Faithful
11-01-2006, 05:21 PM
A house is a meeting place. The church is much larger in scope, for it is called the church of Ephesus or the church of Corinth, etc in the Bible. The church is not a building, so that definition is wrong. A church is not a denomination either. And a church is not a congregation. There are only two ways the church is defined in the Bible: 1) the body of Christ as a whole, 2) church of Jerusalem or a church of Antioch, etc. There was no Christmas or Easter in the first century church period. Nor do you go to the church unless you are unsaved. The church is already saved. Christians have a religion, a relationship with Christ. When you invite people to assembly, just say to them would you like to come to a church meeting? for that is what it is. It is not the church, for the church is the whole city of believers and defined as such in the Word of God, not just one congregation or a congregational system we call denominations or non-denominations for that matter. I think the issue here before us is Satan has got his hands into the confusion and changed the meaning of church and lots of people are deceived. I pray for those who have a spirit of discernment to receive this truth and abide in it.
Notice in this context of how we see the word church used in the Scriptures that there should also be no greater positions of work for the church than the operational boundaries of a bunch of different churches in his or her area such as Paul settled on before he was martyred (as recorded by the first church historians). After Paul traveled to many regions, he settled on an area of work. May God rise up more apostles to find their area of churches, perhaps the area of Texas or North Korea, etc. None are higher than such a position. No popes and no men in charge of whole continents or countries of substantial size.
Notice in this context of how we see the word church used in the Scriptures that there should also be no greater positions of work for the church than the operational boundaries of a bunch of different churches in his or her area such as Paul settled on before he was martyred (as recorded by the first church historians). After Paul traveled to many regions, he settled on an area of work. May God rise up more apostles to find their area of churches, perhaps the area of Texas or North Korea, etc. None are higher than such a position. No popes and no men in charge of whole continents or countries of substantial size.