Why ‘Church’ Should Be Replaced by ‘Assembly’
When a friend of mine first introduced the idea of Jesus building his Church in heaven and not on the earth, and then highlighted that the church here should be called the Church of God according to the Christian Scriptures, it motivated me to look for that scripture that we all know so well, ”the Lord added to the Church daily….”
Here we have it in the beloved KJV that most of us grew up on:
Acts 2:47
Praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. KJV
If Jesus’s Church is in Heaven, how could he be adding to it daily here on earth? (This deserves a pause for answers). Could the answer be just a matter of Translation? Let’s see what two other translations say:
Acts 2:47
praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. NASU
Acts 2:47
praising God, and having favour with all the people; and the Lord added [to the assembly] daily those that were to be saved.
Darby
Now that we have found a conflict between the 3 translations, what do we do? If we have a Greek Interlinear, we go look to see what it says. It says <church> 846 auto, the same, as in all the people. So, ekklesia, which we all have been taught means church, does not exist in Acts 2:47. (The sideways carrot marks < > generally indicated that what is between them is not in the texts, as is the case here). This comes as quite a surprise to me.
To me this posed quite a quandary! Where do I go from here? Another formerly held belief shattered to smitherenes! So what’s left to do, look up ekklesia. Here is what it means according to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon:
“a gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place; an assembly.” (See side column for further definition). What we don’t see, is the word ”church,” as any part of the definition. What we do see, predominantly, is ”Assembly.”
Etymology of the word Church
“The etymology of the word “church” is a complex and multifaceted topic. Based on the provided search results, here is a summary of the key findings: Greek origins:
The English word “church” is ultimately derived from the Greek adjective “kuriakos” (κυριακός), meaning “of (or belonging to) the Lord”.
This adjective is found only twice in the Christian Scriptures, in 1 Corinthians 11:20 and Revelation 1:10, referring to the Lord’s supper and the Lord’s day, respectively.”
1 Cor 11:20
Therefore, when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper.
The Lord’s is the word kuriakos (koo-ree-ak-os’) NT:2960; from NT:2962, kurios; belonging to the Lord (Jehovah or Jesus):
Rev 1:10-11
I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet, NASU
Now we will look at Young’s Literal Translation of a few verses containing ekklesia:
Matt 16:18
‘And I also say to thee, that thou art a rock, and upon this rock I will build my assembly, and gates of Hades shall not prevail against it;
Acts 5:11
11 and great fear came upon all the assembly, and upon all who heard these things.
Eph 1:22-23
22 and all things He did put under his feet, and did give him — head over all things to the assembly,
23 which is his body, the fulness of Him who is filling the all in all,
Not in one verse, of 114 scriptures, where ekklesia is used, does the YLT translate it Church!
Much like we have eliminated Old Testament and New Testament from our vocabulary, I think it is time to eliminate “Church” as well! If as close as we can come to it, is a transliteration of kuriakos, we have a pretty weak case for using it at all.
I am of the opinion that what exists in the Hebrew Scriptures should set the precedence for the Christian Scriptures. For example, Church doesn’t exist in the Hebrew Scriptures any more than resurrection does. But what does exist is qahal — OT:6951 an assembly, a company, a congregation, a convocation
a) an assembly for evil counsel, for war or invasion, for religious purposes Ex. 12:6
b) a company (used of returning exiles) Ez. 38:15
c) a congregation as an organized body Joel 2:16
(from The Online Bible Thayer’s Greek Lexicon and Brown Driver & Briggs Hebrew Lexicon, Copyright © 1993, Woodside Bible Fellowship, Ontario, Canada. Licensed from the Institute for Creation Research.)
Deut 31:30 Then Moses spoke in the hearing of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song, until they were complete: NASU
Judg 20:2 And the chief of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen that drew sword. KJV
Qahal is used 123 times in the Hebrew Scriptures, coming close to the 114 of ekklesia!
Other usages of Assembly in the Hebrew Scriptures:
5712, edah, 149 times
6116, atsarah, 11 times
5475, cowd, 21 times Job 15:8, 29:4 the secret of God; Ps. 89:7 the assembly of the saints!
4186, mowshab, 44 times
4150, mowed/moed, 223 times Is. 41:13 Mount of Assembly
When it comes to the phrase, “Church of God,” it is used 8 times in the Christian Scriptures. All 8 of these verses use the word ekklesia, which we now know does not mean “church!” 6 words in the Hebrew Scriptures are translated “assembly” many times in their 571 usages; never church. Therefore, in my humble opinion, Assembly should replace the word church everywhere it is used in the Christian Scriptures, just like the Young’s Literal Translation has! Since we no longer say the word mystery for musterion, neither should we say the word church, for ekklesia.
