ECCLESIA
- THE CHURCH
Lecture
I
"And
I say unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my
church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will
give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose
on earth shall be loosed in heaven ..." - Matthew 16:18, 19.
This passage, Matthew 16:18, 19, has been for many centuries a battle-ground
of theological controversies. Though millions of the disputants have passed
away, the questions which arrayed them against each other still survive
to align their successors in hostile array.
The most important of these divisive questions are:
1. What is the church?
2. Who established it and when?
3. What is the foundation?
4. What are the "gates of hell?"
5.
What are the "keys?"
6. What is the "binding and loosing?"
In this lecture there will be time for answer to the first question only:
WHAT
IS THE CHURCH?
From the given list of passages, taken from the Englishman's Greek Concordance,
and which you may verify by reference to the Bible, it appears that the
word Ecclesia, usually rendered "church" in our version,
occurs 117 times in the Greek New Testament (omitting Acts 2:47
as not in the best texts).
Our Lord and the New Testament writers neither coined this word nor employed
it in any unusual sense. Before their time it was in common use, of well
understood signification, and subject like any other word to varied employment,
according to the established laws of language. That is, it might be used
abstractly, or generically, or particularly, or prospectively, without
losing its essential meaning.
To simplify and shorten the work before us, we need not leave the New Testament
to find examples of its classic or Septuagint use. Fair examples of both
are in the list of New Testament passages given you.
What, then, etymologically, is the meaning of this word?
Its primary meaning is: - An organized assembly, whose members have been
properly called out from private homes or business to attend to public
affairs. This definition necessarily implies prescribed conditions of membership.
(1) This meaning, substantially, applies alike to the ecclesia of
a self governing Greek state (Acts 19:39),
(2) the Old Testament
ecclesia or convocation of National
Israel (Acts 7:38), and
(3) to the New Testament
ecclesia.
When, in this lesson, our Lord says: "On this rock I will build MY ecclesia,"
while
the "my" distinguished His ecclesia from the
Greek state
ecclesia and the Old Testament ecclesia,
the
word itself naturally retains its ordinary meaning.
Indeed, even when by accommodation, it is applied to an irregular gathering
(Acts 19:32, 41) the essential idea of assembly remains.
Of the 117 instances of use in the New Testament certainly all but five
(Acts 7:38; 19:32, 39, 42; Hebrews 2:12) refer to Christ's
ecclesia. And since Hebrews 2:12, though a quotation from
the Old Testament, is prophetic, finding fulfillment in New Testament times,
we need not regard it as an exception. These 118 uses of the word, including
Hebrews
2:12, refer either to the particular assembly of Jesus Christ on earth,
or to His general assembly in glory (heaven).
Commonly, that is, in nearly all the uses, it means: The particular assembly
of Christ's baptized disciples on earth, as "The church of God which
is at Corinth."
To this class necessarily belong all abstract or generic uses of the word,
for whenever the abstract or generic finds concrete expression, or takes
operative shape, it is always a particular assembly.
This follows from the laws of language governing the use of words.
For example, if an English statesman, referring to the right of each individual
citizen to be tried by his peers, should say: "On this rock England will
build her jury and all power of tyrants shall not prevail against it,"
he uses the term jury in an abstract sense, i. e., in the sense of an institution.
But when this institution finds concrete expression, or be comes operative,
it is always a particular jury of twelve men, and never an aggregation
of all juries into one big jury.
Or if a law writer should say: "In trials of fact, by oral testimony, the
court shall be the judge of the law, and the jury shall be the judge of
the facts," and if he should add: "In giving evidence, the witness shall
tell what he knows to the jury, and not to the court," he evidently uses
the term "court," "jury" and "witness" in a generic sense. But in the application
the generic always becomes particular; i.e., a particular judge, a particular
jury, or a particular witness, and never an aggregate of all judges
into one big judge, nor of all juries into one big jury,
nor of all witnesses into one big witness. Hence we say that the
laws of language require that all abstract and generic uses of the word
ecclesiashould
be classified with the particular assembly and not with the general assembly.
As examples of the abstract use of ecclesia that is in the
sense of an institution, we cite Matthew 16:18;
Ephesians
3:10, 21.
Matthew
18:17 is an example of generic use. That is, it designates
the kind (genus) of tribunal to which difficulties must be
referred without restriction of application to any one particular church
by name. I mean that while its application must always be to a particular
church, yet it is not restricted to just one, as the church at Jerusalem,
but is equally applicable to every other particular church.
