CHURCH OF CHRIST
Generally today when people
talk about the 'church', they are referring to either a religious denomination
or a physical building that people meet in to worship together.
But since we are interested
in what God says on any religious
subject, we must go to His inspired Word and see exactly what the word 'church'
means. In order to allow God's Word to be the complete and final authority in
all religious matters, we must learn to put off all that we have been taught,
and may now believe, that conflicts
with God's Word! I pray that you will do that.
First, we need to understand
that the English word 'church' is derived from 'kuriakos', meaning "of or
belonging to the Lord", which represents the Greek word 'ekklesia',
meaning "assembly"; from 'ek', "out of", and 'klesis',
"a calling"(kaleo, to call), and was used in the New Testament for
various types of assemblies, including a mob (Acts 19:32).
So you must understand that
when you see the English word 'church', it means an assembly of or belonging to
the Lord. You find it used by the Lord Himself in Matthew
16:18 - "I will build My church" Here
it is used in a universal sense, so He speaks of this entity as 'one'. Thus in Ephesians
4:4 you can read about 'one' body, that is why Ephesians 1:22 tells us that the 'church' is "His body"
The churches of Christ (non-institutional)
