- Now that we’ve already looked into whether the “church” is the “storehouse,” it’s actually important to note that even the word “church” is a poor term to use, if we want to be technically accurate. There is no literal derivative of the word “church” used in Scripture, and was a mistranslation added hundreds of years after Scripture was written. The original language of Scripture uses the word “Ekklesia,” literally meaning “the called out ones” or “a called out assembly,” referring to all of those who have been called out of darkness and into His light. This word Ekklesia is used in Scripture 115 times in just that one grammatical form. Britannica defines it as “a gathering of those summoned.” The Oxford Dictionary list it as “a congregation.” In the Bible, this word “Ekklesia” is a direct reference to the people of God, born into His Kingdom through Christ Jesus. The word we know as “church” has nothing to do with a place, a building or a “professional” organization. It ONLY and ALWAYS has been a reference to PEOPLE. Paul wrote many letters to many people in different locations, but he spoke a singular message of there being only ONE BODY, which is the Lord’s “Church/Ekklesia” (Colossians 1:18, Romans 12:4-5, Ephesians 4:15-16 and 5:29-30). This is a fellowship that knows no boundaries and no walls. It is not contained by institutions, divided by denominations or contained within buildings. Even the very word denomination indicates division and there is no division in the true Church of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 1:10).
- Again, the English word “church” only appeared in translations hundreds of years after the writings of the apostles, but it was William Tyndale (author of the Tyndale Bible translation) who went back to the original Greek text and used the word “assembly” when translating the original Greek word “ekklesia,” and because of acts like this and the effect it would’ve had on weakening the power of the Roman Catholic Church, in 1536 he was convicted of heresy and executed and burned at the stake by the Catholic Church. Part of the reason why William Tyndale lost his life was because he wanted people to be able to read an accurate translation of the Bible, and because he believed that the “church” organization was too powerful and was merely meant to be ekklesia, an assembly of believers. The effect of changing this word back to the original Greek text would strip the “church” hierarchy of its pretensions to be Christ’s earthly representative, and would award this honor back to individual worshippers who made up each congregation.
- God’s Word never describes New Covenant churches as “tabernacles,” “temples,” or “buildings” in which God dwells. God’s church, or dwelling place, is now within the believers, as is also shown in 2 Corinthians 6:16, “we are the temple of the living God. As God said: ‘I will live in them’.” Believers do not “go to church,” but rather, believers “assemble to worship.” We are called to assemble, and we are merely an assembly. It is therefore wrong to think that a modern building is “God’s storehouse” for New Covenant tithes. (1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6:19-20; Eph. 1:22-23; 2:21; 4:12-16; Rev. 3:12).
- As for how many people would be required in order to assemble together, Jesus says in Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am among them.” Throughout history, when people have found the Good News, the Truth and power of “Ekklesia” and the knowledge that we are all a “priesthood of believers,” they were willing to die for the Truth, and nothing could stop them. They wouldn’t die for a lie or for misinformation, but by knowing the Truth, they were willing to be persecuted and killed by the Roman Catholic Church for the sake of the Truth found in God’s Word. (The previous information is from multiple sources, including www.Truthforfree.com).
- John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible (an English Baptist, 1763) says, “by the church, is meant, not an edifice of wood, stones, etc. but an assembly, and congregation of men…the elect of God, the general assembly and church of the first born, whose names are written in heaven; and especially such of them as were to be gathered in, and built on Christ, from among the Jews and Gentiles. The materials of this building are such, as are by nature no better, or more fit for it, than others: these stones originally lie in the same quarry with others; they are singled out, and separated from the rest, according to the sovereign will of God, by powerful and efficacious grace; and are broken and hewn by the Spirit of God, generally speaking, under the ministry of the word, and are, by him, made living stones; and being holy and spiritual persons, are built up a spiritual house: and these are the only persons which make up the true and invisible church of Christ…”
- In the 2nd century, Justin Martyr makes it clear that the concept of “church” and “church buildings” were nonexistent in his day, and that the saints were not accustomed to meeting at any particular place. When he was asked where he assembled, Justin Martyr answered: “Where each one chooses and can; do you suppose that we all are accustomed to meet together in one place? Quite otherwise, for the God of the Christians is not confined by place, but being invisible, He fills the heaven and the earth, and the faithful everywhere adore Him and sing His praise.”
- Hebrews 8:2 teaches us that Jesus is a, “Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.” This is clearly not a physical building, and this will be discussed later, but until then, ponder what it is exactly that God has built, and what are the stones that He used to build it.
- Earle E. Cairns wrote in Christianity Through the Centuries that in the time of the first Constantine, Constantine the Great (A.D. 306-337), the decision was made that, “There could be no private religion. To the Roman authority this could be nothing else than the hatching of a conspiracy against the state.” Constantine granted religious tolerance in the Edict of Milan, while he began to build church buildings for the sake of public rather than private worship, yet Cairns wrote, “Constantine brought to Christianity a pagan notion of the sanctity of things and places.” Unfortunately, in the Edict of Thessalonica, we see the unbiblical declaration that for those Christians who wished to meet in homes (like the New Testament and early believers had practiced) it was decreed that, “they shall be branded with the ignomious name of heretics, and shall not presume to give to their conventicles [private meetings] the name of churches.” Peter Ditzel wrote, “So, now the tables were turned- the persecuted were now the persecutors. Or perhaps the tables were not turned. Maybe the pagans were still running things but now under the new name of Catholic Christianity.” (Copyright © 2017 Peter Ditzel) http://www.wordofhisgrace.org/wp/ekklesia-or-church/
- “It is generally agreed among etymologists who study the origins of words that our modern English word “church” comes from the Greek word kuriakos. This is confirmed by looking in Strong’s Greek Concordance, under the definition of Ekklesia, which this Bible app tells us, “The English word ‘church’ comes from the Greek word kyriakos, ‘belonging to the Lord’ (kyrios).” http://www.bibleapps.com/greek/1577.htm. This word is an adjective and it means belonging to or in some way related to the Lord. The word kuriakos is only found twice in the Bible. It is in 1 Corinthians 11:20, where it is translated as “Lord’s” in the term “the Lord’s supper.” And it is translated “Lord’s” in the term “Lord’s day” in Revelation 1:10. In English (as well as in other languages such as German that use derivatives of kuriakos), the word “church” is a totally misleading translation of ekklēsia. This modern English word “church” meant a building set apart as sacred and, thus, considered to be the Lord’s. This is a concept that is totally foreign to the New Covenant. Under the New Covenant, there are no sacred places (John 4:21, 23; Acts 7:48-49). The word “church” eventually evolved even further from the New Testament meaning of ekklēsia by coming to also encompass priests holding an office (a concept that came to be called the clergy—also a notion foreign to the New Covenant) and the denomination or institution that they formed” (Copyright © 2017 Peter Ditzel).
