Ecclesiology is the study of the church. Many people think that the church started in Acts 2 at Pentecost. While that is historically true, God used the entirety of the Old Testament not only to provide pictures of Christ but pictures of the church, too. So, what is the church? There are several definitions of a church. One is a local body, a local congregation. My current church is The Old Paths Christian Church, which I joined two years ago. I previously went to Restoration Fellowship for 18 years before God called me out. That is a local congregation. Another description would be denominal identifiers, such as Baptists, Pentecostals, Methodists, Lutherans, etc. These are groups of local churches that adhere to the same doctrinal principles and an overseeing governing body. Then there is the general church of a particular region such as the US, Europe, China, India, etc. In many of my critiques of the church, I generally refer to the general state of the Christendom in the US. But then there is the universal Church, the Bride of Christ. This is what I will be focusing on here.
The universal Church is the combined collection of all believers who have been authentically born again by the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. Unlike any of the other definitions of a church, this is the only one that is defined by true believers as described by the Bible. Most of Jesus’ parables deal with distinguishing the professing believers into true believers and false believers. The whole letter of 1 John provides a great set of tests to show who is indeed saved by what the style and overall tone of life looks like. The universal Church is not a show. It’s not a “religion” in a traditional sense, though there are most certainly religious aspects of it. It is not a “relationship” per se, but without that intimate relationship of which marriage is the closest image we have, it does not work. It is a religion, a marriage, an adoption, a new creation, a clean slate, a job, a journey, and both vertical and horizontal relationships all together.
The Church is also a holy body. The church is meant to be separate from the rest of the world. We are not to think, do, and operate as the world does but as God would have us operate. This is a huge problem we are facing in Western Christendom. The extreme majority of local churches and denominations today are so worldly-minded that there is really no separation between them and everyone else. Local churches are run as businesses where success is determined by growth and proclamations instead of genuine conversions, and the philosophies for how to run it are nearly entirely worldly. However, God has always had His Plan A for how His followers are to act and behave. I boil it down to two simple words: believe and obey. This has been God’s pattern from the beginning. All those who are called saints of God are those who believe and obey.
It starts in Genesis. The account of Adam and Eve and the Fall of Man is about believing and obeying. God told them to not eat from only one tree or the consequence would be death. They did not believe Him and chose to disobey Him instead. Cain and Abel then showcase the prototype of the reprobate and the believer. Abel knew what God required to cover for sin and he believed God, proving it by obeying Him through giving a blood sacrifice of the best of his flock. Cain, however, did not believe, and one can get an impression that Cain gave a spurious offering of his own work rather than properly examining his heart, and he gave God the scraps.
Noah found grace in the eyes of God and he believed God about the Flood and obeyed by building the Ark and preparing for the Flood. Abraham is considered the father of the faith. He was called out from his family and hometown and journeyed with God to an unknown land that would be the home of his people and the center of world history. His faith and obedience are considered righteousness. If I were to go through Hebrews 11, the list goes on. The central markers for all believers are belief and obedience. It’s that simple; God takes care of the rest. So it is with the Church. The Church is a group of individuals who believe and obey God. We can use the Old Testament history to give us examples of what that looks like played out. That is a central part of Paul’s argument in 1 Corinthians 10 – to learn from what Israel did and did not do.
One thing I want to be careful about is to not confuse the national covenant with Israel with the Church. There is a whole doctrine called “replacement theology” in which the church is a literal replacement for Israel as a people. Paul explicitly refutes that in Romans 11 in which he describes the Gentiles in the church as being “grafted” into the main vine. The original vine is still there. It has been significantly pruned back, but it’s still alive. God is going to restore the nation of Israel when the time is right, and the Jews will recognize Jesus as their Messiah. With that said, there are certain promises that are made to the nation of Israel that do not apply to us, especially to the US. 2 Chronicles 7:14 is a classic example. That verse was in the context of how God would restore the kingdom of Israel when they repented of their sin and sought the Lord. So many think that applies to the US, but it doesn’t. Jeremiah 18:7-10, however, does apply and it’s the same general message. Nations that turn towards God will be blessed and have judgment deterred, but those who refuse to hear God will be judged and condemned. While we can learn from Israel’s examples as to what the Church is supposed to be and do, the Church is not “Israel” for the modern day.
Note that Jesus confronted this very notion in John 8. The Jews thought they were already “saved” merely by being of Abraham’s bloodline, and today many think they are saved because they can check off doctrines and go to a local congregation. Yet Jesus made clear that the only ones who are truly saved are those who believed as Abraham did – those who believe and obey. Those who do not believe and obey, no matter what lineage they claim to be part of, are sons of the devil and not sons of Abraham, not sons of the faith. The Church is not people who claim the faith but people who have been born again, who believe God and obey Him. They may know next to nothing about doctrine or theology, but they know and trust and believe their God. Genesis gives the models, and we prove if we are in the faith if we walk as they walked: in faith, trust, and obedience.
Next week, we’ll look at angelology, the study of angels.
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