What is the "Church?"
In the midst of revising my post on authority in the church (after a lot of feedback and more study), I realized that the main change to that post would be a great standalone article as well. There seems to be a lot of ideas about how churches should function, who should run them, what can be done inside the official meetings of those churches, etc, but one huge question remains that defines all those other things.
What is the “Church?”
I think we often think of a church as something we go to, and actually, that’s not terribly far from the truth, but in a different way than it’s often thought of. A church isn’t the building, a church isn’t even an organization, and a church isn’t exactly the people either.
All of the mistaken ideas of what a church is come from a poor translation of the words used for church in the New Testament. In fact, the idea of a church, to hear many speak of it, seems to have sprung into existence out of nothing immediately upon the events of Acts 2.
Did you know there were churches in the Old Testament?
It’s true, at least according to the New Testament.
We tend to read the New Testament as though the ideas presented there are separate from those in the Old Testament, or completely new and different, but that is a grave mistake.
Acts 7:38 NKJV - "This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and [with] our fathers, the one who received the living oracles to give to us,
As we’ll see, this is the same word that will be translated as Church in other parts of the Bible. We’ll get to that in a moment, but first let’s take a look at just what a congregation looks like in the Old Testament.
Exodus 35:1 NASB95 - Then Moses assembled all the congregation of the sons of Israel, and said to them, "These are the things that the LORD has commanded [you] to do:
קָ×”ַל
Assemble as, gather
×¢ֵדָ×”
Congregation (properly company assembled together by appointment, or acting concertedly)
Here we have the best definition of what a congregation is, and it’s a little different than what you might expect.
A congregation is an assembling together of a group of people, by appointment.
In other words, a church is an assembly.
Which group of people?
The Sons of Israel.
Why the Sons of Israel? Weren’t women included?
Well, God numbered the people by the men who were over the age of twenty, and counted each man as one household. That’s what an assembly was: a gathering of households, and then the instructions would be addressed to the head of each household, as we see below.
Exodus 12:37 NASB95 - Now the sons of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, aside from children.
Exodus 12:3 YLT - speak ye unto all the company of Israel, saying, In the tenth of this month -- they take to them each man a lamb for the house of the fathers, a lamb for a house.
Even when speaking of other nations, women and children are not automatically included in the instructions, and they are mentioned separately.
Judges 21:10 NKJV - So the congregation sent out there twelve thousand of their most valiant men, and commanded them, saying, "Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead with the edge of the sword, including the women and children.
Just a few verses earlier, we see who composed this congregation of Israel.
Judges 21:6 NASB95 - And the sons of Israel were sorry for their brother Benjamin and said, "One tribe is cut off from Israel today.
Judges 21:7 NASB95 - "What shall we do for wives for those who are left, since we have sworn by the LORD not to give them any of our daughters in marriage?"
Fathers are the ones who give their daughters in marriage, so the congregation is composed of men, specifically fathers, for the most part. They select 12,000 men from their company and send them out to basically annihilate an entire city to take wives for the Sons of Benjamin.
Then there is this example with the song of Moses after God defeated Pharaoh's army, which pretty much seals the deal on the congregation or Sons of Israel being exactly what it says they are. First, we see the Sons of Israel out singing a song to God.
Exodus 15:1 NASB95 - Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to the LORD, and said, "I will sing to the LORD, for He is highly exalted; The horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea.
However, if you have a poor translation, it will look something like this: Exodus 15:1 CSB - Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD. They said: I will sing to the LORD, for he is highly exalted; he has thrown the horse and its rider into the sea.
Jeremiah 44:24 NASB95 - Then Jeremiah said to all the people, including all the women, "Hear the word of the LORD, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt,
Jeremiah 44:25 NASB95 - thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, as follows: 'As for you and your wives, you have spoken with your mouths and fulfilled [it] with your hands, saying, "We will certainly perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her." Go ahead and confirm your vows, and certainly perform your vows!'
Then here, we are specifically told that women are present, but the address is made directly to the men. This pattern is consistent throughout scripture, and we can define from these things exactly what a congregation is. Check the article Context Matters for more information.
A congregation is an assembly of men and their families, which is why it is called an assembly in the New Testament.
It could also be called a gathering of fathers, because again, the religion God set up is Patriarchal, even from the very first man He worked with, the man we could call the founder of our faith.
Genesis 18:19 NASB95 - "For I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him."
Abraham was the very first in a long line of men who were faithful to God and passed the true religion down from father to son. Abraham was part of no congregation, no church, and no assembly in the wilderness.
The religion God instituted at the very beginning was family-based, not church based.
It was a religion of fathers.
I’m serious.
Notice how God refers to Himself and is referred to, as well.
Genesis 31:53 NASB95 - "The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us." So Jacob swore by the fear of his father Isaac.
