When the Church instituted and activated the CPMA auxiliary, something very special and essential was on the heart of our General Overseer A. J. Tomlinson. In the Assembly of 1941, he said, “Now we are in a hurry to get thousands of men and women in the mighty Church of Prophecy Marker Association to gather thousands of dollars to start the work of the association in swift order. We not only want to gather in a sufficient amount of money to mark all the important places where the last days Church had its rise in the new world, but we want to fly back over five thousand miles to the Mountain of Hittin where Jesus set His Church in order at the first…We need to place a marker there to offset that erroneous idea that the Church was first started on the day of Pentecost.” Brother Tomlinson’s vision for this marker eventually came to fruition and the CPMA, to this day, continues to mark the mountain in the Holy Land where Christ established His Church, according to prophecy, in a.d. 28.
The Body of Christ—Scriptural Studies on the Divine Church (Lecture 2, pp. 14-17), says, “One of the greatest obstacles to a perfect understanding of the Bible Church is the confusion concerning the time the Church was established. Did Christ set it in order while He still lived upon the earth [Mark 3:13-15] or did it have its beginning on the day of Pentecost [Acts 2:1-4]? … From the record it is obvious that Christ established the Church while He was here and that it functioned from that time on as His divine body… Christ had told Peter and others [in Matthew 16:18]; ‘I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’” Mark 3:13-19 was “obviously a meeting of organization… Here [Jesus] performed the act of ‘ordaining’ and gave them authority to do the work of the Church—going ‘forth to preach.’ …Other points of interest here are that a ‘membership roll’ was instituted with the names of the first members written down (three of the gospels record them) and that Judas was chosen as treasurer, the beginning of Church organization.”
We also note that “After the ascension of Christ the Church carried on certain functions which could not have been done by a scattered and unorganized group of believers.” Remember the meeting to choose a successor for Judas? There was a moderator and the Church had 120 members (Acts 1:15). “Christ himself was to build (organize) the Church. The Holy Ghost came to fill the Church with power for service…” We further recognize that the “events following the outpouring of the Holy Ghost show a great growth of something already existing, not the birth of something new.” The Bible says in Acts 2:41, “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.” Three things happened. These three thousand souls received the Word (got saved). They were baptized in water. They were then added to the membership roll of the Church. This would bring the membership total, of that same already functioning body, The Church of God, to around 3,120.
In Mark 13:34, Christ, the Son of man (Matt. 16:13), took a far journey (See Luke 24:51.) and “left his house.” We can see that “if a person does not have a house, he cannot leave his house. …Jesus had a house.” His Church (1 Tim. 3:15) is the house He organized and built according to prophecy, as in Psalms 72:16, with just a “handful of corn.” The Church was also prophesied to be established in the top of the mountain (See Isaiah 2:2.), not in the city where Pentecost occurred in the Upper Room. Jesus ascended to heaven before the day of Pentecost, and His promise, after His departure, was to send the Comforter, the Holy Ghost (John 14:26-31). He clearly organized His Church, He paid for His Church (Acts 20:28), and afterward, He sent the power of the Holy Ghost to endue and fill His Church (See Acts 2:1-5.).
We concur with Bishop Tomlinson that the marker on Mount Hittin plays a vital role in dispelling false teaching about Pentecost being the birthday of the Church. It testifies to the world of when and where God’s Church was truly set in order. We are thankful this portion of his vision was fulfilled surrounding the CPMA auxiliary, and that it still commemorates this important location today with our marker!
Let us all become part of this mighty last days work by joining the CPMA!