Ekklesia

The above Greek word is defined by Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (KJB), as “a called out assembly.” It is translated seventy six times in the new testament part of the Bible, “church.”

Most of the world, Christian and otherwise, have come to associate the word “church” exclusively with Christendom. Various Christian denominations are also referred to as churches, as are individual congregations. The federal government (the IRS) designates churches as any assemblage of three or more people that gather together regularly for religious purposes.

These are not necessarily inappropriate uses of the word, but they are not part of my purpose in this article. My purpose in writing about this is to identify the various churches (called out assemblies) in Scripture, particularly the one, true church that now exists in the world.

While the word, church, only appears in the NT, there were definitely groups in the Old Testament part of the Bible that qualified under the definition. For example, Noah and his family (eight people) were called out from the rest of the world to build the ark (Genesis 6). Abram (Abraham) and his immediate family were called to leave the land where they lived and his father’s house, “unto a land that I will shew thee” (Genesis 12). About a thousand years later, Moses is instructed to call out Abraham’s descendants, the twelve tribes of Israel, from their captivity in Egypt, back into the land of Canaan, to where Abraham was originally called. Steven, in the NT book of Acts (7:38), refers to this group as “the church in the wilderness.”

I have heard it stated by those who adhere to what is known as “orthodox theology”, that there is only one church in the Bible. The above examples clearly say otherwise. While all of these groups were called out by the same God, they were not all the same group, nor were they all called to the exact same mission, or given the same marching orders.

I have also heard that the word church refers exclusively to the NT saints, and while there may have been several identifiable groups in the OT, there is certainly only one church in the NT.

I beg to differ. There are two churches in the NT, and it is of the utmost importance for Christian folk to understand which one they belong to.

Before I proceed to identify these two groups, allow me to establish why I believe it is important to do this. All those called out by God in the Bible are called for a specific purpose, given specific instructions, and promised specific rewards for obedience to those instructions (and losses for disobedience). If one were to wrongly identify the group he belonged to, or attempt to co-mingle instructions from two different groups, then regardless of whether or not he was actually a member of the right group, he would suffer the loss of his reward because of disobedience (Ref. 1 Cor. 3:10-15; Col. 3:23,24)

An example I once heard illustrates this point. A land owner hires a sharecropper to plant a field he owns. He instructs the sharecropper to plant wheat in the field, and provides him money with which to buy the seed. He then departs instructing the sharecropper that he will return in four months to harvest the crop, and will pay him the amount they have already agreed on at that time.

In the meantime, a knowledgeable kind of fellow shows up prior to planting time and asks the sharecropper what he’s going to plant. When the sharecropper tells him he’s been instructed by the owner to plant wheat, the “salesman” apprises him that wheat isn’t in much demand this year, but corn is, and he ought to plant it instead, because it will bring the owner a better price at harvest. In fact, he says, the owner will probably give him a bonus for doing so. The sharecropper gives it some thought, and comes to the conclusion that the salesman is right, and buys the corn from him with the owner’s money.

Three months later there is a beautiful stand of corn in the owner’s field. When the owner arrives for the harvest, he asks in a startled voice, “what is this?” The sharecropper explains why he made the change, and how it would be more beneficial to the owner, etc. The owner’s reply was: “But who gave you the authority to make this judgment? I had a very specific reason for telling you to plant wheat. I’m sorry, you have failed to obey my directions, and I cannot therefore pay you for what you’ve done.”

A lot of folks now days would say the owner was unfair in this action. They would agree that the sharecropper made a mistake, but that his “heart was right,” and therefore he shouldn’t be punished in this severe way. Scripture is replete with examples of those individuals who spurned God’s instructions, and did what they thought was right–what their heart told them to do. Cain, Core, Jannes, Jambres, Balaam, Saul, Solomon, Judas, Hymenaeus, et.al., did it their way and all got their just due. “To obey is better than sacrifice,” Samuel said to the disobedient King Saul (1 Sam. 15:22) It’s this simple: with God, there is no substitute for obedience.

In other words, if we wish to receive our reward, we had best find our instructions and obey them. In order to do this we must know who we are (what church we belong to) and where we are in Scripture.

I got saved by the grace of God in June, 1985. At that time I was almost a total Scriptural blank. I had no idea what the Bible said, much less where my instructions were in it. All I knew was that I was in a lost state, needed to by saved, and came to the realization that only Christ could save me. After that event I sought to discover what God desired of me. I sought out the company of other Christians for advice, who told me to join a “church” and get baptized. I did both.

The same people told me I also needed to study the Bible. I inquired, “where do I start?” In the gospels; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, I was told. This is where the primary instructions for Christians are to be found, they assured me, so I started studying the “gospels,” beginning with Matthew.

I really did desire to be a good disciple of Christ. But when I started coming across requirements for discipleship, I began to stumble. I realized I was not in obedience to some things I was reading. For instance, in Matthew 6, which was part of the famous “sermon on the mount,” it says,

“Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” (Matt 6:31-34)

When it was explained to me by my new Christian friends that this was not to be taken literally, that it simply meant not to be obsessive about these things, I was relieved, that is, until I read chapters ten and nineteen. In chapter ten the disciples were told that when they embarked on their mission, they were to only have the clothes they were wearing, and no money (Matt. 10:9,10). And there was that phrase again, “take no thought.” But this time the instructions were to not think about what you were going to say. (verse 19).
Frankly, I thought about what I was going to say all the time. IN fact, I was instructed in a Bible Class I attended to definitely prepare for what I was going to say, as any good witness for Christ would.

The crowning blow came, though, in chapter 19, where it says a young man with “great possessions” came to the Lord Jesus, desiring to become a disciple. One of the requirements was to “sell that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me.” (verses 16-21) The young man, it says, “went away sorrowful.” Obviously, he decided he couldn’t part with his possessions.