Part IV of the Apocalupsis of John, the Book called Revelation
In the preceding 3 posts I have established beyond any doubt that the miscalled “churches” in The Apocalupsis of John are in reality assemblies or congregations of Jews, members of the Nation of Israel. To give you an example of how unsound some believers can be, a woman, whose blog I used to follow, said to me, “If Jesus called them churches, then that’s what they are!” Unfortunately Jesus has had nothing to do with how translators have chosen to translate most of the words in the Bible. Out of 17 Bible versions or translations in my PC Bible program only these 3 translate ecclesia properly:
Rev 1:4
John to the seven assemblies that [are] in Asia:
YLT- Young’s Literal Translation
Rev 1:4
4 John to the seven assemblies
Darby
Rev 1:4
4 John, to the seven assemblies that are in Asia:
WEB- World English Bible
If you are a serious workman of the Word or want to be you must invest in some PC Bible program or buy a lot of Bibles! On my way home from NY last Sunday by way of Chicago I had the opportunity to sit next to a young Jewish girl who had recently become a Christian. She was very well versed in the “mainstream” doctrines of Christianity. She was surprised to hear many things I had to say about beliefs she held and took a copious amount of notes on her phone. I was able to show her from the Scriptures (on her phone) passages which substantiated what I had to say, but she could not find one Scripture to substantiate anything she believed! Everything she believed hear-say and much of that was heresy!
She was even astonished to see from 1 Corinthians 10:32 that the apostle Paul established that there are only 3 types of people in the world; Jews, Gentiles and the Church of God. She was equally surprised to see these verses:
Gal 3:28-29
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
KJV
She was insisting that she was a Jew for Jesus. What an absurd belief. I tried to explain to her that once a Jew or a Gentile became born again of the spirit of God by confessing Jesus as their Lord and believing God raised him from the dead, they became members of the Church of God. She could not let go of her ancestry and she could not understand how I could be of the seed of Abraham. She really imploded when I told her that Abraham was a Gentile and not a Jew!
Abram is first mentioned in Ge. 11:26; his name was changed to Abraham in Ge. 17:5. Jacob isn’t mentioned until Ge. 25:26 and his name was not changed to Israel until Ge. 32:28. The word Jew is not mentioned until the book of Esther and then it applied to a descendant of Judah. Abraham is called a Hebrew in Ge. 14:13 which means a descendant of Eber. Eber is first mentioned in Ge. 10:21. Eber lived 464 years; see Ge. 11:16.
I could go on and on, but the point you need to see is that the word Hebrew had nothing to do with Jews or Israel originally; that Israel did not exist in Ge. 11. Therefore Abraham could not have been a Jew, but rather a Gentile.
The most astonishing thing that this young Jew for Jesus had to say to me was that no one could be a Christian or a member of the Church of God without confessing and believing that Jesus was God incarnate. I asked where she got this from in the Scriptures and she did not know precisely. I showed her Romans 10:9 where it says to confess Jesus as Lord which she said means God, because God is the “Lord” God. I proceeded to show here in Acts 2:36 that God had bestowed His title as Lord upon Jesus. Jesus is my Lord, my master. Nowhere in the Pauline Epistles does it talk about the Lord God or the Lord our God. They show God as our Father and Jesus Christ as our Lord! Lord is used 241 times in the Epistles which are written directly to the Church of God and never is the title attached to God!
To the Jew God will always be the Lord; but to the Christian, Jesus is our Lord, not our God. Here is what Lord means, in case it is not clear yet:
NT:2962 kurios, kuriou, ho
he to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has the power of deciding; master, lord
a. used universally, of the possessor and disposer of a thing, the owner Matt 20:8
b. kurios
is a title of honor, expressive of respect and reverence, with which servants salute their master, Matt 13:27; 25:20,22; Luke 13:8; 14:22, etc.;
c. this title is given:
to God, the ruler of the universe Matt 1:22 (OT, Gospels and Revelation)
to the Messiah; and that:
to the Messiah regarded universally: Luke 1:43
to Jesus as the Messiah, Acts 10:36
d. of Christ (In the Epistles)
(from Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, Electronic Database. Copyright © 2000, 2003, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)
Don’t be afraid to comment; I will not delete any comments but will publish all.
(More on Revelation in the next post).
The Last Days (Don’t put your foot in your mouth too)!
There is not just a little confusion over the Last Days. One of the reasons for this is because of what Peter said in Acts 2:14-21. What he said was not true and you will see that it was not true if you just look at Joel Chapter 2, from which he was quoting. The only thing Peter got right was the spirit being poured out.
Joel 2 is speaking about the coming of the Days of the LORD—“days of darkness and gloom, the sun an.d the moon are darkened, the stars quit shining, Yahweh utters his voice at the head of his army, numberless are they who obey his command, etc.” We are all guilty one time or another in a time of excitement of putting our foot in our mouths and this was one of Peter’s. After all, he did not know about the secret and wouldn’t know about it for a few years yet.
