The trip to De Leon, Texas was productive on a number of levels. I had a wonderful opportunity to spend time with my grandmother both going to De Leon and on the return trip. She lives in Graham, Texas, just south of Wichita Falls.
My grandmother’s maiden name is Daily and I had opportunity to see the grave site of the original Daily’s that moved to Texas sometime in the 1860s. The couple were James and Susan Daily. James was born in 1834 and Susan was born in 1843. They married in 1859 and moved to Texas from Mississippi sometime in the 1860s. They were buried in the Farmers cemetery outside of Loving, Texas. They were the original Texas Dailys.
Just south of De Leon, Texas about 10 miles, is the town of Dublin. Dublin has the distinction of being the place where the popular soft drink Dr. Pepper was first bottled. It had existed merely as a fountain drink prior. Moreover, in the mid 1900s, the price of cane sugar went up and most companies changed to corn syrup as the primary sweetener in their drinks. The bottling company in Dublin, however, did not; they stayed with the cane sugar. To this day, they continue to bottle the original Dr. Pepper.
In Matthew 16:18, Jesus said, Upon this rock, I will build my church. It was on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 that the original church of Christ began. Today, there are many churches in existence. How do we know which one is the original?
The Catholic church claims that it is the original due to descendency. That is, they claim that they are the original because they descended from the original. Such might be a reasonable argument were membership based upon blood-line. However, one doesn’t become a member of the church by physical birth, but by spiritual (John 3:3-7).
This means that the only way to know the original church isn’t by descendency, but by formula. It is those churches who follow the original formula for Christ’s church today that are the originals. We can know that we are the original church of Christ when we follow the pattern that is set forth in the scriptures for the church (2 Timothy 1:13) for the seed is the word of God (Luke 8:11).