Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 27, 2025
The word "church" as used in the New Testament is, in most cases, derived from the Greek word ekklesia. The component parts of this word literally mean to summon or call together in public convocation. It was, therefore, used to designate any popular assembly which met for the transaction of public business. As an example of the secular use of the term, see Acts 19: 32, 39.
And, further on in the story, when the term "Universal Assembly" is used, it is a direct translation of the Greek term, Ekklesia Katholikos, and is actually a better translation than "Catholic Church," since the English word church comes from the Greek kyriakon, meaning "the house of the Lord" in other words, a church building, not the organization as a whole.
It is true that ekklesia is sometimes used as a collective term to denote the body of local churches existing in a given region, but there is no evidence that these churches were bound together in groups by any outward organization which separated or distinguished them from other congregations of the general church.
The divine ekklesia includes in its membership the whole family of God. Thousands of men and women who are united to Christ and in fellowship with all the saved are not members of the formally organized sects. Therefore the union of all such churches in one federation would not include the whole family.
This particular application of the word, however, does not here concern us. Since the word ekklesia conveys the idea of an assembly of "called ones," it expresses beautifully the Christian's call to churchly association.
But the new ekklesia, the church, followed its own lines and speedily created a new cult. Its fundamental conception was salvation in the future through Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ. In the beginning it was thoroughly individualistic and voluntary.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking