Few Christians realize that the central concepts and practices associated with what we call ‘church’ are not rooted in the New Testament, but in patterns established in the post-apostolic age and/or our own culture. In any of the figures of speech describing the church, none of them refer to an institution organized along the lines…
As to its usage, the word appears in literature outside the New Testament letters that describe a class of people with the same craft, profession, or citizenry to conduct business. In the New Testament, the word is used by Luke to describe Israel in the wilderness (Acts 7), an assembly of people in Ephesus and…
Moulton and Milligan explain that the word “meant originally any public assembly of citizens summoned by a herald. It is the term in the Septuagint for the community of Israel, whether assembled or not”[1] (p. 195). The verb literally means “to call out of” (ek, out of + kaleo, to call). Sometimes, the word is…
We propose a meaning for the word ekklesia that is consistently applied to both universal and local contexts. The word ἐκκλησία, when applied to God’s people, was never intended to describe a physical meeting. This is not an unusual use of words used by New Testament writers. The word shepherd, for example, referred to a…
Another human production of using unsound words that corresponds with the unscriptural practices is the use of the word “church”. First, let us be reminded as to the personal accountability to sound words and to Paul’s charge not to teach a different doctrine (1 Tim. 1:3-4). It is within the same context that Paul identifies…
Aside from the formation of an institution, many innovations were introduced. Once any man or group of men lift themselves up as authority figures with the final authority reserved for the Pope, we can expect many human inventions. Further, it makes little difference what the Bible teaches to a man who claims apostolic succession. Worse…
Luther and Zwingli, who spoke of the priesthood of believers and advocated new reforms, could not make a full break from the institutional concepts of “the church.” They still spoke of “the church” when discussing the “institutional church” and believed it was the church built by Jesus Christ. They thought of the church as their…
Take note of some of the changes that were made in the early years of Christianity. For example, people were still observing the Lord’s Supper or Eucharist, but by the late second century, a shift was made from the Lord’s Supper meal or “love feasts” to a Holy Communion ceremony/service. The churches in the East…
After 70 AD, the number of Gentile Christians increasingly rose over the Jewish influence and brought with them many of the ideas and practices of their former religion. The Jewish influence was also present, but the Gentile forms of the Greco-Roman rituals had a large influence on the church fathers and future practices of the…
Denominations from the Protestant reformation have inherited a mindset from the Mother of all churches that God is pleased with the formation of local church organizations composed of bishops or an equivalent rank who rule over the people. Some traditions make the clergy/laity distinction more pronounced than others. Yet, the effect is the same –…