More On Church and Ekklesia

[tulsa 2011]

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[TD="class: gH"]More On Church and Ekklesia

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The Greek word ekklesia was used in the Septuagint. The seventy-two who translated the Septuagint around 280 B.C. used ekklesia for the Hebrew term, the "congregation of Israel."

"CHURCH: FORMS: (a) cirice, cyrice, chiriche, churiche, chereche, (b) CIRCE, cyrce, chyrce, cirke, etc., etc.,
"The ulterior derivation has been keenly disputed. The L. circus, and a Gothic word kélikn 'tower, upper chamber' (app. originally Gaulish) have both been proposed (the latter suggested by the Alemannic chilihha), but are set aside as untenable; and there is now a general agreement among scholars in referring it to the Greek word, properly kurion adj. 'of the Lord, dominicum, dominical' (f. Kurios lord), which occurs, from the 3rd century at least, used substantively (sc. doma, or the like) = 'house of the Lord', as a name of the Christian house of worship. Of this the earliest cited instances are in the Apostolical Constitutions (II. 59), a 300, the edict of Maximinus (303-13), cited by Eusebius (Eccl. Hist. ix. 10) a 324, the Councils of Ancyra 314 (Canon 15), Neo-Caesarea 314-23 (Can. 5), and Laodicea (Can. 28). Thenceforward it appears to have been in fairly common use in the East: e.g., Constantine named several churches built by him Kuriaka (Eusebius De Laud. Const. xvii),"(Oxford English Dictionary)."

The statement "Constantine named several churches built by him" can be ambiguous because the Dictionary does not say what language Constantine used. He may have used Latin and the Latin word ecclesia.

Jerome's Latin Vulgate translates the Greek ekklesia as ecclesia. For Example in Acts 8: 1, the Latin says "facta est autem in illa die persecutio magna in ecclesia quae erat Hierosolymis et omnes dispersi sunt per regiones Iudaeae et Samariae praeter apostolos."

The Douay-Rheims English has "And at that time there was raised a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all dispersed through the countries of Judea, and Samaria, except the apostles." But the Latin word ecclesia means assembly. The Oxford Universal English Dictionary defines "ecclesia" as: "Ecclesia [mediaeval Latin, and Greek - from : Summoned] -A regularly convoked assembly, especially the general assembly of Athenians."

So, the Jerome Latin Vulgate uses the Latin spelling ecclesia of the Greek word ekklesia, meaning, as Strong's Exhaustive Concordance says "...a popular meeting, especially a religious congregation, Jewish synagogue or Christian community."

The first English Bible translated from Greek to English did not translate the word ekklesia as church. William Tyndale's translation (1526) consistently used the word congregation for ekklesia. However, for Acts 14: 13 and Acts 19: 37 Tyndale used church to indicate a place of pagan worship.

In 1536 Tyndale was convicted of heresy by the Catholics and executed by strangulation, after which his body was burnt at the stake. No doubt, one of the reasons the Catholics killed him was because he translated ekklesia consistently as congregation, except in two places where the meaning is of a pagan congregation, where he translated ekklesia as church.

The word church for ekklesia was probably first used by Theodore Beza in 1556, a Protestant, who followed John Calvin at Geneva, Switzerland. As a Calvinist, Beza followed the Catholic idea of the universal Church and supported this concept by using the word Church instead of assembly. William Whittingham's Testament of 1557 followed Beza's usage of Church. The first edition of the Geneva Bible as a revision of the Tyndale New Testament, translated ekklesia as Church. The Geneva Bible followed Beza in translating ekklesia consistently as Church instead of as congregation as Tyndale had done. The consistent translation of ekklesia as Church in the English Bibles apparently dates back to a Calvinist, Theodore Beza.

In 1557 the Geneva New Testament, produced by William Whittingham, translated "ekklesia" as "church." It is important to note the Protestant source of this translation.

