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What is the Church?
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Parousia, The End of the World- What is the Church?
What is the Church?
If you lose Heaven, you lose everything; if you gain Heaven, you gain everything. God tests and proves us by the common occurrences of life. It is the little things which reveal the chapters of the heart. It is a great thing to be a child of God, and a joint-heir with Jesus Christ.
The Bible calls the church “the body of Christ” that He nourishes and cares for as He does Himself (Eph. 5). The church is His glorious temple, in which He is pleased to dwell (Rev. 21:3). It is His fullness, in the sense that the Father in heaven promised Jesus a great reward that includes His church.
Luther’s view of the church and its ministry are both grounded in the Word of God, the promulgation of the gospel. The church exists wherever the Word of God is proclaimed, and the church is a spiritual community oriented to and shaped by this Word in its life by the power of the Holy Spirit.
We believe that a true Christian church is a union of believing and baptized Christians, who have covenanted to strive to keep all that Christ has commanded, to sustain public worship, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to choose among themselves shepherds or overseers, and deacons, to administer baptism and the Lord’s Supper, to practice Christian church-discipline, to promote godliness and brotherly love, and to contribute to the general spread of the gospel; also that every such church is an independent body, free in its relation to other Christian churches and acknowledging Christ only as its head.
In his On Councils and the Church (1539), Luther spoke directly about this circular relationship between gospel and Church: “God’s word cannot be without God’s people, and conversely, God’s people cannot be without God’s word.”
The Meaning of the Church
The word church is used quite loosely at times, some even applying it to the edifice where believers may meet for worship. Such a structure may be a church building or something that serves for the purpose of assembly, but it certainly could not be the “church.” The church is composed of individuals who are “called out” from the world. They heed the call to come out, and then find a home in what the Scriptures designate the “church.” The church, then, is made up of living persons banded together in Christian fellowship. It is composed of those who espouse the cause of Christ, who believe in the teachings of Jesus, and who pledge themselves to propagate “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”
The Greek word for church is ekklesia, and really means “assembly.” The word is so rendered in Acts 19:32, 39, 41. This word is used also in the Septuagint Version of the Old Testament and is rendered “assembly” in Deuteronomy 18:16 and 2 Chronicles 30:23; and “congregation” in Psalm 22:22 and 107:32.
The word “church” is a term used to characterize God’s people, not only in New Testament days, but also in the days of Moses and David. Luke in his story in the book of Acts calls attention to “the church in the wilderness” at the time the Angel of the covenant was leading the childre
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