As when Paul says: "The husband is the head of the wife," the terms
"husband" and "wife" are not to be restricted in application
to John Jones and his wife, but apply equally to every other specific husband
and wife.
But while nearly all of the 113 Instances of the use of ecclesia
belong
to the particular class, there are some instances, as Hebrews 12:23,
and Ephesians 5:25-27, where the reference seems to be to the general
assembly of Christ. But in every such case the ecclesia
is
prospective,
not actual. That is to say, there is not now, but
there will be a general assembly of Christ's people. That
general assembly will be composed of all the redeemed of all time.
Here
are three indisputable and very significant facts concerning Christ's general
assembly:
(1) Many of its members, properly called out, are now in heaven.
(2) Many others of them, also called out, are here on earth.
(3) An indefinite number of them, yet to be called, are neither on earth
nor in heaven, because they are yet unborn, and therefore non-existent.
It follows that if one part of the membership is now in heaven, another
part on earth, another part not yet born, there is as yet no assembly,
except in prospect.
And if a part are as yet non-existent, how can one say the general assembly
exists
now?
We may, however, properly speak of the general assembly now, because, though
part of it is yet non-existent, and though there has not yet been a gathering
together of the other two parts, yet, the mind may conceive of
that gathering as an accomplished fact.
In God's purposes and plans, the general assembly exists now, and also
in our conceptions or anticipations, but certainly not as a fact. The details
of God's purpose are now being worked out, and the process will continue
until all the elect have been called, justified, glorified and assembled.
Commenting on our lesson, Broadus says:
"In the New Testament the spiritual Israel, never actually
assembly, is sometimes conceived of as an ideal congregation or assembly,
and this is denoted by the word ecclesia." Here Broadus
does not contrast "spiritual Israel" with a particular church of Christ,
but with national or carnal Israel.
The object of the gospel, committed to the particular assembly in time,
is to call out or summon those who shall compose the general assembly in
eternity.
When the calling out is ended, and all the called are glorified, then the
present concept of a general assembly will be a fact. Then and only
then actually, will all the redeemed be an ecclesia. Moreover,
this ecclesia in glory will be the real body, temple,
flock of our Lord.
But the only existing representation or type of the ecclesia
in glory (i. e. , the general assembly) is the particular
assembly on earth.
And because each and every particular assembly is the representation, or
type, of the general assembly, to each and every one of them is applied
all the broad figures which pertain to the general assembly. That is, such
figures as "the house of God," "the temple of the Lord," "the body," or
"flock." The New Testament applies these figures, just as freely and frequently,
to the particular assembly as to the general assembly. That is, to any
one particular assembly, by itself alone, but never to all the particular
assemblies collectively.
There is no unity, no organization, nor gathering together and, hence,
no ecclesia or assembly of particular congregations collectively.
So
also the term ecclesia cannot be rationally applied to all
denominations collectively, nor to all living professors of religion, nor
to all living believers collectively. In no sense are any
such unassembled aggregates an ecclesia. None of them constitute
the flock, temple, body or house of God, either as a type of time or a
reality of eternity. These terms belong exclusively either to the particular
assembly now or the general assembly hereafter.
A man once said to me, How dare you apply such broad terms as "The house
of God," "The body of Christ," "The temple of the Lord," to your little
fragment of a denomination? My reply was, I do not apply them to any denomination,
nor to any aggregate of the particular congregations of any or of all denominations,
but the Scriptures do apply every one of them to a particular New
Testament congregation of Christ's disciples.
Hear the Word of God:
In the letter to the Ephesians, Paul says: "In whom each several
building, fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord;
in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit."
(Ephesians 2:21, 22, Revised Version)
Here are two distinct affirmations:
First - Each several building or particular assembly groweth into a holy
temple of the Lord That is, by itself it is a temple of the Lord.
Second - What is true of each is true of the church at Ephesus, "In
whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit."
Just before this he had written of the church as an institution,
or abstractly, in which Jew and Gentile are made into one. But the abstract
becomes concrete in each several building.
To the elders of this same particular church at Ephesus he said: "Take
heed to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit
hath made you bishops, to feed the church of the Lord which he purchased
with his own blood." (Acts 20:28).
