Prayer Request

Leaders

V     HISTORY

       History important: 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 tells us that history within the Old Testament is important so that we can learn and avoid mistakes.  Likewise there is benefit from knowing history outside the Bible:  to learn, to avoid mistakes, and to honor the efforts of those before us.

·        Church established

      Christ established his church in the City of Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost (approximately A.D. 33) following his ascending into heaven as told in Acts 2.  He added over 3000 members upon their baptism on the first day (Acts 2:41).

      In the days, weeks, and months that followed, the church continued to grow. (Act 2:47).  The church in Jerusalem quickly grew to well over 5000, and as converted Jews from all over the world returned home, the seeds for new congregations and new growth were sown.

      With the growth of the church, came two kinds of challenges: internal challenges and external challenges. 

V      Internally, men mishandled the word of God and perverted the gospel.  Sometimes these were sincere but ignorant men, and other times they were evil hearted, wanting power and authority over others.  [Acts 20:9-31, 1 Corinthians 1:10-13] Seeing this started even in the days of the Apostles, it should not surprise us that we still have these type challenges today [1 Timothy 1:3-4, 1 Timothy 4:1-5].  The severity that God dealt with the hypocrites of that day (Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-11) should resound a warning to the hypocrites of today.

V      Externally, the Jews began persecuting the church.  Traditionally, this began with Sadducees in Jerusalem and intensified with the stoning of the Deacon Stephen around A.D. 37 [Acts 7:54-60 and Acts 8:1].  Instead of ending the new religion, it had the opposite effect; the persecuted Christians fled into Palestine and the regions beyond, spreading the gospel to wider and wider areas.

       [Philip’s first missionary journey: Acts 8:5-13; Philip’s second missionary journey: Acts 8:26-40; Peter’s journey: Acts 9:32-10:48; Ethiopian’s journey: Acts 8:26-39; Paul’s first missionary journey: Acts 13:4-14:28; Paul’s second missionary journey:  Acts 15:39-18:22; Paul’s third missionary journey: Acts 18:23-21:17; and Paul’s journey to Rome:  Acts 27:1-28:16]

V      Then around 44 A.D., a new persecution was started by King Herod Agrippa that resulted in James (brother of John) being beheaded and Peter being imprisoned, escaping, and leaving Jerusalem (Acts 12:17). The idea that Peter was forced to be a traveling missionary thereafter is given in 1 Corinthians 9:5.

V      Tradition has it that around 62 A.D., James was killed by a mob in the temple in Jerusalem, and Bartholomew was martyred (skinned alive and crucified) in the city-state of Kalyana near the modern city of Bombay, India.

V      In 64 A.D., Rome burned for several days, and Nero blamed the Christians, beginning a very severe wave of persecution.  Believers in Rome were killed in horrid ways:  dressed in animal skins and torn to pieces by dogs and lions for entertainment, crucified, and burned alive as torches for lighting the city.  The faith of this generation of Christians can not be doubted.

V      In 64 A.D., Herod finished the temple in Jerusalem [the second Temple had been dedicated on March 12, 515 B.C. but was smaller and less showy than Solomon’s Temple; Herod built walls, towers and palaces, doubled the size of the Temple Mount, buttressed the courtyard and added stones as large as 100 tons to increase its splendor—but the second Temple did not have: the Ark of the Covenant, the Urim and Thummim, the holy oil, the sacred fire, the Ten Commandments, the pot of manna, or Aaron’s rod]. 

V      Two years later [66 A.D.], the Jews began a rebellion against Rome.  The war between Rome and the Jews resulted in three and a half year seige of Jerusalem with unbelievable conditions.  Food became so scarce that cannibalism was practiced; babies were sold by their mothers as food. 

V      In 70 A.D., the Romans entered the city and destroyed the temple.  As Jesus foretold in Matthew 24:2, the Roman soldiers burned the temple melting the gold coverings into the stones.  They pulled the stone foundation apart to get the gold.  Some believe that Revelation was written in 67 A.D. as a coded warning to Christians.  Others date it much later, making it a warning to a future generation.

V      During the same time period, 67-to-68 A.D., Paul was beheaded by the sword on a road from Rome.  And Peter was crucified upside down.  And a year later Andrew was crucified in Patrae (Greece).

V      Tradition has Thomas being stabbed to death by Braham priests in India around 72 A.D.  And Jude and Simon being torn apart by a Persian mob around 79 A.D.

V      Around 90 A.D., Philip was crucified upside down like Peter in Asia Minor and Matthew died a natural death in Persia.

V      The first hundred years of Christianity was a challenge, but the dedication of those first believers kept it spreading and growing.  The simple fishermen that Jesus assembled as Apostles, who were so afraid before his crucifixion and resurrection, became amazingly active and “super-human” brave even unto the most horrible deaths.  Change of this nature and dedication of this level do not come from the perpetration of a hoax; no, it comes from the experience of the real thing.

