“Church”: what is it? It should better be asked, “Who is it?”
There are some who claim that they alone are the ‘church’. They bask in shallow doctrine limited to a very poor understanding of Scripture, and become arrogant, saying that anyone who does not do it their way is not the ‘church’.
The word ‘church’ is a bit of a stretch in English Bibles. There are some who dismiss the use of the word altogether. I do not. However, that word does carry with it all kinds of English, doctrinal baggage.
The English Bible rendered a word with “kirk”/”church” because the first ‘official’ English Bible was bought and paid for by an English King who was of Scottish origin. “Kirk” may have been originally applied to the pagan ‘gatherings’ of Scotland. Today, the Church in Scotland is actually still called “The Kirk”. The word King James’ minions translated to give us ‘church’ rather than another English word was “ecclesia”. Ecclesia is the greek word for the Hebrew word “Kahal”, which means “Assembly” in a public place. In the OT it is used concerning the sacred assembly of the Nation of Israel.
Certain denominations have attached a mythical quality to the word church, especially their church, since they believe they are more special than anyone else Yeshua died for [hint: He died for every human being, offering the free gift to all].
There is a ‘mysterious’ quality to the “Guf”, however, the “BODY” of Messiah, which is also His Assembly. But, those denominations had a right idea: not everyone who claims to belong to Messiah is actually part of His Body: they may ‘assemble’ in His Name, and do miracles in His Name, and say much of the right words, but they do not BELONG to Him, and He does not know them as His own.
What does it mean, then, actually to be part of who He is? It means to walk in His Character, and when we ‘gather’ or ‘assemble’ “IN HIS NAME”, that means that we are thinking, speaking, and behaving as He would, and as He would have us do. It does not simply mean that we declare ourselves the ‘only church’. That, in fact, is the very sin of self righteousness and condemnation: that is people sitting in Yeshua’s Judgment Seat. That is a dangerous behavior.
Yeshua said that there would be many that would come in His Name and deceive many. And He also said that on Judgement Day that many would say : “My Lord, My Lord? Did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out devils, and in your name do many wonders? Then I will declare to them, “I have never known you; depart from Me, O you that work iniquity.”
Iniquity is the breaking of Torah. Things like committing adultery, committing murder, stealing, breaking the Sabbath, ignoring God’s ways, all of it is iniquity, and sin: “sin is the breaking of the Torah” [1 John 3:4] There are indeed those who do so in ignorance, because their ‘shepherds’, what most call pastors and priests, have themselves been deceived, and they perpetuate the deceit with authority. But, there are those who KNOW that these things are sin, but do not turn from them; and that includes the things God said for us to do to show we love Him: not to worship Him as heathens worship their Gods [Sun, Moon, Mars, Saturn, all woven into the fabric of Modern christianity of every ilk]. Those teachers know and profess that God never said we could not do those things, like commit adultery or fornicate, or commit homosexuality, or break the Sabbath, yet they persistently teach otherwise. All of that is iniquity, on the part if people who call Him “My Lord”.
His Congregation is made up of people who not only confess Him, but also follow HIM. And whenever they “assemble”, even if it is just three, or even just two people, He is in their midst:
כִּי בְכָל מָקוֹם אֲשֶׁר יְכֻנְּסוּ שְׁנַיִם אוֹ שְׁלֹשָׁה בִּשְׁמִי שָׁם אֲנִי בֵּינֵיהֶם.
“For wherever two or three are gathered in My Name, I am there among them.”
What’s funny, is that the word for ‘gather’ here is actually ‘synagogue’! “Yekansu”, ‘they will assemble’, and the word synagogue is greek for ‘Beit K’nesset’, or ‘house of assembly’. But, the more important point is, it is not a worldwide INSTITUTION that Yeshua came to create: it is a supernatural collection of those who OBEY HIM that He came to foster, in Spirit and in Truth. Unfortunately, a lot of the truth has been twisted.
Up until 325 A.D., there was no institution. There was a loose association of CONGREGATIONS around the Mediterranean region, from Spain, all the way to Iran/Iraq, around to Egypt, and back out toward the Atlantic. There was an ‘overseer’ in each one. The early Jewish leaders got together in JERUSALEM in 46 A.D. to solve the Galatian problem. But, they did not ‘lord it over them’. Congregations were rebuked by letters from the Apostles. Most of the NT was written to point to the Torah in order to REBUKE the congregations.
“All scripture written by the inspiration of The Ru’akh HaKodesh [Holy Spirit] is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness,so that the people of God may become complete, thoroughly perfected for every good work.”
Institutions that reject the BEGINNINGS of scripture are without proper instruction and guidance. That is why there are thousands of denominations, and thousands more ‘churches’, very few of which follow the whole counsel of His Word. They make a patchwork quilt out of pieces and parts of it, and then insult everyone who does not find comfort under their quilt. And we are supposed to be gathering under His TENT.
We are all supposed to be people who believe that Yeshua is the Son of God; that God sent Him to die for all mankind for all our sins, because every one of us are as guilty as Adam, because we were in him when he sinned, to a man. We are supposed to understand that God chose Abraham’s people to bring about the Messiah of the Jews, and that the Son of God is thus the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua the Nazarene. He gave Himself over to take the punishment of our sins, every one of us. And He died. And God raised Him from the dead, and Yeshua is now seated at His Right hand; anyone who admits they have sinned against God alone, and confesses that in Yeshua God has forgiven him, and then walks in obedience to His ordinances, God will save him at the last day, and raise him from the dead. Where three or two of these people get together to celebrate that, HE IS THERE, and that is HIS congregation.
Yes, there is some vetting we have to do concerning those with whom we worship; but that vetting should not be anything more than the above, beyond what the Disciples did to require gentiles to join the SYNAGOGUE:
“…they [must] abstain from defilement by sacrifices to idols, and from fornication, and from creatures strangled, and from [imbibing] blood. For Moses, since early generations, has those who declare him in the Beit K’nessets in every city who read him on every Sabbath Day.” [Acts 15:20]
What most people don’t realize is that the Disciples were laying several chapters of the Torah on the Gentile believers as a MINIMUM requirement for them to ASSEMBLE in the Synagogues, with the Jews. And, they intimate here that this would continue, and the Gentiles would begin to hear the Torah each week and be changed by it…
Today, so very, very few do. And then when they do, they only see a tiny glimpse of what God actually says, because preachers don’t want people to be complete, thoroughly perfected for every good work. They want them submitted, and paying up.
Read Ezekiel 34, and see if it does not match what is being done today among ‘shepherds’. Find people who walk with and like Yeshua, and you are in His Congregation.