ArchivedHello :: Re: Hellopreacherintraining wrote: The point I made was that for every argument I gave he said, "You're taking that out of context, it was written to the church at such and such a place." I simply said that at no place in the bible does it say written to the church at New Hampshire, or where ever any of you are from, so in his arguments none of the bible applies. That is all.
1 Cor 1:1-3
1:1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,
2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:
3 Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. KJV
CHURCH (Grk. ekklesia, "called out," ek "out," kaleo "to call").
The Term, General Use. The word church is employed to express various ideas, some of which are scriptural, others not. It may be used to signify: (1) The entire body of those who are saved by their relation to Christ. (2) A particular Christian denomination. (3) The aggregate of all the ecclesiastical communions professing faith in Christ. (4) A single organized Christian group. (5) A building designated for Christian worship.
Simple New Testament Usage. In the NT the church comprehends the whole number of regenerated persons specifically from Pentecost to the first resurrection (1 Cor 15:52; 1 Thess 4:13-17) united organically to one another and to Christ by the baptizing work of the Holy Spirit (Rom 6:3-4; 1 Cor 12:12-13; Gal 3:27; Eph 4:5; Col 2:10-12). According to the NT definition the church is the mystical Body of Christ of which He is the head (Eph 1:22-23), being a holy temple for the habitation of God through the Spirit (2:21-22), "one flesh" with Christ (5:30-31), and espoused to Him as a pure virgin to one husband (2 Cor 11:2-4). The word ekklesia, however, is employed of any assembly, and the word in the Gk. language imples no more; for example, the town meeting or "assembly" (ekklesia) at Ephesus (Acts 19:39), and Israel called out of Egypt and spoken of as a "congregation," ekklesia, in the wilderness (Acts 7:38), but in no sense was it a NT church except as a type of that which was to come. In addition to the church as the Body of Christ, we find other meanings attached to the word in the NT. It refers sometimes to the company of believers in a single province or city (cf. Rev 2-3), or those meeting in a particular place of worship. It is applied even to bodies of professed believers who have largely departed from the true faith and practice, though in such cases the title is no longer appropriate except as a reminder of what they once were or professed to be, or only as a convenient designation, the significance of which in such cases is wholly lost.
The Beginning of the Church. That the true church as the Body of Christ began on the Day of Pentecost may be demonstrated in various ways. (1) Christ Himself declared it to be yet future. (2) It was founded upon the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, and such an accomplished fact was not possible until Pentecost (Gal 3:23-25). (3) There could be no church until it was purchased with Christ's precious blood (Eph 5:25-27), until He arose to give it resurrected life (Col 3:1-3), until He ascended to be head over all things to the church (Eph 1:20-23), and until the Spirit came on Pentecost, through whom the church would be formed into one body by the baptism of the Spirit. (4) The baptism of the Spirit prophesied by John (Matt 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16-17; John 1:33) was still future at Acts 1:5. That it occurred between 1:5 and 11:16 is evident by a comparison of these two verses. It is obvious that the Holy Spirit, who came at Pentecost, arrived to perform among His various ministries of regenerating, sealing, indwelling, and filling, His distinctive ministry for this age of baptizing into Christ, that is, into His Body, the church (1 Cor 12:13). It was just as impossible, considering the baptizing work of the Holy Spirit, that the church would have been formed before Pentecost as it was impossible that it should not have been formed after that date. Other views as to the time of the founding of the church include the period of Christ's earthly ministry, the days of Abraham, and the lifetime of Adam.
Purpose and Completion of the Church. There is abundant Scripture that points to God's principal purpose in this particular age as the outcalling of the church, the Body of Christ, from both Gentiles and Jews (Acts 15:14-18). This pivotal passage from Acts indicates God's divine purpose for this age in taking out from among the Gentiles a people for His name. The gospel has never anywhere saved all but in every place it has called out some. The church is thus still in the process of formation, principally from among Gentiles with comparatively few Jews, who constitute the remnant according to the election of grace (Rom 11:5). When the Body of Christ is complete, it will be removed, or translated, from the earthly scene (1 Cor 15:51-53; 1 Thess 4:15-17; 2 Thess 2:1; Rev 3:10). After the out-taking of the church, the end-time apocalyptic judgments will fall upon Gentiles and unbelieving Jews. However, a remnant will be saved out of this "time of Jacob's distress" (Jer 30:7), and the advent of Christ in glory will mark the setting up of the millennial kingdom with the nation Israel reinstated in priestly communion and blessing (Zech 3) as the light of the world (4). Three views are held among premillennialists as to the time of Christ's return: before, in the middle of, and at the end of the Tribulation.
