What is the church?

[aron]

Given that I don't want to crowd OBW's blog, I thought I would make some comments on something I read yesterday on his blog in a separate venue.

OBW's comments were on the Living Stream Ministry's teachings on the church, and I would like to quote this part:

"...the day that the core of a sermon is something like what was in the Church in Bellevue’s [which is a Living Stream Ministry franchise] May 20, 2012 “Ministry Reading Portion” is the day I seek a new source of ministry.

... when the core of [the sermon] really has nothing to do with me, or to the extent that it does, it is all about me getting lost in some larger group that has all of these ethereal attributes, I find it useless."

Then he posted from the Church In Bellevue's publication. The church is, according to the C In B's publication, the wife, the warrior, the body, the dwelling place, the city.

Like OBW I find such teaching, while not absolutely untrue, and not without some basis in scripture, to be useless. My reasoning is thus: such statements are tautological, and reflexive. They don't really tell us anything. It's like saying, "The church is the church". Such a statement yields nothing of value, in and of itself, absent further information.

Now let me explain why I think thus. If you look at the usage of the word translated "church" in English, that word is "ekklesia". I think most of us know this. Now, how was the word "ekklesia" used in conversation? What was an ekklesia to the NT writers & readers? What did the word mean to Greek-speakers in Palestine, Asia Minor, and further regions (i.e. Africa, Rome, Gaul) in the first century, when the NT was being composed?

So if Paul or a gospel writer equates the church with a bride, or a warrior, or a body, he may be giving us some information about some aspect of the function of the church, but he is not, as the Church In Bellevue seems to assume, actually telling us what the church is. Absent further definition, it's an "ethereal attribute", as OBW put it, and is quite useless.

It's like saying, "My car is a great way to get to work". So we can ask, "What is a car?" and answer, "It's a great way to get to work." But that doesn't tell us what a car is: typically an enclosed vehicle composed of a metal chassis and shell with an engine and a steering wheel and four rubber tires, manufactured by Hyundai or Ford or whomever. A canoe can also be a great way to get to work, or a skateboard or a trolley or a hovercraft or a pair of sneakers. So some statement about some aspect of something's function does not actually inform us what that item actually is. It doesn't define the thing per se, as the Church In Bellevue seems to think, at least by my reading of the portion which OBW provided.

Okay, back to context: what is the church? How is it used in the NT, and the Greek OT, the Septuagint? Again, many of us know how it is used. The "ekklesia" is a gathering together. It's what we might call an assembly, or a meeting. It is a group of people convened for some express purpose. You can have an "ekklesia" to elect a town mayor, or to praise God, or to remember Jesus, or to decide whether to raise funds for a new school building.

Let me give a scriptural basis from the NT. Acts 19:41 "And with these words, he dismissed the assembly." What is the word for assembly here? Yes, it is "ekklesia". It means "meeting" (In the Greek OT "ekklesia" also meant this: "In the midst of the meeting I will praise You" (From Psalm 22, quoted in Hebrews 2).

The focus of our ekklesia is Jesus. Our focus is not the meeting. So if you go to an "ekklesia", and the teaching is about "the ekklesia" (as the wife, the warrior, the bride, etc), then I posit that you have lost your focus. If you focus your gathering on Jesus you will probably fulfill some aspect, as His designated "ekklesia" (i.e. church meeting), of being His body and bride here on earth, and fighting for His interests and His kingdom, etc. But if you fill your meeting with teachings about your meeting, then you are doing nothing but running around in circles looking for your own tail.

Here is a portion from Deuteronomy 32, where Moses warns the Jews,

"15 Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; filled with food, he became heavy and sleek. He abandoned the God who made him and rejected the Rock his Savior.

16 They made him jealous with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols.

17 They sacrificed to demons, which are not God— gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your fathers did not fear.

18 You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.

19 The Lord saw this and rejected them because he was angered by his sons and daughters.

20 “I will hide my face from them,” he said, “and see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children who are unfaithful.

21 They made me jealous by what is no god and angered me with their worthless idols. I will make them envious by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation that has no understanding.

22 For a fire has been kindled by my wrath, one that burns to the realm of death below. It will devour the earth and its harvests and set afire the foundations of the mountains."

When your focus is "The Church", you have forgotten the God who brought you forth from bondage in Egypt. You are now focusing on a "god who has recently appeared (v. 17)", and "what is no god (v. 21)". Secondly, your teachings make no sense, nor yield profit, because you are saying that "The focus of our meeting (ekklesia) is the meeting (ekklesia)." Your statements yield no informational value, and your meeting yields no spiritual issue.

If we recognize Jesus as God's sent Lord and Christ, then we immediately have Jesus' assurance that He will build his church. He will surely gather His called-out ones together. But when we focus the attention of our gathering together on the meeting itself, then we take our eyes off Jesus, and disaster inevitably ensues.

Remember, dear readers, that Satan loves to divide. He is the prince of division. What is the issue of all Watchman Nee's teachings on the church? Division after division. How many thousands of christians are no longer associating with one another, because of Mr. Nee's teachings? I believe they have been duped to take their eyes off of Jesus. Faith in Jesus makes us one. No church will ever unite us.

Peace to you all.