Ed and Patsy now live in Athens, Alabama and are members at the Pepper Road church. As administrator of this blog, he enjoys sharing thoughts about spiritual maters. Not only his thoughts but good articles from other authors. He is also thankful to have been able to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ for over sixty years.
If I am not mistaken, the word church in its singular and/or plural forms is found in every New Testament book in all of our English versions, with the exception of the short books of Jude, 1 John and 2 John. Each time it is a translation of the Gr. ekklesia meaning a called or summoned out assembly. Except for three times (Acts 19), where it is translated assembly, it refers to the people of God in one way or the other.
This is one of two cases where the translators retained ecclesiastical words rather than literally translating. The King James translators likely did it to accommodate the officials of the Anglican Church. “Assembly” would not have suggested the officialdom to the reader that “church” does. The other word is “baptism” (both noun and verb). Rather than literally translating it immersion or to immerse, the anglicized version of the word was retained. That way the reader could continue to think of the word as being broad enough to include the practice of the Anglican Church of “baptizing” by spinkling or pouring. The later translations have followed suit in this manner. So, one has to do due diligence and study the context to determine what the writers meant.
Now back to “church” or assembly. In the singular it sometimes refers to all who are loyal to God in the universe – those who are in fellowship with Deity. The Hebrew writer refers to them as “the church (assembly) of the firstborn (plural)” which he describes as “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant…” (Heb. 12:22-24 NASB). What a great throng!
It is to this throng that one is added when he is saved. He becomes one of that great number. It is interesting that of those saved on the Day of Pentecost in response to the preaching of Peter (Acts 2) that verse 47 is translated differently in different versions. Those translations that generally used the manuscripts used by the King James have “added to the church.” Those who used the manuscripts used by the old American Standard have it added to “them” (ASV) or “their number” (NASB). The church is the number of the saved. So, in the singular, this is often the meaning.
It is also used in the singular to refer to a group of such people organized as a group in a given location following the instructions of the Lord – like the “church of God (Christ)” at Ephesus or at Corinth etc. (Acts 20:28; 1 Cor. 12). The singular is also used in the ASV type of translations to refer to all Christians in a general area (Acts 9:31).
It is used in the plural preferring to these groups – like the “churches of Christ” (Rom. 16:16), “churches of Galatia” (1 Cor. 16:1) or “churches of God” (2 Thess. 1:4).
The term is also used of the physical assembly of a local church when it comes together. When the “church of God” (the local organization) came together for worship it was called a church (1 Cor. 11:16, 18; 14:34, 35).
So, when one is saved he becomes one of the number of the saved which brings him great blessings as well as responsibilities. Can one be saved without being one of that number? If not, then he cannot be saved without being one of the church (universal) because it is, by definition, composed of all the saved. As one of the saved, he seeks out a local group of like minded people to join himself to fulfilling his responsibility to physically assemble together worship and mutually provoke one another unto love and good works and build each other up in the faith. This local group is expected to follow the New Testament pattern for corporate organization, work, and worship. The local group has the obligation to accept and reject others into their fellowship according to whether or not one, in their judgment, is really a disciple of the Lord. (Act 9:26-28; Rom. 14:1)
The Lord never makes a mistake as to who becomes one of the universal church or continues to be in it. As the local church, who has the responsibility to receive or reject applicants, mistakes are sometimes made in that some are received and retained that should not be (1 Cor. 5) and others are rejected and expelled that should not be (3 John 9). I have enough faith in the providence of God that He will somehow rectify such cases. Because mistakes are made is no excuse for local churches not doing the best they can to follow the Lord’s instructions in this matter. Also, it tells us that we must not blindly follow the congregational leadership because they do make mistakes.
Hopefully these thoughts will be helpful as we think about “church.” Notice that I said nothing about modern denominations’ role in this pattern. Simple put, there was no such organizations mentioned in the New Testament.