CHURCH

The following extract from Trench on the Synonyms of the New Testament is of interest:

`There are words whose history it is peculiarly interesting to watch, as they obtain a deeper meaning, and receive

a new consecration, in the Christian Church; which, even while it did not invent, has yet assumed them into its

service, and employed them in a far loftier sense than any to which the world had ever put them before. The

very word by which the Church is named is itself an example - a more illustrious one could scarcely be found -

of this gradual ennobling of a word. For we have it in three distinct stages of meaning - the heathen, the Jewish,

and the Christian. In respect of the first, as all know, was the lawful assembly in a free Greek city of all those

possessed of the rights of citizenship, for the transaction of public affairs. That they were summoned is

expressed in the latter part of the word; that they were summoned out of the whole population, a large, but at the

same time a select portion of it, including neither the populace, nor strangers, nor yet those who had forfeited

their civic rights, this is expressed in the first. Both the calling and the calling out, are moments to be

remembered, when the word is assumed into a higher Christian sense, for in them the chief part of its peculiar

adaptation to its auguster uses lies. It is interesting to observe how, on one occasion in the New Testament the

word returns to this its earlier significance (Acts 19:32,39,41)'.

The LXX uses the word ekklesia to translate the Hebrew qahal. Qahal means to call, to assemble, and the noun

form means a congregation or assembly. Solomon is called koheleth the Preacher, translated by the LXX

ekklesiastes. The earliest known occurrence of the word is found in Job 30:28, `I cried in the congregation'. In the

books of the law, qahal is rendered by the Greek word sunagoge, showing that the synagogue is the beginning of the

New Testament church. Stephen in his speech which ended in his martyrdom referred to the history of Israel, and

dwells for considerable length upon the one great leader Moses, saying in Acts 7:38:

`This is he, that was in the CHURCH in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sinai'.

The people of Israel, looked upon as `a called-out assembly' were `the Church' of that period.

In the nineteenth chapter of Acts, a reference is made to the Greek usage of the word ekklesia. The concourse of

people gathered to the theatre at Ephesus is referred to as an ekklesia, `the assembly was confused' (Acts 19:32).

Upon the arrival of the town clerk, he reproved the people for the rashness of their proceedings saying: `If ye inquire

anything concerning other matters, it shall be determined in a lawful assembly (ekklesia)' (Acts 19:39), and having

thus spoken he dismissed the assembly (Acts 19:41). Here the word is used in its original sense, a called-out people,

assembled for a particular purpose. It will be seen, therefore, that it is not enough to point to the word `church' and

thereby set aside the distinctive callings of God. The kingdom as announced in Matthew is not to be contrasted with

a church, but is in itself to be viewed as a company of called-out ones. The reference to the church in Matthew

16:18 does not look to the subject of subsequent revelation reserved for the prison ministry of Paul, but to the calling

that was announced in the Gospel of the Kingdom. There was a `church' before Pentecost, as Matthew 18:17 makes

In the Prison Epistles (See under PRISON EPISTLES3) the word ekklesia is advanced to its highest conception. It

is `the body of Christ', it will be `the fulness of Him that filleth all in all'. It will be seen that it is not enough to say:

`The church began at Pentecost', we must go further, and define what church is in view. Under the heading ekklesia

or `called-out company' we find the following different assemblies, ranging from the nation of Israel separated from

all the nations of the earth down to the church to which Philemon acted as host. Before, therefore, we build up any

doctrine upon the presence of the word `church' in any passage of Scripture we should consult the context and

realize the dispensation in which any particular church finds its calling and sphere.

1.

The nation of Israel viewed as distinct in their calling to be a kingdom of Priests in the earth (Acts 7:38). In

this light it will be perceived that some care must be exercised when we are seeking to differentiate between

the Kingdom and the Church.

2.

The Church spoken of as existing in the days of Christ's earthly ministry before either His sacrificial death,

or before the day of Pentecost (Matt. 18:17).