AN OLD TESTAMENT PICTURE
OF THE NEW TESTAMENT BRIDE AND GROOM

 The Old Testament is replete with types of the ecclesiastical Bride and Groom of the New Testament. However, for the sake of brevity and space, I will mention only one at this time, and that is the marriage of Abraham's son, Isaac, to Rebekah. The whole chapter of Genesis 24 is given to this marriage.
      In this marriage arrangement, Abraham is a type of God the Father. Isaac is a type of Christ. Eliezer, Abraham's faithful servant, is a type of the Holy Spirit (Gen. 15:2). And Rebekah is a type of the spotless and blemishless Bride of Christ. This is the greatest love story in the Old Testament, and it should never be overlooked or passed by in any study of the New Testament church.
     Abraham's faithful servant, Eliezer, is sent by Abraham to find a particular bride for Isaac. The aspect of this particularism is seen in the words of Abraham to his servant, wherein he said: "... Thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell: But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac" (Gen. 24:3,4).
     Abraham's servant was given means whereby to identify the bride of Isaac (Gen. 24:43,44), and Rebekah passed every detail of the identification test, including being a member of Abraham's family, for she was the granddaughter of Abraham's brother (Gen. 24:15). Abraham, the type of God the Father, did not choose his whole family to be the bride of his son, but he chose one from his family, the beautiful Rebekah, and she became the bride and wife of Isaac.
     Baptism is the first ordinance of the church, and it is the paramount identification of a New Testament church. Paul admonished the Corinthian church, saying: "... Keep the ordinances as I delivered them unto you" (I Cor. 11:2). If a church does not pass this first and all important I.D. test, she is a false bride, a harlot, an enemy of the blood bought and virgin Bride of Christ. When a person professes faith in Christ, and petitions one of the Lord's churches for baptism, the church does not ask the petitioner: "Have you been immersed?" But she asks the would-be member: "Do you have New Testament Baptist baptism?". The question may be asked in a more direct manner, but to ask it in a less straightforward way may allow membership without scriptural baptism. BAPTISTS BEWARE!
     There is not the least inference in Scripture which teaches that regeneration brings one into a Bridal relationship with Christ, but it does experientially make the subject a member of the family of God (Eph. 3:15; Rev. 19:9). Being born again does not make one a Baptist, but it makes him/her a proper candidate for Bridalship, or membership in a New Testament Baptist church.
   Acts 2:41 - "Then they that gladly received His word (gospel), were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls." Baptism in this text is a secondary action, whereby they who had "received His word" (i.e., the gospel) were "added" to the church.
   Acts 2:47 - "... The Lord added to the church daily, those that, were being saved." Weymouth, Williams, Beck and some others do not use the word "church" in their translation of this text, but they all use a term which indicates or signifies the same, i.e., "their number". The point being made and emphasized in this text is that of repetition, for they were having a day by day revival, in which souls were being saved, and "added" to the church by baptism.
   Acts 5:14 - "And believers were the more added to the Lord ..." Note the repetitious verb, "added", and notice also that they were "believers" before they were "added to the Lord". They were "added to the Lord" in the sense of becoming subject to His ecclesiastical Headship, and thus being added to the Groom, were to become a member of His church and Bride, to whom He has promised His perpetual presence (Matt. 28:20 ). Being born again and being added to the Lord's church are two separate actions of and by the Holy Spirit. By the first action (regeneration), He adds to the family of God; and by the second action, that is scriptural baptism, He adds to the Lord's blood bought church.
     Eph. 3:14,15 - I (Paul) bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named." Abraham had a large family, and it was to his family he sent Eliezer to get Isaac's bride. The family of God is one thing, and the Bride which He has chosen for His Son is another. In the realm of nature, there is no problem with this, for the graphic distinction between the bride and her family is readily acknowledged. The Father, as Head of His family and representing His family, gives the Bride away. So it was with Rebekah's father and family. They sent her on her way to become the bride and wife of Isaac. God the Father had His family on earth for four thousand years before He sent the Holy Spirit to bring forth from His family a Bride for His Son.
     All who contend the church did not exist prior to the day of Pentecost (Acts 2) must do away with a lot of Old Testament typology that vividly pictures Christ and His church. Boaz and Ruth are beautiful and striking types of Christ and His church, but this shining representation of the New Testament church must be relegated to oblivion if Christ did not have His ecclesiastical Bride before Pentecost (Ruth 4:10-13). However, there is abundant and indisputable evidence in the four Gospels attesting to the fact that Christ not only had His church before Pentecost, but that it was a faithful and functioning church.
In Luke's gospel, we are given the account whereby Christ called Peter, James, and John from their fishing business. The Lord encourages them, saying: "Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men" (5:10). See also Matt 4:19 ; Mark 1:17 ; John 4:1,2 . With the calling of these first three disciples, Jesus had His infant church. But it did not long remain in this stage, for with quick succession the other nine disciples were called and added to the church.
     No doubt, there is some variance of thought among pre-Pentecostal Baptists as to how many of the original twelve disciples the Lord called before He actually had His church. However, while I am convinced the church had its birth with the first three disciples of our Lord, it is not a question of great import. All New Testament Baptists know that the church existed during the early ministry of Christ, for the church was witnessing and baptizing in the beginning of Christ's ministry (John 1:45; 4:1,2).
The contention that the New Testament church existed prior to the Pentecost of Acts 2 is an unmitigated truth, for as Paul says: "God hath set some in the church, first apostles ..." (I Cor. 12:28). And the account wherein the apostolic office originated is recorded in Luke 's gospel (6:13), and it reads on this wise: "And when it was day, He (Christ) called unto Him His disciples: and of them He chose twelve, whom He also called apostles". The church had to exist at the time for the Lord to "set" the apostles in it.
     What happened on the day of Pentecost was not the incorporation of the church, but the empowering of the church for its worldwide and age long mission (Acts 1:8). The baptism that John the Baptist and Christ spoke of (Matt. 3:11; Acts 1:5) was not a baptism by the Spirit in the Spirit, but it was a baptism of the church by Christ in the Spirit (Acts 11:14). The Holy Spirit is the element into which Christ the Administrator immersed His church. Church membership applicants are baptized in (en in the Greek) water (not merely "with" water) by the authority of the Lord's church(es).
     Prior to Pentecost, He had given His church disciplinary authority (Matt. 18:17) and the universal and age long commission to evangelize the earth (Matt. 28:18-20). The truth is, the church had the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper before Pentecost, as well as a democratic form of government (Matt. 28:19; John 4:1,2; Luke 22:15-20; 1 Cor. 11:23-25; Acts 1:21-26). The deaconship is about the only thing the post-Pentecostal church has that the pre-Pentecostal church did not have (Acts 6:2,3).
     Isaac DID NOT marry Rebekah and all of her family. And that ecclesiastical marriage which God the Father has planned for His Son in glory will soon be consummated, and the church which Jesus bought with His own blood will, after these long and many years of betrothal, become the married Bride of her faithful, loving, and nail scarred Groom. At this glorious occasion, the ecstasy of the family of God will be second only to that of the Bride, and the family of God will shout, saying: "... Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us rejoice, and give honor to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His Wife hath made herself ready" (Rev. 19:6,7).
     The Song of Solomon (Canticles) gives great typological emphasis to the doctrine of Baptist Brideship, but we must leave the Old Testament picture album with all of its beautiful portraits of Christ and His virgin church and take up the theme with its literalness in the New Testament.