(1) Did the church (kingdom of God) exist before the Pentecost day? (2) If no, what about those whom were baptized before the Pentecost day; what were they added to?
God has always ruled the universe that He created. Mankind has always been obligated to obey his Creator God, beginning in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve under Patriarchy. Later, God continued to rule humans through Judaism, and now He governs under Christianity.
Prior to the establishment of the Jewish kingdom, beginning with King Saul, God was the King of His people under a theocracy. Hundreds of years after the commencement of Judaism, God permitted the beginning of a physical kingdom of God. “And the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them’” (1 Samuel 8:7 NKJV).
Yet, the Old Testament and the opening of the New Testament promised the establishment of a spiritual kingdom of God (Isaiah 2:2-3; Daniel 2:31-45; Joel 2:28-3:2; Matthew 16:18-19; John 18:36-37; Acts 1:6). “And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever” (Daniel 2:44). “Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here’” (John 18:36).
Jesus Christ promised to build the church or kingdom (He used the terms interchangeably in the same conversation, Matthew 16:18-19). The eleven apostles recognized that immediately preceding the Ascension of our Lord that the spiritual kingdom or church had not yet been established; “Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, ‘Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’” (Acts 1:6). Acts 2:47 is the first reference to the Lord’s church or spiritual kingdom after its beginning.
Preceding the establishment of the church or spiritual kingdom, John the Baptist prepared the way for the ministry of our Lord. This, too, was fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy (Isaiah 40:3-5). “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!’ For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight’” (Matthew 3:1-3).
The preparatory ministry of John the Baptist included repentance and baptism for the remission of sins in anticipation of the establishment of the church or spiritual kingdom by Jesus Christ. “John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins” (Mark 1:4). However, that baptism and remission of sins associated with it looked forward to the establishment of the church or spiritual kingdom; John’s baptism was no longer a valid baptism to be administered after the Lord’s church came into being.
And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said to them, “Into what then were you baptized?” So they said, “Into John’s baptism.” Then Paul said, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.” When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. (Acts 19:1-5)
The effectiveness of John’s baptism, when administered before the establishment of the Lord’s church or kingdom, was dependent upon the death, burial, resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ, as well as upon the Holy Spirit assisted (Joel 2:28-3:2; Acts 1:8; 2:1-4) beginning of the church in Acts 2. Likewise, the faithful and obedient children of God under Patriarchy and Judaism depended for their redemption on the successful ministry of the Son of God and the founding of His church or spiritual kingdom. The blood of Jesus Christ not only purchased the church (Acts 20:28) and continues to save souls to which that blood is (symbolically) applied (Ephesians 1:7), but the blood of Christ goes backward to the times of Patriarchy and Judaism to save the faithful under those dispensations (Romans 3:25). For instance, atonement achieved with animal blood was a stand in for and was replaced essentially with the blood of Jesus Christ, providing instead of atonement true redemption in its place. Atonement did not cleanse the conscience of sin (Hebrews 10:1-4).
In summary, “righteous Abel” (Matthew 23:35) and all of the faithful under Patriarchy and Judaism, along with the faithful who received John’s baptism when it was valid to administer it, are now in the spiritual kingdom of God or the church. They had not received actual redemption until the successful ministry of our Lord occurred, and they were not in the spiritual kingdom or the church until the Pentecost following the Ascension of Jesus Christ when the Lord established His church or spiritual kingdom. All of the faithful children of God, including those baptized in John’s baptism, essentially had divinely issued promissory notes, which now have been paid in full.