This flock, this church of the Lord, purchased by His own blood, is a particular
assembly.
Again to the particular church at Corinth Paul wrote: "Ye are God's
building - ye are a temple of God and the Spirit dwelleth in you
- now ye are the body
of Christ, and severally members thereof."
(I Corinthians 3:7, 16; 12:27.)
When concerning the body of Christ he says: "And whether one member
suffereth all the members suffer with it," he is certainly not speaking
of the Ecclesia in Glory, all of whose members
will be past sufferings when constituting an ecclesia.
Again concerning the particular church at Ephesus, he writes to Timothy
whom he had left in that city:
"These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly; but
if I tarry long, that thou mayest know, how men ought to behave themselves
in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar
and ground of the truth." He is certainly not writing of behavior
in the general assembly in glory. The things he had written touching behavior
were, when and how the men should pray, how the women should dress and
work, and the qualifications of bishops and deacons. Even that remarkable
passage, so often and so confidently quoted as referring exclusively to
some supposed now existing "universal, invisible, spiritual church," namely:
Ephesians
1:22, 23, "And gave him to be head over all things to the church,
which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all" - even
this very body, "filled unto all the fullness of God,"
is presently
applied, in his prayer, to the particular congregation (Ephesians
3:19).
It may be asked, but why, if already filled, pray that each particular
congregation might be filled unto all the fullness of God? The reply is
obvious. Each particular assembly is an habitation of God, through the
Spirit. The Spirit occupies each several building. Into each he enters
not with partial power, but in all the fullness of Omnipotent power.
But though the fullness is there, the church is so dim eyed - so weak in
faith - so feeble in graces - it does not realize and lay hold of and appropriate
this fullness of God. Hence the prayer that the eyes of their understanding
might be open to see the fullness, their faith increased to grasp and appropriate
it, their graces enlarged to corresponding strength to stand and work in
that fullness. So fulfilled they realize in experience that
fact that the Holy Spirit in all the fullness of God had already entered
this particular body of Christ, and was only waiting to be recognized
. It is like the expression, "Being justified by faith, let us have
peace with God," etc., Romans 5:1. That is, we are entitled
to it, let us take it.
In a great revival of religion we see Paul's prayer fulfilled in the particular
body of Christ. Gradually the church warms up to a realization of the fullness
of God dwelling in them through the Spirit. Their spiritual apprehension
becomes eagle-eyed. The grasp of their faith becomes the grip of a giant.
Presently they say, we "can do all things." No barrier is now insurmountable.
And as more and more they comprehend the height and depth and width and
length of the love of God, they glow like a spiritual furnace. Thus it
is proven that all these broad terms appertaining to the future general
assembly, are equally applied to the present particular assembly, and that,
too, because it is the only existing representation of the prospective
general assembly.
This leads to another conclusion: All teaching in the direction that
there now exists a general assembly which is invisible, without ordinances,
and which is entered by faith alone, would likely tend to discredit the
particular assembly, which does now really exist and which is the pillar
and ground of the truth.
More than once when I have inquired of a man, "Are you a member of the
church?" The reply has been, I am a member of the invisible, universal,
spiritual church.
To make faith the exclusive of admission into the general assembly is more
than questionable and naturally generates such replies.
The general assembly, by all accounts, includes all the saved. But infants,
dying in infancy, are a part of the saved. Yet never having been subjects
of gospel address they are saved without faith. But it may be said that
such use of the term faith is only a way of saying "a new heart," and dying
infants are not without regeneration. To which we may rejoin that regeneration
alone is not sufficient to qualify for membership in the general assembly.
All the regenerates we know have spots and wrinkles while the general assembly
is without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing.
Nor does complete sanctification of soul go far enough. There must also
be glorification of body. Enoch, Elijah and probably those who rose from
the dead after Christ's resurrection are the only ones as yet qualified
for membership in the general assembly. And they must wait until all whom
God has called and will yet call have arrived with like qualifications,
before there can be a general assembly in fact.
As has been intimated, all organized assemblies have prescribed terms or
conditions of membership. In the Greek state Ecclesia membership
was limited to a well defined body of citizens. Not all residents of the
territory could participate in the business of the ecclesia.
So with the Old Testament
ecclesia or national convocation
of carnal Israel. One must have the required lineal descent and be circumcised
or become a proselyte and be circumcised. Correspondingly the conditions
of membership in the church on earth are regeneration and baptism.
