WHAT IS A CHURCH?
By Cornelius R. Stam
It is strange but true that most people -- even the great
majority of religious people -- do not know what a church is.
Ask the average man what a church is, and hes apt to re-
ply: "Well, anybody knows that! A church is a building
where people go to worship God." But this is not correct.
The word translated church, in our Bibles, simply means
assembly. A church is not a building, but the assembly that
meets in the building. Technically, a church is not even a
religious gathering, for the same word is used in Acts 19:32
of a riotous mob which had assembled at Ephesus, and this
verse says that this assembly was confused and that "the
greater part knew not wherefore they were come together."
Perhaps this could apply to many a church today, but the
point is that a church is not a building but an assembly of
people.
The church of which the Bible has most to say is "the
Church of God, which He hath purchased with His own
blood" (Acts 20:28), and St. Paul calls the church of this
present dispensation, "the Body of Christ," or "the Church
which is His Body" (I Cor. 12:27; Eph. 1:22,23).
Men cannot join this Church by water baptism or any
other religious rite, but only by faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. With regard to believers in Christ St. Paul declares:
"By one Spirit are we all baptized into one Body" (I Cor.
12:13). And in Rom. 12:5 the Apostle says that "ye, being
many, are one body in Christ."
Many sincere people have had their names on local
church rolls for many years before learning this great truth
-- that the true Church of God is not a building, but the
assembly of those who trust in Christ as their Savior.
Doubtless, people in and out of many of the religious
organizations we call churches belong to this one great
Bible Church, while others, with all their religious profes-
sion, do not. The question is: Have we sincerely trusted in
Christ as the Savior who died for our sins?
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