as the first in the New Testament dispensation, called the people ekklesia; he applied this heaven-sent name to the company of disciples/apostles with him in the district of Caesarea Philippi. Matt 16:18, “. . . on this rock I will build my ekklesia, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it.” At this time the Twelve, through Peter, recognized him as the LORD, Messiah and Savior. On the rock, Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the LORD began the work of recreating Israel into the New Church, which is the heart of the coming Kingdom of Heaven. The Church is Messiah’s ekklesia, the ongoing Israel he established in the progressive revelation of the Kingdom.
Later, as result of Christ’s missionary extension of the Church, the Apostles in the name of the LORD established local ekklesiae, each a manifestation of Jesus’s global Church, whom he called to believe and live in liberty and unity.
For this living definition of ekklesia also other references apply.
Most frequently in the New Testament dispensation ekklesia, as opposed to sunagoge, describes a circle of believers, a local congregation in a definite place. Whether gathered for holy worship on First Days or during the week, the name ekklesia remained in effect. Various references in the New Testament bear this out. For the local ekklesia assembled on Sundays, Acts 11:26b, “For a whole year they met with the ekklesia, and taught a large company of people; and in Antioch the disciples were for the first time called Christians.” Similarly, 1 Cor 11:18, 14:19, 28, 35; etc. For the local church as a living body during the week, Acts 5:11; Rom 16:4; 1 Cor 16:1; Gal 1:2; 1 Thes 2:14; etc. Biblically it is a fact: each local church is a full-fledged ekklesia.
A variation of the local church consisted of house congregations, believers in Christ Jesus who met in the homes of wealthy and/or important personages for divine worship. Rom 16:23a, “Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you.” Also, 1 Cor 16:19; Col 4:15; Phil 2; etc. Each of these house congregations was an established ekklesia.
The name ekklesia was also given to a group of congregations in a particular area. Acts 9:31, “So the ekklesia throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was built up; and walking in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit it was multiplied.” Given this meaning, the Church at Jerusalem and also at Antioch in Syria may have comprised several congregations meeting in different localities.
Another meaning of ekklesia consists of the entire Church, globally, all who profess the Christ as Lord and Savior, and therefore organized for purposes of worship under office bearers. 1 Cor 10:32, “Give no offence to Jews or to Greeks or to the ekklesia of God. . . .” This may apply to the Church at Corinth, but also to all congregations everywhere, the global Church, 1 Cor 11:22, 12:28; Eph 4:11–16; etc.
Most comprehensively ekklesia gathers the whole body of the faithful both in heaven and on earth, all in the past, present, and future whom the LORD calls to be the Church. Eph 1:22, “. . . and he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the ekklesia . . . .” Eph 3:10, 5:22–33, 5:27, 32; Col 1:18, 24; etc.
All this means that the New Testament Church is essentially one with the Old Church, the people of the covenant whom Christ gathers to the exclusion of all others. She is the new Israel, Phil 3:3.
As the international character of the New Church appeared her sense of nationhood changed. The Church, however, remains a nation, i.e., a kingdom, a commonwealth, Eph 2:19; Phil 3:20. A nation equals a kingdom, although the extent of a king’s authority may reach beyond the borders of a nation. Under David and Solomon, Israel was a nation and a kingdom. Now more scattered than in the Old Testament, the Church is indeed global, nevertheless with a nation-character, a peculiar people, meant for reformation, whose King rules with a kingship not of this world, John 18:36. At the heart of Christ’s Kingdom throbs the Church.
With the coming of Christ and his completed work of salvation, and also on account of Israel’s stubbornness with respect to the Gospel, he pushed the missionary character of the New Church more definitively. Matt 28:19–20, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, . . ..” This expands upon the Old Testament mandate, as in Ps 9:11, “Sing praises to the LORD, who dwells in Zion! Tell among the peoples his deeds!” The appointment of Paul to be the Apostle to the Gentiles speaks of this missionary character as much as anything in the New Testament, as well as the fact that Christians walking the roads of the Roman Empire established ekklesiae wherever they settled. Thus the primary missionaries, the members of the New Church, brought the Gospel to all nations, gathering her from all languages and races.
It is noteworthy in this regard that worship patterns, liturgy, also changed; instead of numerous rules and regulations for sacrifices and Tabernacle/Temple care, the fulfilled promises and obligations of the LORD simplified and intensified liturgy, concentrating completely on his accomplished work of salvation, in which the glory of the Father dominates.
The unity of the Old and New Church appears also in various names:
The New Church is the Temple of the Holy Spirit and of God the Father, 1 Cor 3:16–17; Eph 2:21–22; 1 Pet 2:5; etc. Whereas the Temple Solomon constructed was made of stone and precious metals, the New Testament Temple, the Church, consists of all whom Christ Jesus calls into membership. Thus the Church is holy and inviolable, the New Temple, as solid as the flesh and blood of her members.
The current Church is also the New Jerusalem, the city of the great King, now no more a locality in the Middle East, where the LORD promised to dwell with his people of the first dispensation, but spread globally, wherever ekklesiae exist, Gal 4:26; Heb 12:22; Rev 21:2, 9, 10.
The New Church is also the Bride of Christ, Isa 62:4–5; Jer 3:14; Hos 2:19, “And I will betroth you to me for ever; I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy.” In ways past comprehension this comes to expression in and for the New Church. Eph 5:32; Rev 19:7, 21:2, 9; etc.
Always, the Church,16 Old and New, is made up of the covenant people.
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The New Church differs from the Old in that Christ accomplished in his living and dying the covenant promises as well as obligations, but the one issue remains; the Church existed in the Old Testament dispensation and the New Church is essential the same as the old, whatever the differences.17 Such reflection on and study of the Church remains necessary in order 1) to believe and live the great grace of the LORD and Savior for salvation; 2) to counteract the erosion of the Church, with the understanding that there is no salvation outside her; the fact also that there are thousands of different bodies means also thousands of different voices claiming to speak in the name of the LORD. This babel of voices, of course, indicates the departure of the Holy Spirit and the result thereof: a chaos of ideological expressions. And not to forget, 3) to move against every erroneous interpretation of Church History.
The Church remains the community that Christ faithful to the covenant promises gathers; she existed from the beginning of the first dispensation, will exist at the conclusion of the second dispensation, to be taken, raptured into heaven at the conclusion of the Tribulation, which ends Christ’s one thousand-year reign.
2000/2015
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Campbell, D.K., and J.F. Townsend. A Case for Premillennialism: A New Consensus. Chicago: Moody, 1992.
Jeffrey, G.R. Armageddon: Appointment with Destiny. New York: Bantam, 1988.
Kee, Howard Clark. Jesus in History: An Approach to the Study of the