The next English Bible, the Bishops Bible (1568), which was a revision of the Geneva Bible, continued to translate ekklesia as Church, as have all later English translations including the King James Version. To have translated the word ekklesia as assembly - or congregation as Tyndale did - goes against the Catholic form of Church Government, and the use of that Church government and the clergy as an elite group to control the doctrines and practices of the congregations. What happens is that the clergy begins to depart from the doctrines of scripture while deceptively claiming to follow scripture. Later, as the congregations have come to accept the doctrines of the clergy, different from scripture, the clergy teaches their doctrines more openly and devotes less time to the teaching of scripture, especially to scripture which is clearly different from the doctrines of the clergy.

The Capital C Church, which was continued to some extent under Calvinism, gives the clergy as an elite group power to determine the doctrines and practices of those claiming to be Christians. This control makes it much easier for the clergy to teach doctrines that do not agree with scripture to the Christians because the clergy has conditioned them to believe they, the priests and preachers, are the authorities for God on earth and must be obeyed.

The Internal Revenue Service Publication 1828, "Tax Guide for Churches and Other Religious Organizations" says "The term "church" is not specifically defined in the Internal Revenue Code. However, because special tax rules apply to churches, it is important to distinguish churches from other religious organizations....Certain characteristics are generally attributed to churches. These attributes have been developed by the IRS and by court decisions. They include: a) A distinct legal existence, b) A recognized creed and form of worship, c) A definite and distinct ecclesiastical government, d) A formal code of doctrine and discipline, e) A distinct religious history, f) A membership not associated with any other church or denomination, g) An organization of ordained ministers, h) Ordained ministers selected after completing prescribed courses of study, i) A literature of its own, j) Established place of worship, k) Regular congregations, l) Regular religious service, m) "Sunday schools" for the religious instruction of the young, n) Schools for the preparation of its ministers.

Churches were added to section 501c3 of the tax code in 1954. After 1954 churches are incorporated as legal entities, corporations, from corpse, under the federal government, the IRS. We can thank Senator Lyndon B. Johnson got the tax exempt code applied to churches. So "that great man from the Pedernales" got the church defined as a corporation under the federal government, and subject to its control, though in the earlier years of this change the feds did not do too much controlling. Nevertheless, the federal government has authority and control over the churches as defined above in the U.S.

In fact, the definition of a church as having a distinct legal existence, a definite and distinct ecclesiastical government, an organization of ordained ministers, and ordained ministers selected after completing prescribed courses of study supports the original purpose of the Roman Catholic Church in making it the controlling elite to dictate all doctrines and practices to those claiming to be Christians. The Capital C Church exists to enable the clergy, an elite group running a corporation having a distinct legal existence, and that elite group being ordained ministers who have been educated in seminaries, to have full control over the doctrines and practices of the congregation. This is the church in 2013 in the U.S.

 

[tulsa 2011]

The Internal revenue definition of a church is accurate: The IRS definition of church includes: a) A distinct legal existence, b) A recognized creed and form of worship, c) A definite and distinct ecclesiastical government, d) A formal code of doctrine and discipline, e) A distinct religious history, f) A membership not associated with any other church or denomination, g) An organization of ordained ministers, h) Ordained ministers selected after completing prescribed courses of study, i) A literature of its own, j) Established place of worship, k) Regular congregations, l) Regular religious service, m) "Sunday schools" for the religious instruction of the young, n) Schools for the preparation of its ministers."

This is from Internal Revenue Service Publication 1828, "Tax Guide for Churches and Other Religious Organizations."

In scripture ekklesia is almost always used to talk about a local assembly of believers. The idea of calling the elect, the saints, the Body of Christ, which is all saved people, the church is another definition of church. This is the "Church" which was said to replace physical Israel. And the dispensationalist "Church" as the Body of Christ, and the elect, claims the Catholic Church did not replace physical Israel, but that the dispensationalist "Church" exists now alongside of physical Israel as two peoples of God, with the implication being that God now has two saved groups. A number of quotes saying God now has two peoples are easily found from books by dispensationalist leaders. This is an obvious conflict with John 10: 16 and Romans 12: 5, as well as some other verses by Paul.