But for the church in glory the conditions of membership are justification,
regeneration and sanctification of soul and glorification of body.
We submit another conclusion:
Some terms or descriptives commonly applied to the church by writers and
speakers are not only extra Scriptural, that is, purely human and post
apostolic, but may be so used as to become either misleading or positively
unscriptural. For example, to put visible, referring to the
particular assembly alone, over against spiritual as referring to the general
assembly alone, as if these terms were opposites or incompatible with each
other.
The particular assembly or church that now is, is both visible and spiritual.
To confess Christ before men, to let our light shine before men, to be
baptized, to show forth the Lord's death in the Supper, are
both visible and spiritual acts of obedience. And when the general assembly
becomes a reality instead of a prospect, it, too, will be both visible
and spiritual.
Speaking of the general assembly, John says: I saw the holy
city, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready
as a bride adorned for her husband."
When the King came to the earth in His humiliation He was visible. And
when He appears in glory every eye shall see Him.
A city set upon an earthly hill cannot be hid. And the New Jerusalem on
Mt. Zion, the city of the living God, will be the most conspicuous and
luminous object the universe ever saw.
The confusion wrought by these human appellatives is manifest in the
growth of what is commonly miscalled "the Apostle's creed." In its earliest
historic forms it says: "I believe In the holy church." Later forms say:
"I believe in the holy catholic, i. e., universal church." Still later:
"in the holy catholic and apostolic church." Still gathering increment
from other creeds it becomes: "The holy Roman catholic and apostolic church."
Then comes "visible vs. In visible," or "visible, temporal, universal vs.
invisible, spiritual, universal," and so ad infinitum. But the Bible in
its simplicity knows nothing of these scholastic refinements of distinction.
In that holy book the existing church is a particular congregation of Christ's
baptized disciples, and the prospective church is the general assembly.
But
mark you:
These are not co-existent.
ONE CANNOT BE A MEMBER OF BOTH AT THE SAME TIME. WHEN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
COMES THE PARTICULAR ASSEMBLY WILL HAVE PASSED AWAY.
To impress more deeply the scripturalness of these reflections, let us
consider the subject from another viewpoint:
A house is built for an inhabitant. Unless the tenant is hard pressed,
he will not move in until the building is completed. God is never hard
pressed.
A long time may be consumed in getting out and gathering together and preparing
the material of a house. It is not a house, however, except in purpose,
plan or prospect, until it is completed and ready for its occupant.
In this light let us take a look at some Bible houses:
(a)
The house that Moses built.
This was the Tabernacle of the Wilderness, or tent for God. The 40th chapter
of Exodus tells of the completion of this house. When it was finished and
all things ready for the occupant it became a house, and then the cloud,
that symbol of Divine glory, moved in and filled the tabernacle.
(b)
The house that Solomon built.
The 6th, 7th and 8th chapters of I Kings tell
us about this house. When it was finished and furnished and dedicated,
it also being now a house, then the cloud symbol of divine presence and
glory, that had inhabited the tabernacle, left the tent as no longer useful
and moved into and filled the new house.
(c)
The house that Jesus built.
The gospel histories tell us about it. John the Baptist prepared much material
for it. Receiving this material from John, and adding much of His own preparation,
Jesus built a house. That is, He instituted His ecclesia on
earth. At His death the veil of Solomon's restored house was rent in twain
from top to bottom. Henceforward, it was tenantless, and, being useless,
soon perished. But though the new house was built, it
was empty until our Lord ascended into heaven, and fulfilled His promise
to send the Holy Spirit as the indweller of this new habitation. Acts
2 tells us how this house was occupied. The useless temple of Solomon
now passes away as the useless tabernacle of Moses passed away for its
successor. The only house of God now existing on earth is the particular
ecclesia
of our Lord. But it in turn must have a successor In the general assembly,
or,
(d)
The house Jesus will build.
The tabernacle, the temple and the church on earth are all forecasts of
the coming church in glory. The work of gathering and preparing material
for the general assembly has been in progress for six thousand years. But
material, much of it yet in the quarry or forest and much of it fully prepared,
does not constitute a house. God is not hard pressed. His patience is infinite.
Millions and millions have already been called out to be members of this
prospective assembly. God is calling yet and will continue to call throughout
the gospel dispensation. His mind is fixed on having a general assembly
indeed; a great congregation; "a great multitude that no man could number,
of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, to stand before
the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and with palms
in their hands."
