I Believe This… What most Christians have been taught about the Biblical term “Church” is not what the Bible teaches about the institution founded by Christ Jesus. I believe that a right understanding about Church is a foundational truth that will affect many other Biblical teachings. I hope to present in this article these points or truths regarding Church. 1. The distinction between “churches” and “The Church”.
2. Where I believe the error came from.
3. How the error impacts Biblical teaching and our walk with the Lord.
Please do not feel it necessary to correct me or educate me on the supposed error of my thinking or the supposed superiority of your point of view. I will not be offering Scriptural references as support for my position, no one will read them and certainly no one would be impacted by them. I am merely presenting my position so that I may share some of what I have learned in over fifty years of walking with the Lord through His Word. I hope that revealing the fruit of my journey may stimulate some folks to embark on their own journey of personal discovery in Christ. I have not come to these conclusions lightly or easily. First involved, was the process of taking an inquisitive look at what teaching I had absorbed in my youth from respected instructors and seeing if I could, independently, justify it from the Bible. Second involved, was/is the process of filtering everything through the Bible and under the influence and ministry of The Holy Spirit. I discovered that The Holy Spirit and the King James Bible are always in sync. However, scholarship is always in flux and never seems to stay with one position for very long. Thanks for reading.
- Church < > Churches Every place in the entire New Testament, the English word “church” is found, it is translated from the Greek word “ekklesia”. In the Bible, Ekklesia is specifically a gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place, an assembly. It is a compound word with ek = out of and klesia/kaleo = called. This word is used in the secular Greek and Roman world at the time of the New Testament, to indicate a civic or political assembly. Ekklesia is always and everywhere, a collection of people called to assemble for a purpose. In scripture it is used to identify the gatherings we call churches. These assemblies have a purpose; fellowship with, edification of, nurturing of, born-again baptized believers. These churches are each answerable to their common head, Christ Jesus. They are autonomous under Christ and have no external organizational hierarchy. They gather to pray, preach, praise God, and prepare themselves to carry out the great commission. Their only authority is the Word of God, The Bible. There are no other uses for the word ekklesia than assemblies. There is no other New Testament word to identify God’s churches and it never indicates a universal aggregate of believers. As brother Ken Griffith pointed out, the only other application of “church” than local churches is the “church of the first born, and even that has not yet assembled. It will have it’s first assembly after the rapture. Another phrase that pertains to churches is the body of Christ and it too has been misapplied. Each congregation of born-again, baptized believers that recognize Christ only as it’s head and His Word, the Bible, as it’s only rule of faith and practice is a New Testament Church. Each church is the body of Christ in that place. The only possible identity of all believers world wide is that of the “family of God”, in which we are brothers and sisters, but that does not equate to churches or “church”. The kingdom of God, the family of God, the church of God are each specifically different from each other and ought not be confused. Any religious assembly that has any authority over the congregation cannot be a Biblical church, because it has another head other than Christ Jesus. This leaves denominations without the identity of “church”.
- I believe the error regarding “The Church” came into being as a result of prophesied doctrinal corruption. The use of the term Catholic came into existence as it relates to Christianity some time around the adoption of Christianity by Roman Emperor Constantine, in the early 300’s. I do not limit my use of the word “Catholic” to Roman Catholicism only. I include each of the other “Catholic” or Orthodox entities and all their Protestant daughters also. There were at that time churches all over the Roman Empire and they had no relationship to civil government. There were churches in the middle east, Africa, Asia, Europe, including England that owed no loyalty to civil government. They practiced New Testament church polity, doctrine, and mission. There was no ecclesiastical hierarchy until some of the churches and their powerful leaders did exactly as the Apostle Paul warned about when he spoke to the elders of the church at Ephesus when he called them to meet him at Miletus, Acts 20:28-31. They were corrupted in doctrine and practice. They sought influence, power and prosperity by ingratiating themselves with Rome. The bishop of Rome utilized the idea of a “universal” (catholic) church to give himself a power/influence base that would be acceptable to the Emperor. There is no other head of any church other than the Lord Jesus Christ himself. There is no “vicar of Christ” other than The Holy Spirit. All the “church fathers” quoted in opposition to this idea are those who have been influenced by the catholic church and/or were leaders in it’s development. Those pastors and churches that refused to come under the influence and power of the church/state combination were persecuted by both arms of this combine.
3. The error of a universal or catholic church has negatively impacted Christianity in many ways. I’ll present a few here. A. It replaces the headship and authority of Christ over His churches with popes, prelates, councils, synods, and presbyteries. It enables denominations to control and alienate congregations from their legitimate head. B. Such a doctrine robs congregations of their motivation to fulfill the great commission. That commission belongs to churches, not mission boards or societies. It is fruitless to send money to another source to fulfill the responsibility of individual churches. C. Churches abdicate their responsibility to educate their own leaders by sending them to denominational colleges and seminaries. Each church has the responsibility of being the pillar and ground of the truth. D. Universal church teaching distorts God’s use of the husband/wife relationship to demonstrate the relationship of Christ and His churches. The reverse application is also distorted. E. Church discipline is minimized by universal doctrine. It is the work of each church. F. Real churches would be robbed of their God given power and authority if they answered to another authority than Chris Himself.
It is my conviction that until the last several decades, the only churches that answered to God’s design for His churches were independent Baptist Churches. However. it is important for me to say that having the Baptist name does NOT make a church a Biblical church. Many (not all) that use the name Baptist today are not historical Baptists. They are Protestants using the Baptist name. This is so common, that I can no longer have confidence in a church because of it’s name. I know that I can receive correction from some of my Baptist brethren over my position, but that’s okay, I love them and answer to Christ cheerfully. I believe that a Biblical church can be identified by the following points, regardless of the name on the door.
- It has no affiliation historically or currently with any Catholic or Protestant ecclesiastical body. Organizations that have had a change of doctrine that is now Biblical may disband and reorganize under Biblical doctrine and principles, severing their identity with the previous group.
- It has no organizational affiliation out side the local congregation. In this Christ is its only head.
- Receives only born-again believers into membership upon scriptural baptism.
- Biblical churches have two ordinances and no sacraments. They are baptism and the Lord’s Supper . Only professing believers are subject to baptism. No babies are baptized. Baptism is by immersion only, demonstrating our associating with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. Baptism is not required for salvation, but because of it.
- Biblical churches hold to the doctrine of Christ as the son of God and God the Son, pre-existent with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
- Salvation is a gift of God, freely offered to everyone who will receive Christ Jesus by faith. Salvation is eternal for every genuinely born-again soul.