The Catholic church, by tracing a historical path back to the First Century, attempts to establish itself as the New Testament church. In similar fashion, some Protestant denominations, such as the Baptist church, make the same attempt.

Can the church of Christ trace an unbroken historical chain of believers back to Pentecost? It is doubtful. Whether faithful Christians have existed all through the centuries since Christ is difficult, if not impossible, to document.

Does that mean that the church of Christ didn't begin until the 18th or 19th century, with the efforts of men like Thomas and Alexander Campbell, Barton W. Stone, James O'Kelly, and others? The answer is no!

The reason ties intimately to God's universal law of reproduction. Since the creation, God has ordered that the things created reproduce after their own kind (Genesis 1:11-12). This applies in the spiritual realm, as well as the physical. We "reap what we sow" (Galatians 5:7).

What does the Bible teach is the spiritual seed of the kingdom? It is the Word of God. We learn in 1 Peter 1:23 that we are "born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the Word of God which lives and abides forever." Luke 8:11 makes the same point.

On the day of Pentecost, what did the apostles preach that resulted in men and women becoming Jesus' disciples, or Christians? Was it not the Word of God, the gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation? Notice that in Acts 2, based on their hearing and obeying the Word of God, the Lord added those people to the church.

For argument's sake, let us suppose that everyone abandoned the truth for ten or more centuries. If at the end of that time, some people read or heard the Word of God (the seed) and obeyed it, what would they be? Would they not be Christians, disciples of Christ, members of the Lord's body, the church? Certainly!

Just as a seed of corn preserved for centuries, when planted, would produce corn today, so the Word of God, planted after centuries, would produce a godly product-born-again Christians. It would produce the same thing it produced on the Day of Pentecost.

The wonder of God's Word is that it is incorruptible. Men may corrupt the faith and practices of the church, but God's Word remains unaffected. It doesn't change, and it doesn't die. Anytime it is planted in the heart of a sincere and honest truth seeker, it produces life in that individual. This seed always produces the same thing--Christians.

One of the wonderful things about God's Word is that it doesn't depend on a human continuum of faithfulness to do its work. And so, if men and women of our generation become totally faithless, there remains hope for the future. As long as God's Word exists (remember, it is incorruptible and abides forever) it has the power to save. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek." (Romans 1:16) And, when men are saved, God adds them to His church. "Praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved." (Acts 2:47)

Our Lord's church can be restored at any point in history. Simply replant the seed.