Five Reasons The Church is Local and Visible and Can’t be Universal or Invisible by Kris Minefee

Local and Visible and Can’t be Universal or Invisible by Kris Minefee –

WHY CAN’T YOU?: (WE DO GIVE!) – Five Reasons The Church is Local and Visible and Can’t be Universal or Invisible by Kris Minefee
https://conta.cc/3NMgxqq 6/24/23

John Whitten 9/1/22  · This is a very important teaching. MYSTICAL INVISIBLE UNIVERSAL CHURCH … called universalism.

Kris Minefee IUB Independent Unaffiliated Baptists August 24 at 11:31 AM  · 

Five Reasons The Church is Local and Visible and Can’t be Universal or Invisible

REASON 1: THE DEFINITION OF THE WORD

The Greek word, Ekklesia is translated church in the New Testament. Strong’s Concordance says ekklesia is from a compound ek and kaleo. It is translated in the Authorized version – church 115 times, assembly 3 times for a total 118 times. In New Testament times it was a gathering of citizens called out into a public place as an assembly.Since ekklesia was an assembly it was local. By its definition it cannot mean unassembled and scattered (universal) and at the same time mean a group of people coming together in one place (local). A word cannot have two contradictory meanings. It is either local or universal; the rules of logic prohibit it from being both and the definition shows that it can only be local.

REASON 2. HISTORY AND ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD

Ecclesia is a compound word formed from the words “ek” and “kaleo” meaning “out of” and “to call” respectively. In the Greek city states of the past, the word ekklesia was a group of people called out by a town crier or trumpeter to assemble for the purpose of carrying out city business. There is an example of such an assembly (ekklesia) in Acts 19:32-39.Acts 19:32 Some therefore cried one thing, and some another: for the assembly was confused; and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together.Acts 19:32 Some therefore cried one thing, and some another: for the assembly was confused; and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together.First, the Greek term which basically means “called out” was commonly used to indicate an assembly of citizens of a Greek city and is so used in Acts 19:32, 39. The citizens who were quite conscious of their privileged status over against slaves and noncitizens were called to the assembly by a herald and dealt in their meetings democratically with matters of common concern. When the early Christians understood themselves as constituting a church, no doubt exists that they perceived themselves as called out by God in Jesus Christ for a special purpose and that their status was a privileged one in Jesus Christ – Holman Bible Dictionary.Jesus did not create a new word, He simply took a word already in common use and made it His own, qualifying it as His ekklesia, His assembly.Matthew 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.It was understood as a local assembly then and could not be understood as universal since something that is universal cannot be assembled and an assembly cannot be made universal. The words by their definition and history are mutually exclusive. One is the opposite of the other. Something cannot be a universal and at the same time assembled.Words and language mean nothing if we don’t hold to their accepted and logical definition and use.

REASON 3. COMPARING SCRIPTURE WITH SCRIPTURE

1 Corinthians 1:2 – Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and oursGalatians 1:2 – And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia:1 Thessalonians 1:1 – Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.The vast majority of the 118 uses of the word ekklesia in the New Testament scriptures shows they refer directly to a local, visible assembly, ie., a group of people coming together to carry out the Lord’s work in a specific location in Ephesus, Colossi, Philippi, or meeting in a house such as Philemon.This is the most straight-forward, simple way to understand the church.

THE PROOF TEXT FOR THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH

In Ephesians, Paul uses the church as an illustration about husband and wife relationships.Ephesians 5:23-32 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.Nothing in the passage would change the understanding of the Ephesians from a local church body to a universal invisible body. They would understand the illustration only in terms of a local visible church.(Would they picture a universal wife, or an invisible wife? How would such a marriage work?)When all the members of all the churches are in heaven (Revelation 19) then the Lord will take His bride, but it will still be a visible and local assembly.Nothing in Ephesians 5 negates or modifies the definition or history of the word used 111 times directly referring to a local visible assembly.

REASON 4. THE INSTITUTIONAL SENSE OF CHURCH

Matthew 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.Here the word ekklesia is used in a way which does not directly refer to a local, visible assembly, instead it is used in an institutional sense.To refer to the institution of the church means that once Jesus established the church it would continue to exist and grow. It refers to all true churches in existence at any one time.Jesus uses the word church, in this verse, in the same way a entrepreneur might use it in talking about his business plan, “I will build my business and the competition will not beat it out.” Yet if you asked him to show you his business he would then take you to a local store, or several local stores. This “business” would grow into more and more stores each one in several locations, but all of them visible and local. The same is true of the church as an institution, it is a generic or abstract term which in no way contradicts or even modifies the traditional common usage of the word in the New Testament.Though the church exists as an institution, this does not mean it is something other than a local, visible assembly. Any time an example of the institution is seen, it is a local, visible body.

REASON 5. THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST AS HEAD OF THE CHURCH

Ephesians 1:22-23 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. –Ephesians 4:15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:Colossians 1:18 – And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.If the church is universal then Jesus cannot be the head of the local church, but only of the invisible, universal church. Now in order for the visible church on earth to function it must be under the authority of a Pope, a Bishop, Synod, a Presbytery or council.Another authority other than Christ takes power over the local church. This is exactly what has happened to many so called Christian Churches throughout history.This is one of the great dangers of the Universal, Invisible Church belief.The error of the universal, invisible church began not in a study of scripture but in opposition to the error of the Universal Visible church which was the Roman Catholic church. Protestants, not wanting to be associated with the Roman Church, argued that the church was not a universal visible church, with its head the pope at Rome, to a universal invisible, with it’s head in heaven. Though this rightly denied the Pope as the head of the Lord’s Church, it ignored the authority and autonomy of the local church with Christ as her head.The pope was replaced with another extra-church authority and Christ was ignored in the leading of the local body.

CONCLUSION: WHY IT THIS IMPORTANT?

A belief in the Universal, Invisible Church ultimately leads to weak local churches and ever stronger, over powering, denominational hierarchies. It denies that Jesus can and must be the head of each local assembly and replaces Him with a human authority.This leads to greater error as a fallible person now dictates to hundreds or thousands of churches.In addition, the abdicating of local church authority in carrying out the Great Commission results in weaker missions, weaker preachers and finally in much weaker churches.A belief in the universal, invisible church is not just a different opinion on the Lord’s church, it is a church killing heresy and is one of the major reasons so many, who used to believe the Bible as the only rule of faith and practice, have now become nothing more than social clubs, preaching a easy believism to make the world a better place today instead of preaching the Gospel to save souls for eternity.