the rulership over him.
 
He was not a Pope, but a divinely chosen mouth piece to proclaim the way of salvation to this present church age. A major portion of the nominal church world today will not follow the words of Peter, but they have their own doctrine for water baptism using the titles of Father, Son and Holy Ghost when they baptize. This trinity doctrine is contrary to the message of the Apostle Peter. Who is right? Matthew records the Lord's words about water baptism:
 
"Go ye therefore, and teach (all) nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." (Matthew 28:19).
 
Many men will not accept the words of Peter and be baptized in Jesus Name, but Jesus is the name of the Father (St. John 10:30; 14:8-11). Jesus is the name of the Son (Matthew 1:2; Isaiah 9:6), and Jesus is the name of the Holy Ghost. (St. John 14:17,18,26).
 
Those who fail to follow the words of Peter and the rest of the Apostles usually say, "I am going to follow the words of Jesus." What they are saying is, "I know better than the Apostles as to what Jesus meant when He gave His commission to the Apostles."
 
About 2,000 years hava elapsed since the words of Jesus were spoken, but these men claim to know more about what Jesus meant than Peter, who not only heard the Lord speak these words, but who was personally chosen and instructed by Jesus. Doesn't it seem odd that Matthew and John who were all right there and heard Jesus speak and teach did not in there writings say that Peter was wrong. The reason they did not was because they all knew what Jesus meant. The Apostle Paul also confirmed this when he wrote: "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?" Romans 6:3
 
Make no mistake about it! The Spirit of the Holy One which flowed/spoke through the chosen vessel of Peter on the day of Pentecost knew what he was doing. He was not entrusted with the keys and then allowed to open the church with a false doctrine. Only a wilful, unlearned, prejudice soul, would believe this. That is why you find (no record) in the entire New Testament of anyone ever being baptized in the titles of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
 
"For in him (Jesus Christ) dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." Colossians 2:9
 
What you do find in the New Testament is that all men everywhere were baptized in Jesus Name.
 
"At Jerusalem Acts 2:38"  "At Samaria Acts 8:16"  "To The Gentiles Acts 10:48"
 
"At Ephesus Acts 19:5"  "To The Church of Galatia Galatians 3:7"  Peter wisely used the keys and opened the church age.
 
Brother Anthony W Sanders    (God's hand) Deut. 33:3
THE WAY BACK TO PENTECOST
Acts 2:36-40; 4:11; 12,