Again, I was disturbed by this. So I went to a Christian friend who had been trained in a seminary (Lutheran). He would be able, surely, to explain this paradox to me. And indeed he did, explaining that this commandment was specifically for this young man, because the Lord knew he had covetousness in his heart, and needed to be purged of it.* That made sense until verse 27, where Peter claims that “we (he and the other disciples) have forsaken all, and followed thee…”**

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*Another “take” on this from a popular TV preacher I once heard, was that, yes it is written to us, but we are not meant to take it literally. This is better known as “spiritualizing” the passage, which is equally as wrong as the other explanation.

**Other passages in the gospels, e.g., Luke 14:26, clearly confirm that the requirements of being a disciple of Jesus under this program where to all aspirants.

I didn’t have a lot of possessions, but I knew that I had not “forsaken all,” so how could I
qualify as a disciple? The answer is, I couldn’t. And neither can anyone else in the world
today. Why? Because no one is a part of that “church” which the Lord started (see Matthew 16:18) with those twelve men. Nor is anyone today a part of what the twelve initiated in Acts chapter two, with three thousand converts in one day, where it says all of them “sold their possessions and goods.”{Acts 2:45)

When I trusted Christ on that day in June of 1985, ((http://www.agbsf.com/testimony-of-mike-schroeder/)) I got saved into what is referred to by the apostle Paul, as the church, “the body of Christ” (Eph. 1:22,23; 1 Cor. 12:27), through the operation of a spiritual baptism (1 Cor. 12:13), which had nothing to do with enjoining myself to a “church” denomination, or submitting to the ritual of water baptism.

I didn’t know this at the time. In fact it wasn’t until eight years into my Christian life that I discovered it (or, rather, had it pointed out to me).

Contrary to traditional teaching, this church is not the same church the Lord initiated in Matthew 16. The church of Matthew 16, beginning with the twelve disciples, is a fulfillment of OT prophesy concerning NT Israel. It is a calling out and gathering of Jews and Israelites from the apostate nation Israel ( represented by the Scribes and Pharisees) under the old covenant , to inherit the kingdom of the prophetic scriptures, wherein Jesus would reign as king (Ref. Is. 9:6,7; Rev. 19 & 20). As it says in Matthew 21:43, his whole purpose was to take this kingdom from the old group who rejected him, and give it to “a nation bearing the fruits thereof.”

Absolutely nowhere can one find the Apostle Paul making reference to the body of Christ as a “nation”, or a “government”, or a “kingdom.” It simply cannot be the same as this kingdom church. In fact, Four basic things distinguish the body from the kingdom church;

First, the body is a purely spiritual entity, made up of people who have simply believed something:

“How that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day…delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our justification…believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” (1 Cor. 15: 3,4; Romans 4:25; Acts 16:33)

In the second place it is invisible, and has nothing whatsoever of a physical nature to identify it. With the kingdom church, this is not so. It says that the twelve disciples will sit on “twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Ref. Matt. 19:28) It also describes in detail, in Revelation 21; a city (New Jerusalem) with the twelve’s names written on the foundation stones, which leads me to conclude that this is where those thrones are located. Moreover, visible signs and wonders did, and will identify the members of the kingdom church (Ref. Mark 16:17,18)

Third, the body of Christ is part of a “mystery…kept secret since the world began,” (Romans 16:25) meaning that it couldn’t have been revealed in the prophetic scriptures or the gospels. The kingdom church is clearly revealed in both as the nation Israel under the new covenant (Ref. Jer. 31:31; Matt. 15:24; 21:43; Hebrews 8:8-13)

Finally, the body of Christ puts Jews and Gentiles on equal ground, and is made up of both (Romans 3:9-23; Gal. 3:28). On the contrary, the kingdom church is strictly for Israel. Gentiles are not a part of this church, but rather servants to it (Ref. Isaiah 60, 61,62; Matt. 15:24)

Traditional Protestant theology attempts to reconcile all these differences by claiming that the body of Christ replaced Israel, and thus refer to the body as “Spiritual Israel.” This forces them to spiritualize many commandments in the gospels, which are clearly meant to be obeyed literally.

Other traditions make the claim that only Gentiles can be saved into the body, while those of Jewish descent are part of a separate plan of God. All the while, both systems are still attempting to obey, in part and parcel, the commandments for the obedience of faith to the kingdom church, under something they call “the great commission”, co-mingling them with those written to the body of Christ in the thirteen epistles of the Apostle Paul.

The remedy for this lies in Paul’s admonition in his second letter to Timothy:

“Consider what I say, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things…..Study to shew thyself approved, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Tim. 2:7,15)

If one will do this he will discover where he belongs in scripture–to what church in scripture he is a member, what message he is to proclaim to the world, and what marching orders he is to follow–and will not have to force figurative meanings onto passages that are clearly meant to be taken literally.

Those who insist on engaging in this exercise of trimming up the square peg so it will fit into the round hole, will suffer loss at the judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:10); not their salvation(1 Cor 3:10-15), but their reward (Col. 3:23-25) If you are saved, this should be be of the foremost import to you.

Mike Schroeder

Feel free to re-print or publish this article via the internet. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from the King James Bible.

Are you saved? Jesus Christ—“who knew no sin”—and his sacrificial death on the Cross, has made the way for “everyone that believeth…to be reconciled to God. History has shown that whatever peace man has achieved in the world can only be temporary. The Bible says that individual men and women can know, beyond a doubt, that they are saved and bound for heaven, and therefore have absolute and permanent peace, regardless of what is going on in the world, by trusting Jesus Christ and his death on the cross for their eternal salvation. “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved…Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Have you done this? If not, why not now?