V      In 132 A.D., the Jews lead a revolt [the Bar Kochba revolt] that lasted three years.  In 135 A.D., the Romans recaptured Jerusalem and banned Jews from entering the city.  This lasted until the Arabs conquered the city in 638 A.D.

V      Economic and political strife resulted in the Roman Empire being divided into an Eastern Administrative Region (with a Headquarters in Constantinople) and a Western Administrative Region (with a Headquarters in Rome).  Strong emperors would bring administration under one leader, but it would divide again as soon as a weaker emperor would take over.

V      Then around 311 A.D., Constantine declared Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire. This evolved into a strange mixture of church and state, and the creation and concentration of religious power into the Roman Catholic Church.

V      In 330 A.D., Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire to Byzantium, Constantinople or modern Istanbul, Turkey. 

V      Around 395 A.D., the West Roman Empire and the East Roman Empire split with the eastern part becoming the Byzantine Empire.  The Byzantine Empire developed its own church organization that we refer to as Eastern Orthodox Churches:  Greek Orthodox Church, Russian Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Church, etc. 

V      Just as the two political entities struggled with each other for power and control of real estate and people, the two religious groups struggled for power and influence. 

V      In 410 A.D., the Visigoths (Spain) captured and sacked Rome.  In 455 A.D. the Vandal tribes (northwest Africa) attacked Rome.  And final in 476, a Germanic tribal chief named Odoacer ended the Roman Empire.  This lead to individual European countries developing over time, but the influence and wealth of the Roman Catholic Church continued to grow, permeating the belief system of the masses across the new political boundaries.

V      The Byzantine Empire faired better being at the crossroads of the trade routes between Europe, Asia, India and Africa.  It protected Europe and preserved Christianity (actually helping to spread it to Russia and the other Slavic peoples), Greek culture, and Roman customs. 

V      Around 632 A.D., the followers of Muhammad began their expansion of religious and political powers.  The religion spread like wild fire throughout the Arab world.  The Muslim’s (using the Jihad of the Koran) followed the same model as the Roman and Greek Catholics of forced acceptance of their religion.  Kingdom after kingdom was annexed until the entire Middle East was under their control.  Two fronts evolved over a long period of time that set in motion war between the Islam and Europe that lasted several hundred years.  On the West, the Moors spread into Spain and attacked the Roman Empire.  The Muslims’ captured Egypt and Jerusalem which lead to the Crusades. On the East, the Ottoman Empire developed, attacked, and eventually overcome the Byzantine Empire. 

V      Spiritual conditions continued to deteriorate in the Catholic Church.  Christians practicing immersion for the forgiveness of sins were persecuted by the Vatican.  In religion, as in politics, the concentration of power in fewer and fewer hands leads to abuse and evil corruption.

V      Brave men even within the Catholic Faith began to question their belief system and actions.  In 1517 A.D., Martin Luther nailed his 95 Thesis to the Roman Catholic Church door in Wittenberg, Germany, beginning the Protestant Reformation.

V      The 1600s and 1700s began a new age of enlightenment in politics, commerce, and religion.  Writings from men like Descartes, Hume, and Locke begin to focus thinking on the dignity of the individual and the vindication of religious and citizenship freedoms.  And just like in our own age, men even questioned the existence of God and the value of religion. 

V      This age of skepticism bought questioning of Bible issues, typically, with agreements on single issues that lead to initial affiliations followed by divisions on other issues.  An era of denominationalism evolved.  Eastern historians claim that the Ottoman Empire provided financial aid to the protestant development to destabilize the Roman Catholic Church.

V      It is our belief that churches of Christ existed continually from the time of the apostles, but there is no documentation.  In the early 1600s, there is history of a church of Christ in Scotland. 

·        The Church comes to America

¨      The political experiment known as the United States of America with its religious freedom from the baggage of the European religious models attracted both individuals and groups seeking religious freedom.  The Methodist, Presbyterians, Baptist, and many others grew rapidly in the fertile soils of freedom.

¨      Men from within these groups begin to consider why all believers in Christ could not achieve unity.  An era of intense Bible study and debate began. Most concluded that “man-made creeds” were impeding the unity and desired to return to the New Testament as the only model for worship and doctrine.

¨      In 1793, James OKelly of the Methodist Episcopal Church led thousands in Virginia and North Carolina to take the Bible as their only creed.  In 1802, Abner Jones and Elias Smith of the Baptist Church led many more to abandon denominational creeds and names and return to the Bible as their only creed and to be called simply Christians.  In 1804, Barton W. Stone and other Presbyterian preachers took the same actions in Kentucky.   And in 1809, Thomas Campbell and his son Alexander began the same process in West Virginia.  The four movements eventually became a unified restoration movement with churches of Christ spreading across the nation.  The Bible knowledge and debating skills of Alexander Campbell helped facilitate a restoration of the model of the first century church. 

