Back to the Basics

[Christsfreeservant]

The word “church” means “people called out from the world and to God,” “the universal (total) body of believers whom God calls out from the world and into His eternal kingdom,” and “belonging to the Lord” (Strong's Greek: 1577. ἐκκλησία (ekklésia) -- an assembly, a (religious) congregation).

But the word “church” has come to mean buildings, and denominations (Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, etc.). And, these denominations of men have, for the most part, united with the government (in the USA) in an unholy union, and they have turned the church into businesses of men, being marketed like any other businesses of men.

So, that is not “the church.” These businesses may be called “church,” but they are not “the church.” For they are united with the world, and their target market is the world, and so they pattern their gatherings after the world in order to draw in large crowds of people from the world.

So, if we unite ourselves with these businesses called “church” we are not living as those who are truly called out from the world and to God. So, we need to get back to the basics. We need to return to what the Scriptures teach about the church and how we are to function as the body of Christ, and we need to leave these institutions of men who are united with the world behind us in order to follow Jesus in obedience to his will for our lives.

Something God gave me to share with all of you on this subject today:

 

[ViaCrucis]

A correction. The English word "church" is ultimately derived from the Greek phrase kyriake oikia, meaning "[the] Lord's house", and is what the buildings at which Christians gathered came to be called. This was borrowed into the Germanic languages as kirika, which eventually gave rise to the modern German kirche, the Dutch kerk, in Anglo-Saxon (Old English) circe, which evolved into chirche/churche, and finally the modern "church". Compare with the Scots word kirk, or with some place names, such as Dunkirk in France (the name is from Flemish, literally "Dune Church" where "dune" originally just meant a mound or a hill).

However, in many of the Germanic languages the word used to refer to the places of Christian worship came to also be applied to the gathered worshipers and as a way of translating the Greek/Latin ekklesia/ecclesia.

So to refer to a church as a church is not incorrect. The use of this word to refer to the places of Christian worship predates the use of this word to refer to the Christian community itself.

Both uses are correct.

-CryptoLutheran