Relation Between Christ and the Church. Seven NT figures set forth this relation: (1) the Shepherd and the Sheep (John 10); (2) the Vine and the Branches (John 15); (3) the Cornerstone and the Stones of the Building (1 Cor 3:9; Eph 2:19-22; 1 Peter 2:5); (4) High Priest and the Kingdom of Priests (Heb 5:1-10; 6:13-8:6; 1 Peter 2:5-9; Rev 1:6); (5) the Head and the Many-Membered Body (1 Cor 12:12-13,27; Eph 4:4); (6) the Last Adam and the New Creation (1 Cor 15:22,45; 2 Cor 5:17); (7) the Bridegroom and the Bride (John 3:29; 2 Cor 11:2; Eph 5:25-33; Rev 19:7-8).
The Unity of the Church. Our Lord's remarkable intercession for Christian unity in John 17:11,20-23 was answered in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and the Spirit's advent to baptize all who believe in Christ into one Body. Christian unity is thus a reality-a position as a result of being "in Christ." It is not organizational unity but the unity of a living organism. The task of Christians is to realize this positional unity as an actuality by Christlike conduct (Eph 4:1-3) based on sound doctrine (4:4-6). Only then can positional unity become experiential.
Roman Catholic and Protestant Statements. The authoritative utterances of Catholics and of Protestants illustrate this difference of view. For example, the Catechism of Trent (Roman Catholic) says: "The church is one, because, as the apostle says, there is 'one Lord, one faith, one baptism;' but more especially because it has one invisible ruler, Christ, and one visible, viz., the occupant for the time being of the chair of St. Peter at Rome." Luther's larger Catechism says: "I believe that there is upon earth a certain community of saints composed solely of holy persons, under one Head, collected together by the Spirit; of one faith and one mind, endowed with manifold gifts, but united in love and without sects and divisions." The Church of England (Art. 19) says: "A congregation of faithful men, in which the pure word of God is preached, and the sacraments duly administered according to Christ's ordinance, in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same." This is also the definition given by the Methodist church. These quotations might be greatly multiplied; but enough is given to show the main line of divergence and the position and trend of Protestant doctrine upon this subject.
The Ethics of the Church. As visible institutions churches must exercise government over their members. What rules of conduct they may properly impose and enforce is, however, a question of great importance. If the church is, as Roman Catholics hold, infallible, because divinely inspired, then all that the church may require is of divine obligation. If the churches, as some seem to hold, are merely voluntary human societies formed for Christian purposes, then such rules as from a human standpoint may seem appropriate are binding upon those who enter and remain in their communion; though at the same time the obligation of entering or remaining becomes, to say the least, greatly reduced. But if, according to the Protestant view, the churches are divine-human institutions, and not infallible, the rules of conduct must accord with the teachings of the infallible Word. The ethical standard of the visible church must be simply that of the Holy Scriptures, otherwise the true idea of the church is lost sight of and the church assumes either too much or too little. Only by adhering to the Word of God as the "rule of faith and practice" can the churches save themselves from the two extremes: on the one hand, that of unduly magnifying the authority of the visible church, or, on the other, that of laying aside its highest claim to recognition and obedience.
M.F.U.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: S. Cox, The Expositor (1896), 3:223-336; F. J. A. Hoyt, The Christian Ecclesia (1897); T. M. Lindsay, The Church and the Ministry in the Early Centuries (1907); R. N. Flew, Jesus and His Church (1943); A. von Schlatter, The Church in the New Testament Period (1955); G. W. Bromiley, Unity and Disunity of the Church (1958); R. A. Cole, The Body of Christ (1964); R. P. Martin, Worship in the Early Church (1964); R. L. Saucy, The Church in God's Program (1972).
(from The New Unger's Bible Dictionary. Originally published by Moody Press of Chicago, Illinois. Copyright (c) 1988.)
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