- In the time of the New Testament, the word ‘ekklesia’ was an everyday word that simply meant assembly. It referred to any gathering of people, whether religious, political, or even criminal, and the word itself gives no suggestion of the type of assembly. However, the King James translators made a substitution and used the relatively new word ‘church’ for the Greek word ekklesia in every place that it appeared in the New Testament with the exception of three instances, and all three of which are in Acts 19. In verses 32 and 41, ekklesia is correctly translated as ‘assembly’ when it referred to an unlawful gathering or mob. In verse 39, it refers to a ‘lawful assembly.’ However, in all the other occurrences in the New Testament of the word ‘ekklesia,’ when it had a religious connotation, the word ‘church’ was used instead. We can now see that in Acts 19, which was the only time that the word ekklesia had no reference to the people of the Lord, the correct translation of ‘assembly’ is given.
- But wasn’t King James the most holy and righteous king ever, who made the most perfect translation of the Bible, the King James version which doesn’t contain any imperfections? Well, it is absolutely a very good translation, but it does contain a few clearly intentional mistranslations in order to maintain the power of the religious organization. Peter Ditzel wrote, “When King James I became king of England, he also became the head of the Church of England (as had all English monarchs since King Henry VIII). James was not happy that the Reformation had not just brought about new state churches in Europe, but had also stirred up some people to want a purer church in England, one that did not have so many of the trappings of Catholicism. He considered these people—some of the Presbyterians in Scotland, and Puritans, Separatists, and other non-conformists in England—to be troublemakers. On the other hand, although the Church of England was a hybrid of Catholicism and Protestantism, James also had no love for Catholics, especially after the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot, a failed assassination attempt by a group of English Catholics. His response was to try to unite his church under yet another translation of the Bible, one that would be a compromise between the more Protestant Bibles and the Bishop’s Bible. At the Hampton Court Conference of 1604, in which he proposed the new Bible, the King showed that he had no qualms about stacking the deck. Among his comments, he said, “I approve the calling and use of Bishops in the Church, and it is my aphorism, ‘No Bishop, no King’…. I will have one doctrine, one discipline, one religion, in substance and in ceremony…. If you aim at a Scottish presbytery, it agrees as well with monarchy as God and the devil. Then Jack, and Tom, and Will, and Dick shall meet and censure me and my Council…. If this be all your [Puritan] party has to say, I will make them conform themselves, or else I will harry them out of the land, or else do worse.” The king then issued a set of rules to the translators. Among them was a rule that ordered that the text of the Bishops Bible would be the primary guide for the translators, and that, if the Bishops Bible was deemed problematic in any situation, the translators were then permitted to consult other translations such as the Tyndale Bible. Another rule was, ‘The old ecclesiastical words to be kept, viz, the word Church, not to be translated Congregation.”
- We can now see that, “not only is the word “church” a wrong translation of ekklēsia, it is a purposeful mistranslation of ekklēsia. And not only is it a purposeful mistranslation, it is a purposeful mistranslation designed to mislead the people into following the established church and away from any ideas they may have been developing about the true understanding of the called out assembly” (Copyright © 2017 Peter Ditzel) http://www.wordofhisgrace.org/wp/ekklesia-or-church/. By the authority of King James, the translators were forbidden from properly using the Greek word Ekklesia, which by definition had no reference at all to a place, and instead they were forced to mislead the whole world by using a word which means “something that is the Lord’s,” thus we now associate every reference in the Bible which had used the word Ekklesia to now mean a holy place. This was intentional deception in order to weaken the power of each believer, and to empower this unbiblical “professional” religious establishment.
- Do they not know what the Bible says about making changes to God’s Word? The translators specifically took out the word Ekklesia and instead added the word kyriakos. Does anyone else see a clear violation of Scripture? Deuteronomy 4:2 “You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take anything from it” (also see Deuteronomy 12:32). “Add thou not unto His words, lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar” Proverbs 30:6. Also 1 Corinthians 4:6 says, “not to think beyond what is written.” It is without a doubt that they “took out” an original Greek word and “added” a completely different Greek word.
- “The New Testament is very clear in pointing out the fact that the Temple in the Old Testament was a shadow or forerunner of something much greater. ‘You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God through Jesus Christ,’ 1 Peter 2:5. The house of God is the Ekklesia, the Body of Christ, the Temple of the Holy Spirit, the Church of Jesus Christ. I am not speaking about a building, organization, denomination, association, or any other dead thing. I am speaking of the living, breathing Body of Christ. The organic expression of Jesus Christ on this earth is what we are sorely lacking. This is what God wants to rebuild,” states Milt Rodriguez.
“Helping People See Jesus and Exploring All That He Has Fulfilled” 