Exodus 3:6 NASB95 - He said also, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Exodus 3:15 NASB95 - God, furthermore, said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations.
Exodus 3:16 NASB95 - "Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, "I am indeed concerned about you and what has been done to you in Egypt.
Never once does God refer to Himself as the God of your mothers, or the God of Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, and Rachel.
Never.
Not once.
I’m serious!
What’s more, the way God refers to Himself, and the way we are instructed to refer to Him, is as a Father, not a mother! He is our Father in heaven, as Jesus instructed us to pray to Him.
Matthew 6:9 NASB95 - "Pray, then, in this way: 'Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
There’s a very good reason for all of this, and if you want more information, check out the article The Structure of Marriage link.
For the purposes of this article, however, it suffices to say that the religion our Father in Heaven set up is Patriarchal from the very beginning. You can’t argue with that.
Does this mean God hates women or will not have a relationship with them?
Of course not!
Women have a role and a place within a biblical society or structure, and even under the covenant made with Israel, women shared in it through their fathers and husbands.
However, the roles of men and women are different from each other.
The structure of the religion that He set up is Patriarchal, so we must take it that way, and it gives us a great clue as to what the structure and authority in a modern congregation is.
Based on all this, when we come to the word for “church” used in the New Testament, we can come to several very important conclusions very quickly.
Ἐκκλησία
A gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place; an assembly; so used
1. among the Greeks from Thucydides (cf. Herodotus 3, 142) down, an assembly of the people
An assembly is a patriarchal-based gathering of men (over the age of twenty) and their families.
Another way to say it is, it is a gathering of fathers and their households.
It is not a congregation as we view it today with every person independent of everyone else; it’s a household based religion with each father as the head of his household, the patriarch and religious authority in his own house, and an older man or men, usually grandfathers, giving spiritual counsel, guidance, and wisdom.
These men all then come together to worship God and learn and grow from each other. They bring their families with them, and it is a literal assembly of these family units. That is what a modern assembly is, and any other understanding of it will lead to a misunderstanding of many things in the church.
There's a difference between the Ekklesia and the Bride of Christ. The bride is made up of all the different assemblies that meet anywhere on Earth. The Bride is global, the Ekklesia is local. If you wanted to call it that, the Bride meets the definition of a church far better than a local assembly does, but it's still not a good description. The Bride of Christ is composed of every follower of Jesus who is alive and who has ever lived, while the assembly is immediate, local, and literal.
Since a church, strictly speaking, is an assembly, that means anytime these believers all come together, they are assembled, right?
So then, when is there ever a time that they are assembled that it is “outside” of church?
If you argue that many things were only instructions for when everyone was “inside” official church services, then you can do away with a lot of instructions and commands as long as you call it being “outside” the official services.
The truth is, based on the Word of God, there is no such thing as a gathering together of the people to worship God outside of official church services, because that is what the church is!
The church is the assembling together of men and their families, which can happen at any time and any place. The early believers met on a daily basis in Jerusalem, outside of official services to praise God, and yet, by definition, this was the Ekklesia!
Acts 2:46 NASB95 - Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart,
Acts 2:47 NASB95 - praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.
There is never a time when we come together to learn or praise God that we are “outside” of church. It is by definition an assembly at that point, which means it is what the translators of the New Testament call a “church.”
The distinction between the assembly in the wilderness and the assembly in the New Testament is minimal. Both assemblies were built on the foundation of faith in Yahowah and obedience to His commandments, with Jesus as the cornerstone.
When Jesus came to Earth, He did not replace the assembly in the wilderness; He restored it to its originally intended function. He wasn’t establishing something new; He clarified and reestablished what had been misunderstood and corrupted by the Jews, in that they instituted many man-made regulations and a hierarchical power and authority structure.
What He did brought the assembly back into alignment with the Patriarchal covenantal structure that He originally established with Abraham, and erased any idea of a hierarchy in the local assembly beyond the marital structure and the family structure.
1 Peter 2:5 NASB95 - you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2:6 NASB95 - For [this] is contained in Scripture: "BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A CHOICE STONE, A PRECIOUS CORNER [stone,] AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED."
1 Peter 2:7 NASB95 - This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, "THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE VERY CORNER [stone,]"
We have strayed far from a family-based faith with the father as the spiritual head of the household, but we can return to it.
Once we understand the crucial fact of what an assembly is, we can then better understand every other instruction given in the New Testament about “church services,” “elders,” and even the role of men and women within the “church.” It’s not some place we visit once a week; it’s a place that is created when we assemble together, regardless of what day of the week it is.
The church is the assembly of men and their families to worship God and learn. This assembly is formed whenever the people of God come together, regardless of whether it is called “church services” or not.
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