¨      Critics say the church of Christ began in this time period.  But if one uses the “blue prints” of a great builder from a previous time to constructs the object of the blue prints, has he really designed something new or has he only reproduced that which was already designed?  If one plants a grain of corn even many years after a previous harvest, will it not produce a stock of corn?

¨      These men were full of courage and faith.  They were not prevented from returning to the source of all Godly knowledge, the Bible, by what their parents or family believed.  They were not prevented from learning and acting on the truth by the creeds of their religious organizations.  They studied for themselves and were obedient to the will of God.  Their focus was Christ and their desire was to be in his kingdom.  

¨      During this same time period, in Scotland, Ireland, and England, there were scores of churches of Christ coming into existence following the same New Testament pattern.   None of them were aware of each other.  Just like their American brothers and sisters, they too were looking to return to the original pattern of the church and to worship as God had commanded.

·        Nicoma Park Church of Christ established

¨      In 1950, approximately twenty people began to meet as a congregation of the Lord’s church in a garage on the farm of Waldo and Ruth Haught, east of Choctaw.  These included such strong and faithful Christian families as Waldo, Ruth, and Priscilla Haught; Charles and Fiana Thomas; and Dudley and Leota Walker.

¨      This group later met in an empty residence on North Moore Street.  A bit later, the group met at an empty store building in Nicoma Park and became known as the Nicoma Park Church of Christ

¨      After a time, Dr. and Mrs. R.E. Jones donated a lot on the west side of Overholser Drive just north of NE 23 Street.  The struggling but determined group planned and constructed a small meeting house on the lot.  Wood for the project was obtained from shipping crates and buildings to be torn down on Tinker AFB.  Concrete blocks were salvaged and reused for the building project.  Charles Thomas and Dudley Walker were the chief carpenters.  Every member sacrificed to make their dream come true in 1953.  The congregation used boards and concrete blocks as seats.  Charles Thomas and Dudley Walker built wooden pews.  The preacher’s wife sold flower and vegetable seeds to pay for a small steeple for the roof.  A picture of the small building, which still stands and is owned by a local plumping company, is shown below:

¨      The small congregation grew into a substantial influence for Christ in the community during the next ten years.  The following men served as elders during this time period:  Waldo Haught, Joe Ingram, Thomas Smith, Cecil Steiger, Oscar Caperton, Bill Allen, Dan Turner, Thee Peden, and Del Cox.  Under their leadership and with the hard work of the members much was accomplished for Christ:  scores where lead to the Lord and baptized for the remission of their sins, much benevolent work was accomplished, and the gospel was spread within both the community and foreign lands. 

¨      The congregation supported Riley Walker in mission works in Canada; Mark Legg in mission works in Southern Rhodesia, and J.A. Brittells in mission works in other parts of Africa.  Many were lead to the Lord.

¨      In the community, the congregation grew in spiritual strength and numbers.  In January, 1961, it helped establish a new congregation of the Lord’s church in Spencer, Oklahoma.  They helped with the rent and provided teachers to help the birth of the new congregation. 

¨      The Nicoma Park congregation made important capital improvements to its building and obtained land across the street for a parking lot.  Many families worked hard during this time period; some of the families included:  Dan Turner, Leon Baker, Joe Beal, Thurman Grayson, George Parker, Gene Brown, Max Ballard, and Bob Morrow.

¨      A few years later, the growing congregation made the decision to construct a new building.  The construction money was raised through bond sold to members of the congregation.  Construction soon began on the facility which included an auditorium, class rooms, and a small kitchen.  Several years later, the gravel parking lot was hard surfaced with concrete thanks to the generous donation of Kenneth and Neoma Goddard of Goddard Concrete.  Several years later, a covered drive though and west entry were added under the supervision of Henry Sheets and by the hard work of members of the congregation.  Of course, David Cable, grandson of Charles Thomas, and Marvin Beal, grandson of Dudley Walker, were active participants in the project.  A picture of the facility as it currently exists is below:

 ¨      Over the years, the congregation has supported missionary works on radio, television, and several foreign fields.  As members moved on in life, many became leaders in their new congregations, serving as elders, deacons, preachers, and song leaders based on the sound training they received at Nicoma Park.  The congregation also gives young members from Oklahoma Christian University the opportunity to preach, teach, and work in developmental capacities.   The congregation also provides weekly benevolent work to many families within the community needing assistance. 

¨      And as the average age of the membership has grown a bit in recent years, the love among the members have also continued to increase.  The Nicoma Park Church of Christ is a congregation of the Lord’s church where you will feel not only welcome but you also needed.  Come join us in the Lords vineyard, where The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few  Mathew 9:37