Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
Did the 'ekklesia' of Acts 19:41 which was dismissed by the town clerk consider itself to the the "genuine church in the city" in Ephesus? Did the 'ekklesia' that Paul wrote greeting to in Romans 16:5 consider itself the "genuine church in that city"? If so, why didn't Paul call it as such?
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It's very simple - Paul does not use the language "genuine church" because there was not such thing as a "false church" at the time.
To be strictly biblical there are only churches and sects. Just as there are only believers and nonbelievers. The term "genuine believer" is a bit of an oxymoron, so is the term "genuine church". But because everyone thinks a building with a "yada yada church" sign on the front is a real church, I must make the distinction between current practice and the bible by using the word "genuine". Especially considering that a number of these churches are controlled by lesbians.
But now we have the situation where any group of believers can claim to be a church. Most Christians cannot discern the difference between a church (genuine) and a sect. This is because they don't have a solid biblical definition of what a church is. Some say there is no definition but there is if we look hard enough - if they want to say that they should cut out and keep only the red letters in their bible if they only want to follow the prescriptive parts.