Alan Gross
Well-Known Member
In Search of the Universal Invisible Church
by
Elder Milburn Cockrell
Former Pastor - Berea Baptist Church
Mantachie , Mississippi
Elder Milburn Cockrell
Former Pastor - Berea Baptist Church
Mantachie , Mississippi
Chapter I
...
THE NON CHRISTIAN USAGE of Ekklesia (church).
In order to discover the primary and literal meaning of the Greek word ekklesia,
let us look carefully at its non- Christian usage in Acts 19 .
"For the assembly (ekklesia) was confused" (Acts 19:32 ).
Acts 19:39 says: "It shall be determined in a lawful assembly" (ekklesia).
Acts 19:41 declares: "He dismissed the assembly" (ekklesia).
Hence we see the competent scholars of the King James Version believed that the literal meaning of ekklesia was "assembly."
They did not translate it "the called out."
Wickcliff (1380) translates these three passages "church."
Tyndale (1534), Cranmer (1539), the Geneva Bible (1557), and the Rhemish Version (1582)
all translate the word in Acts 19 "congregation."
The New International Version, the New English Bible, The New Testament by Charles Williams, the Twentieth Century New Testament, the Centenary Translation, the Judaean New Testament, the Weymouth Version, Moffatt's version, and the Emphasized Bible all translate all three verses in Acts 19 as "assembly."
The Amplified New Testament translates verse 39 and 41 "assembly," but in verse 32 it is "gathering."
The New Berkeley Version translates verse 32 and 39 "assembly," but in verse 41 it is "gathering."
The New Testament in Basic English has "meeting"
and so does the Good News for Modern Man
(a version which is so bad it ought to be called bad news for any man).
None of these translate ekklesia "the called out." If as our opponents claim the word means "the called out," why did not any of these scholars so translate?
Yet they say all scholars agree with them! The word ekklesia does not mean "the called out."
It means "assembly," "congregation," "gathering," or "meeting."
This literal and primary meaning precludes the so-called universal, invisible church.
There is no such thing as an assembly that cannot assemble or a congregation that never congregates. The meaning of the word prohibits such a meaning.
The universal, invisible church has never assembled and never will on this earth in this gospel age. Hence such a thing is a mere concept of the mind, having no real existence in time or place.
One time in the New Testament the word church ekklesia is applied to the congregation or assembly of Israel in the wilderness: "This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina , and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us" (Acts 7:38 ).
The congregation in the wilderness was not a church in the New Testament sense. But it was a local, visible body of people in one place.
There was no universal, invisible congregation of the Israelites.
This cannot mean "the whole number of regenerate persons from Pentecost to the first resurrection," nor can it mean "the whole number of the elect, the have been, are, or shall be gathered into one."
Ekklesia (church) retains its primary and literal sense of assembly or congregation.