The two different definitions of "Church" is confusing. How can the church, translated from ekklesia, which means a meeting, an assembly or congregation which meets regularly, and includes unsaved people, as well as saved people, also be the elect of God? The elect of God is all saved people.

The percentage of unsaved people in the assembly would be different at different places and especially at different points in time.

In Matthew 13: 36-43, the parable of the sower, says "
Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.
37. He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man;
38. The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; 39. The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. 40. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.
41. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;
42. And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
43. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear."

The field is the world. This refers not to the world outside of the gatherings of those who claim to be Christians, but to the congreations all over the world. These congregations are made up of different percentages of wheat and tares. That is, Christ said to allow the tares to live alongside the wheat and not to destroy the tares because in trying to do that some who are really wheat will also be destroyed. And the tares, when the congregation is dominated by them, will try to destroy the wheat.

At a point in time, however, the congregations of those who claim to be Christians are taken over by the tares. "Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it?
19. It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it.
20. And again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God?
21. It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." Luke 13: 18-21

The word "till" indicates that the leavening goes on over time until the whole of the congregations are leavened by the falling away of II Thessalonians 2: 3. Then the congregations are run by tares and are tare congregations. But in dispensationalist end time prophecy this does not happen until after the tribulation begins. The falling away cannot go on for many decades and is part of the tribulation.

II Thessalonians 2: 3 says "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God."

The "falling away" is from αποστασια, apostasia, or apostasy, a departure from sound doctrine into another Gospel and another Jesus. The man of sin is from ανθρωπος της αμαρτιας, anthropos tes amartias. For some reason the Westcott-Hort Greek text has ανθρωπος της ανομιας, the anthropos tes anomias.

The literalist "hermenutic" says this man of sin is the one man political leader called the Anti-Christ who is to appear after the rapture of the dispensationalist church, and will make a treaty with Israel, brake it and desecrate the newly re-built temple in Jerusalem. But the anthropos tes amartias is a metaphor. You could say he is like the natural man of I Corinthians 2: 14, who cannot receive the things of the Spirit or know them. He rejects the truth. But metaphorically this man of sin as many men of sin sits in the temple of God, which is the minds and hearts of those who claim to be of God. He as a collective mentality takes over those who claim to be of the elect, the Body of Christ.

"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy......Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.....Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith." II Timothy 3: 1-2,5, 7-8

"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." II Timothy 4: 3-4

II Timothy 3: 5, 7-8 and II Timothy 4: 304 are describing the congregations after the falling away has gone on a while.

When the congregations are dominated by tare leaders and only a few wheat is left, then Revelation 18: 4 applies. "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."

 

[tulsa 2011]

After the falling away of II Thessalonians 2: 3-4 and the leavening of Luke 13: 18-21 has gone on for a while and the leavening of the Christian community has been taking place for some time, to use the term "Church" to mean the elect or saved people is deceptive. This is because there is an increasing number of people in the "Church" who are not saved, though they think they are. The use of the Greek word ekklesia in the New Testament to refer to a local congregation is honest and not deceptive. That meaning given to ekklesia does not imply that everyone in the congregation is part of the elect, or the saved.

When you use the word "Church" in the sense of the universal
"Church" making up the people from many congregations the next step is easier, which is to define the "Church" as being made up of the elect, that is, only of the saved, when, in fact, this is not true. And the next step is for the "Church" to teach or imply that there is no salvation outside of the Church, in Christ. The "Church" has replaced Christ.

"For many are called, but few are chosen." Matthew 22: 14

"For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;
4. Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." I Timothy 2: 4

"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy.........................Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
.............................7. Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." II Timothy 3: 1-2, 5, 7-8

"And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
11. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
12. That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." II Thessalonians 2: 10-12

To teach or imply that the "Church" is made up only of the elect of God is shown not to be true when many in the churches follow doctrines clearly different than the Gospel taught by scripture, which is that Gospel Paul referred to in Acts 20: 27 as all the counsel of God.