The time of the constitution of this assembly is at the second coming of
Christ and after the resurrection of the dead and the glorification of
the bodies of Christians then living. The processes of constitution are
clearly set forth in I Corinthians 15:51-54; I Thessalonians
4:13;17, Ephesians 5:27; Revelation 21:2-9.
It has now indeed become a church; a glorious church, or church in glory;
to be presented to himself. When He comes He will be glorified in His saints
and admired in all them that believe.
That
ecclesia, like the one on earth, will be both visible
and spiritual.
Recurring to the figure of a house, Revelation 21 and 22
exhibit it as at last completed and occupied. At last completed God Himself
inhabits it, for says the Scripture, "Behold the tabernacle of God is
with men, and he shall be with them, and they shall be his people, and
God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God shall wipe away
all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow,
nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things
are passed away." Mark that, brethren, "The former things are passed
away."
Former and latter things are not co-existent.The
tabernacle of the wilderness passes away for the more glorious temple of
Solomon. The temple then passes away for the still more glorious church
on earth. In like manner the church on earth must pass away for the infinitely
glorious church in heaven. There is a Jerusalem on earth, but the heavenly
Jerusalem is above. It is free, and the mother of all the saved. But,
brother, the general assembly is not yet.The church on earth, the
house that Jesus has already built, the house of the living God, which
is the pillar and ground of the truth; this house has the right of
way just now. It is the only existing assembly. Honor the
house that now is.
Quite naturally, if tabernacle and temple had been co-existent, one then
living would have preferred the temple and discredited the tent.
Equally so if the particular assembly and general assembly are now co-existent,
side by side on earth, could you seriously blame a man for resting content
with membership in the greater and more honorable assembly?
But as the Scriptures represent these two assemblies, one existing
now
on earth, the other prospective in heaven, if a man on earth
and in time, not qualified by either sanctification of spirit or glorification
of body for the heavenly assembly, shall despise membership in the particular
assembly because claiming membership in the general assembly, is not his
claim both an absurdity and a pretext? Does he not hide behind it
to evade honoring God's existing Institution, and the assuming of present
responsibilities and the performing of present duties? Yet again,
if one believes that there are co-existent on earth and in time, two churches,
one only visible and formal, the other real, invisible and spiritual, is
there not danger that such belief may tend to the conviction that the form,
government, polity and ordinances of the inferior church are matters of
little moment? Has not this belief oftentimes in history done this
very thing? And is it not an historical fact that, since Protestant Pedobaptists
invented this idea of a now existing, invisible, universal, spiritual church,
to offset the equally erroneous Romanist idea of a present visible, universal
church, reverence and honor for God's New Testament particular church have
been ground to fine powder between them as between the upper and nether
millstones? Today when one seeks to obtain due honor for the particular
assembly, its ordinances, its duties, is he not in many cases thwarted
in measure, or altogether in some cases, by objections arising from one
or the other of these erroneous views?
And when some, endeavoring to hedge against the manifest errors of both
these ideas, have invented middle theories to the effect that the church
on earth is composed either of all professing Christians
living at one time, considered collectively, or of all real Christians
so living and so considered, or of all existing denominations considered
as branches of which the church is the tree, have they not multiplied both
the absurdities and the difficulties by their assumed liberality of compromise?
Finally, replying to some of your questions:
1. (Q) When our Lord says, On this rock I will build my church and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it, does He refer to the church
on earth or to the church in glory?
(A) My answer is, to the particular assembly on earth, considered as an
institution.
The
church in glory will never be in the slightest danger of the gates of hell.
Before it becomes an assembly, both death and hell, gates and all, are
cast into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:14 and 21:4).
It is the church on earth that is in danger, from the fear of which this
glorious promise is a guaranty.
2. (Q) Does your idea of a "general assembly" depend exclusively upon that
phrase of doubtful application in Hebrews 12:28, which many good
scholars, including prominent Baptists. construe with "myriads of angels"
instead of with "the church of the First Born?"
(A) Certainly not. Though I myself strongly hold with our English versions
in referring both the panegyros (general assembly) and the
ecclesia
(church)
of that passage to saved men and not to angels. The idea of general assembly
is clearly in other passages as Ephesians 5:25-27;
Revelation
7:9 and 21:2-4.
