Church Identity and Perpetuity Part 3

 It's critical we define how we mean the word “church” before we go any further. In our day and age we use it mostly in ways that are foreign to the meaning of scripture. I’m going to here give the full definition of the noun church found in our current Merriam-Webster dictionary (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/church) so you can compare and contrast that with a biblical definition given by Sylvester Hassell. My purpose is to be very intentional about what we may think is meant by church to divorce ourselves from the definitions not considered in the New Testament for the purpose of this study. Like all English words, church has taken its own path in evolving in a living language. The biblical definition, as given by Hassell is the definition of the Greek word used in the New Testament. The Greek language is dead and therefore we have confidence that we understand the full extent of it’s meaning. For future articles, we’ll dive into more details about the biblical meaning to clarify and enhance our understanding of the institution Christ established.

Webster: 

church noun

1: a building for public religious services and especially Christian worship

2 often Church : a body or organization of religious believers: such as

a: the institution of the Christian religion : the Christian religion seen as an organization

b: the clergy or officialdom of a religious body

The word church … is put for the Persons that are ordained for the Ministry of the Gospel, that is to say, the Clergy—J. Ayliffe

c: denomination

the Presbyterian church

d: the whole body of Christians

… the One Church is the whole body gathered together from all ages …—J. H. Newman

e: congregation

… they had appointed elders for them in every church …—Acts 14:23 (Revised Standard Version)

3: a public divine worship

goes to church every Sunday

4: the clerical profession

considered the church as a possible career

Hassell, History of the Church of God, 1886, pg. 291:

The Greek word rendered “church” in the New Testament is “ekklesia”, which is derived from the verb ek-kaleo, to call out, and denotes an assembly called out, a select body separated from the mass of the people. In ancient Greece the ekklesia in each State was the assembly of free-born, native, self-governing citizens, the highest legal body in the land, from which there was no appeal; slaves and foreigners were excluded from the ekklesia. In the Septuagint ekklesia is the usual rendering of the Hebrew word kahal, “the congregation” of Israel or of the Lord, from which were excluded the uncircumcised, the unclean and the “mixed multitude”. Ekklesia occurs in the New Testament 115 times; twice referring to the Hebrew “congregation of the Lord,” three times referring to the Greek assembly, and 110 times referring to the Christian church. In 92 of these last cases the reference is to a special, local, visible society of Christians; in the remaining 18 cases the reference is the entire body of the elect in Heaven and on earth, or what is sometimes called the invisible church (as in Ephesians v. 25, 29; iii. 10, 21; Colossians i. 18, 24; Hebrews xii. 23). The word is never used in the New Testament to designate a universal (or Catholic) visible church, a national church (as the Church of Judea or England), or a denominational church (as the church was not divided into different denominations in the Apostolic Age, and as there was not then any great organization, like the Presbyterian Church of the Methodist Church, including in itself a large number of local congregations). A visible church is always in Scripture a local body; and every local church, acting by a majority of its members (in 2 Cor ii. 6, “ton pleionon” is, literally, not “many”, but “the more” the majority), is invested by Christ with the exclusive and final power of receiving, disciplining, excluding and restoring its members, electing its officers, and transacting all other necessary business (Rom. Xiv. 1; Matt. Xviii. 15-18; 1 Cor v. 4, 5, 7, 11-13; Rom xvi. 17; 2 Thess. Iii. 6; Acts i. 15-26; vi 1-6; 1 Cor. Xvi. 3; xiv. 23).