Introduction
In writing the introduction to the seventh edition of “THE CHURCH THAT JESUS BUILT” Dr. J.W. Jent, at that time, President of Southwest Baptist college, Bolivar, Missouri had this to say:
“Writing an introduction to the seventh edition of this book is a peculiar pleasure. When the first edition appeared in 1923 I welcomed it not only because it met a real need as a text book in my department in Oklahoma Baptist University, but because I have never read anything which sets out quite so thoroughly and clearly my own conception of Christ’s ‘ECCLESIA.’ The second edition, which I used as a text in the Theological Seminary of Mercer University was more comprehensive and better organized than the first edition. It is a valuable and timely contribution to the literature of Christian Polemics. The issue of this seventh edition reflects the persistence of gratifying interest in Christian fundamentals—a tangible disproof of the claim that denominationalism is dead”
“ I had my introduction to the New Testament Ecclesiology at the feet of my father, years ago, in the country churches of Southwest Missouri. He still serves as a rural pastor in that section and is widely known as perhaps the strongest doctrinal preacher in the Ozarks Mountains. Again and again, during the plastic years of my boyhood, I heard him through his series of sermons on THE CHURCH—Its nature, Institution, CHARACTERISTICS, PERPETUITY, and Modern IDENTITY. When I followed him into the ministry and the country pastorate, we labored together laying the Biblical foundation upon which it was easy for me to build, later, a doctrinal superstructure, under the sympathetic guidance of Dr. B. H. Carroll”
“Years of study and practical experience have convinced me that the interpretation of my father and my great teacher is correct; that the CHURCH --- Christ’s ‘ECCLESIA’---is ‘A CONGREGATION OF BAPTIZED BELIEVERS associated together in THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE GOSPEL ;’ that it is a SPIRITUAL DEMOCRACY—visible and LOCAL or PARTICULAR; that it is A NEW TESTAMENT INSTITUTION, designed by Our Lord, historically instituted by Him: persisting from century to century; conserving the characteristics of the New Testament model; easily identified by the rarks of the doctrinal integrity; functioning true to the genius of its Holy Mission ; justifying its existence by its challenging achievements and its benevolent blessing to sin-cursed humanity. This is the THESIS Dr. Mason so ably defends in the following pages. He is frank, candid, consistent, convincing. His arguments are impelling and unanswerable. He states the representative Baptist belief, with its essential implications. He gives our ‘reason for the faith that is in us’—the ineradicable consciousness of a mission and a destiny—the utter intolerableness of comity and compromise—the unique point of view in which we have the paradox of inflexible exclusiveness synthesized with superlative toleration and good will”
“Since the doctrine of the church is clearly determinative in the distinctive field, this book not only meets a serious denomination need, but admirably clarifies the atmosphere for the general public. Its challenging restatement of the BAPTIST THESIS not only meets, with unflinching candor, the ‘invisible church’ propaganda of Pedobaptist, but the superficial sentiment of non-denominational and anti-denominational Modernist. The author sounds the clarion call to a new crusade of constructive doctrinal preaching. He points the way to a program which would revitalize not only our churches but our denominational machinery. The one dynamic which has always heartened and impelled as a intelligent CONVICTION; a DENOMINATIONAL CONSCIENCE and the consciousness of a DENOMINATIONAL MISSION. We have a MESSAGE the world needs and really wants to hear. One is blind who does not realize that the high noon of
Democracy in the down of the twentieth century is a Baptist day. The dare of denomination loyalty is the wisdom and constructive genius to make the most of it.”
“Dr. Mason’s ringing appeal to reason and Divine Revelation in this book must win the open mind that gives him a hearing. Pastors who are wise will put ‘THE CHURCH THAT JESUS BUILT’ in their teaching program. It deserves a place in the training courses of all our auxiliary departments. The author has put all our Baptist under obligation to thank him for a service so timely, fundamental, and far-reaching. May God bless this seventh edition and make it an abiding blessing to an ever-increasing company of readers and open-minded students through all the years.”
J.W.Jent.
President, Southwest Baptist College, Bolivar, Mo.
It gives us great pleasure to have this opportunity of republishing “THE CHURCH THAT JESUS BUILT’ by Dr. Roy Mason. We believe that the need is ever greater for a Biblically sound book to this nature than it was even one year ago. The pastor and members of the Buffalo Avenue Baptist Church believe that God provided the means for us to publish this the TENTH EDITION, and we endorse its use among our Baptist people as heartily as did Dr Jent.
Claude King, Sr.
Pastor
Buffalo Avenue Baptist Church
“The Baptist faith is radically and fundamentally different from that of all others. On this ground alone can their continued separate existence be justified.”
--M. P. Hunt, in “The Baptist Faith.”