3. (Q) If the figure, "body" applies to each particular church, does not
that teach that Christ has many bodies?
(A) My answer is, first, that your objection, or supposed difficulty, lies
not against my view, but against the express teaching of many Scriptures.
What the Scriptures teach is true, and difficulties and objections may
take care of themselves. But, second, the objection is specious and the
difficulty only apparent, since each particular assembly is a representation
or type of the general assembly, and therefore the broadest figures
of the anti type may be applied to all its types without being obnoxious
to the criticism. There may well be many representations of the body of
Christ.
4. (Q) Do you dis-fellowship your Baptist brethren who teach the present
existence of "an universal, in visible, spiritual church?"
(A) Most certainly not so long as they duly honor the particular assembly
and its ordinances, as multitudes of them do, in spite of the natural tendency
of their theory to discredit it. Many of them, known to me personally,
are devoted to the particular church and its ordinances, responsibilities
and duties.
It will take a wider divergence than this to make me dis-fellowship a Baptist
brother, though I honestly and strongly hold that even on this point his
theory is erroneous and tends practically to great harm. Yes, I do most
emphatically hold that this theory is responsible for incalculable
dishonor put upon the church of God on earth. I repeat that the
theory of the co-existence, side by side, on earth of two churches of Christ,
one formal and visible, the other real, invisible and spiritual, with different
terms of membership, is exceedingly mischievous and is so
confusing that every believer of it becomes muddled in running the lines
of separation. Do let it sink deep in your minds that the tabernacle
of
Moses had the exclusive right of way in its allotted time
and the temple of Solomon had the exclusive right of
way in its allotted time; so the church of Christ
on earth, the particular assembly, now has the exclusive right of
way, and is without a rival on earth or in heaven; and so the general
assembly in glory, when its allotted time arrives, will have exclusive
right of way.
Had I lived in the days of Moses I would have given undivided honor to
the tabernacle; in the day of Solomon to the Temple alone; and when the
general assembly comes, that shall be my delight. But living now I must
honor the house that Jesus built. It is the house of the living God, the
pillar and ground of the truth. To it are committed the oracles and promises
of God. To it is given the great commission. It is the instructor of angels
and in it throughout all the ages of time is the glory of God. If
I move out of this house, I must remain houseless until Jesus comes. It
is the only church you can join in time.
5. (Q) What is the distinction, if any, between the kingdom and the church?
(A) My answer is that the kingdom and church on earth are not co-terminous.
Kingdom, besides expressing a different idea, is much broader in signification
than a particular assembly or than all the particular assemblies. The particular
church is that executive institution or business body, within the kingdom,
charged with official duties and responsibilities for the spread of the
kingdom.
In eternity and glory, church and kingdom may be co-terminous. Like the
church, the kingdom in both time and eternity has both visible and spiritual
aspects.
6. As a sufficient reply to several other questions:
Let it be noted that this discussion designedly avoids applying certain
adjectives to the noun "church," not merely because the New Testament never
applies them to Ecclesia, but because they are without
distinguishing force when contrasting the particular assembly with the
general assembly.
For example: "Local," "visible," "spiritual."
Locality inheres in Ecclesia. There can be no assembly now or hereafter
without a place to meet.
When existing in fact, both the particular assembly in time, and the general
assembly in eternity, are both visible and spiritual. Why attempt to distinguish
by terms which do not distinguish?
Katholikos (Catholic
or Universal) is not a New Testament word at all and hence is never
applied
by inspiration to Ecclesia. Nor is it a Septuagint word at
all.
In post apostolic times it crept without authority into the titles of certain
New Testament letters, as "The First Epistle General (Katholikos) of
Peter." And even there it could not mean "universal," since Peter, himself,
four times limits his address:
(a) First to Jews (not Gentiles).
(b) Then to "elect" Jews (not all Jews).
(c) Then to elect Jews of the Dispersion (not to Jewish Christians
in Palestine).
(d) Then to elect Jews of the Dispersion in 'Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia and Bithynia," i. e., the comparatively small district of Asia Minor
(not in the rest of Asia, Europe and Africa). Neither in the sense of every
place, nor of every person in the universe, can the English word "universal"
be applied to Ecclesia.
Ecclesia
- The Church - Lecture II
Return To
B. H. Carroll Index
Return
To Baptist Authors
Return
To PBC Home