administrator, Bureaucrats, bureaucrats, checkuser, editor, emailconfirmed, move, Administrators
122,009
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Seems to have had some problems saving this - I guess I was editting it at the same time as others; you might want to look through and see if I've accidentally over-written your change(s)
===Etymology===
The Greek word ekklesia ([[Εκκλησια]]) is translated as "church" in English. This word originally means ekklesia was used in ancient [[Koine Greek]] to mean "gathering" or "assembly" in . In the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, the [[LXX]], the word ekklesia occurs over 200 times (usually as a political sensetranslation from the Hebrew word qahal), most commonly to refer to the assembly of the covenant people of God. In the [[SeptuagintaNew Testament]] the word ekklesia occurs in the [[gospels]] only twice ([[Matthew 16:16]] and [[Matthew 18:20]] ), but it got a religious connotationoccurs many times elsewhere in the [[New Testament]]. From this the Greek rootekklesia, the English word Ecclesiology is derived, which is the study of the doctrine of the church.
The English word "church" itself is actually derived from the Old English word "cirice" (which is related to the [[Greek]] word "κυριακή" which means "of the Lord")
===Defining Theology of the church=== There are a variety of understandings about what the church actually is. There are also a variety of uses of the word "church" - uses in common English. ====Uses of the word"church" in common English====
In English, the word "church" means different things to different people in different contexts. It can be used in reference to a gathering of people for a religious meeting. It is also sometimes used to refer to a building or group of buildings, and occasionally it refers to an entire [[denomination]]. It can also be used in an institutional sense to refer to all churches, such as "... the church today...."
====The Church as the Community of Believers====
The context in which the word [[ekklesia]] (church) is used in the Bible suggests that it was not originally intended to mean a building or an organization, but instead was intended to primarily mean a congregation or meeting of God's people. Thus the church, although consisting of the community of believers, is not simply the community of believers, but also includes activity.
====The Church as belonging to Jesus and his presence among it====
The church, although consisting of people, Biblically speaking, is not simply an instution created by people. In Matthew 16:16 Jesus spoke about building '''his''' church and later, in [[Matthew 18:20]] he spoke about being present among the church
: ''{{web_verse|matthew|16|16}}'' (Matthew 16:16)
: ''{{web_verse|matthew|18|20}}'' (Matthew 18:20)
====The Church as both local and universal====
The Bible uses the term church in both a local and universal nature. Mostly the word refers to local churches, for example, the church in Rome or Antioch. Quite often it is spoken about the plural. On a few occasions the New Testament uses the word in a general or universal sense.
====The Invisible versus the Visible Church====
Sometimes the church is spoken about in terms of the "invisible church" and the "visible church". The invisible church basically means the community or collection of true believers in Jesus regardless of denominational affiliation. The term visible church is used to refer to the physical countable members or leaders that make up a church or group of churches.
===[[Church building]]===
