A CHURCH DEFINED BIBLICALLY.

A CHURCH DEFINED BIBLICALLY.

From: WHAT IS A CHURCH? By Tom Ross.

"It is important that we get our definition of what a church is from the Scriptures,
rather than the opinions of Catholic and Protestant theologians.

"The inspired writers of the New Testament text
never once used the word Catholic (katholikos, the Greek word for universal) or invisible
in conjunction with the word church (ekklesia in the Greek).

"The Christians of the first century knew absolutely nothing
about a universal or an invisible church.

"I love the quote by the late Elder Davis Huckabee who wrote:
“The Greek words ekklesia (assembly) and katholikos (general or universal)
are mutually exclusive; the former is expressive of locality and a restricted assembly,
while the latter is expressive of universality and all-inclusiveness."

"Not only so, but katholikos is not even a New Testament word,
nor is it to be found in the Greek Old Testament.

"It made its appearance sometime after the first century
when it first began to be applied to the so-called general (katholikos) epistles.

"It was never applied by inspiration to the church.”

"The Roman Catholic theologian, Augustine (353-430 A.D.) really set forth
and solidified the unscriptural notion of a universal, visible church
that consisted of every member of the Catholic church
who submitted to the authority of its visible head, the Pope.

"Augustine’s version of the church was stated in the Fourth Century
and was an attempt to define a church as a single, world wide entity
that a person had to belong to in order to be saved.

"Later, after Martin Luther took his decided stand against some of the errors of Catholicism, Protestants had to come up with a new meaning for the word church in order to justify their split from Rome. From that time until now Protestants in the main have believed in the unscriptural notion of a universal, invisible church.

"There are several different variations of the universal invisible church doctrine,
none of which match with the usage of the word church in the Holy Scriptures.

"Protestants who bear the birthmarks of their unholy mother, the Roman Catholic Church,
also equate salvation with church membership in some degree.

"Catholics and Protestants alike insist that the everyone who is saved
is of necessity in the universal church.

"The proponents of the universal, visible
and invisible church theories fail to see the distinction made in the Word of God
between the Family of God which constitutes all born again believers,

and the churches of God which are made up of saved people
who have been scripturally baptized by a New Testament church in Gospel order.

"The Scriptures make it clear that the elect are born again into the family of God
and the kingdom of God (John 3:3-8).

"However, the Scriptures make it crystal clear that believers are added to the Lord’s church
by way of baptism scripturally administered (Acts 2:41; I Cor. 12:13, 18).

"There is only one Family of God and one Kingdom of God,
both entered by way of the new birth.

"However, there are literally thousands of churches of the Lord Jesus Christ
made up of believers baptized in Gospel order.

"Historically Baptists in the main have stood alone on the principle
that sinners are saved through Christ alone, separate and apart
from any denominational or church affiliation.

"Sadly, due to the influence of C.I. Scofield’s study Bible
and the advent of Fundamentalism in the early 1900’s
many Baptists embraced the heresies of the universal, invisible church theory.

"Many Baptists hold to version of the church branch theory
and/or the idea of a local body within a universal body.

"When they want to appear to be ecumenical and acceptable to Protestants
they talk of the big universal invisible church, but when it comes to the collection of tithes,
offerings, and a weekly salary they appeal to the local church.

"I think a lot of Baptist preachers would be cured of the universal invisible church theory
if they had to depend on the big, mythical, spooky church for a paycheck!

"For the sake of time and space we will not examine
every time the word ekklesia is translated church or assembly, for example, in the KJV.

"For a detailed study I would refer the reader to a book I wrote
entitled Teachings on the Local Church where I examine all 114 times the word ekklesia
is translated church, churches, or assembly in the New Testament,
including the 18 times it is used in a generic, institutional, or abstract sense.

"One time it is inserted as an idiomatic word in italics. (I Peter 5:13).

"Three additional times it is found in the subscription at the end of Romans,
I Timothy, and Titus.

"One thing is for certain, each
and every usage of the word ekklesia
translated church or assembly in the New Testament
either refers directly
or may be applied to the teaching of a local,
visible, assembly or congregation of baptized believers.

"The only exceptions would be the non Christian usage of ekklesia
where the word is translated “assembly” three times in Acts 19:32, 39, 41.

See: A CHURCH HAS A DEFINITE LOCATION.