Believers spoke in tongues on the Day of Pentecost; they didn’t prophesy. the sun did not go black; the moon did not turn to blood and stars did n0t quit giving their light. What happened was not “what was spoken through the prophet Joel.”
The second usage of the words “in the last days” is in 2 Tim 3 where it says distressing times will come where people will be:
- lovers of themselves, implacable, slanderers, swollen with conceit,
- lovers of money, profligates, brutes, treacherous,
- boasters, arrogant, abusive, haters of good, reckless
- disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman
- lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
- holding to the outward form of godliness, but denying its power
Paul goes on to say that these folks are of corrupt minds and counterfeit faith, who oppose the truth. they are wicked people and impostors who will go from bad to worse, deceiving others and even themselves. Rather than spend time wondering who they are Paul exhorts Timothy and the rest of us “to continue in what we have learned and firmly believed, know from whom we have learned it (who did Timothy learn from? His teacher, his/our father in the Word, Paul).
I have covered this subject in great detail in my book, available at http://www.fredswolfe.com with my money back guarantee (if you don’t like it send it to me and I will send you your money back with shipping).
What do you think; do you think just because someone says something in the Bible makes it automatically true?
Illustrations by Rev. Clarence Larkin who died 90 years ago, which represent Oikonemia in Scripture
This picture represents what the prophets (including Jesus Christ) could see and know from the Scriptures. As you can see here the Prophets could not know or understand anything about the Church Age because God kept it a Secret from everyone until it was revealed to Paul and the other Apostles by the ascended Christ.
Rom 16:25-27
And to Him who is able to establish you, according to my good news, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the secret, in the times of the ages having been kept silent,
26 and now having been made manifest, also, through prophetic (Christian) writings, according to a command of the age-during God, having been made known to all the nations for obedience of faith —
27 to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to him [be] glory to the ages. Amen.
YLT
Eph 3:3-5
3 that by revelation He made known to me the secret, according as I wrote before in few [words] —
4 in regard to which ye are able, reading [it], to understand my knowledge in the secret of the Christ,
5 which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it was now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the spirit —
YLT
1 Cor 2:7-8
7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a musterion, secret, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
KJV
This one represents the Church of the Body of Christ versus the Kingdom of God and Christ. The resulting affect of this hidden wisdom is that the coming Kingdom which Jesus and the apostles expected soon after his ascension, would be put on hold or held in abeyance. As you can see, the Kingdom most Christians speak about as if it existed today, will not exist until after the Great Tribulation. As for now, Jesus is our Lord, not our king.
2 Peter 3:14-18
Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, 15 and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, 16 as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness, 18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
NASU
This revelation is NOT to be ignored; you do so at your own destruction.
Will you be found blameless?
Are you among the untaught (unteachable) and unstable?
Are you being lead astray by the error of unprincipled men?
Are you growing in knowledge as well as grace?
What a Fool I have Been!
The believers of Hitler’s time must have thought Hitler was the Antichrist; surely they believed Christ would return before he was able to do so many horrible things. The point is, there are no signs to indicate his return for the believers of this day and age. The Rapture of the Church is a part of the Sacred Secret, that was kept a secret by God until He revealed unto the apostle Paul, through Jesus Christ.
No one, including Jesus Christ, before his ascension, knew anything about the time in which we now live. It stands to reason that there can be no signs in the Bible as to when this Age will end, since no one knew when it would begin. All this and more is in my book at www.fredswolfe.com. If you did not read it this past year, you owe it to yourself, your children and your grandchildren to do so. Since there are no signs announcing the Rapture (Part 1 of the Parousia) there will be no time to prepare for it. If you are not ready now, you could very well be left behind.
If you are left behind, my book will tell you what to expect and how to make it through the Great Tribulation into the Millennial Kingdom where Christ will reign as King of kings and Lord of lords. It will be a thousand years that you will not want to miss. God bless you and happy new year.
SALVATION: get it now, while supplies last!
The Biblical Tetragrammaton, the Hebrew Name for God the Father. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Jesus once said, “Salvation is of the Jews.” Prior to Christianity, only Jews had the promise of Salvation. Their Salvation (as well as ours) was not only something in the future, beyond the grave, but something here and now as well. The word alone is used three times as much in the Old Testament as it is in the New. To the Jews it meant Deliverance, Victory, Rescue or Safety.
For anyone who has read even a little of the OT one can see how often Israel prayed for deliverance from their enemies and how many times YHWH delivered them. (Might not be a bad idea today as well.) I have read that Salvation in this day and age has relatively no value for one’s current circumstances, but, nothing could be further from the truth. Whatever it meant for Israel it certainly means for us who are born again, as well.
In Moses day, salvation could be seen: “But Moses said to the people, Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord (YHWH) which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The Lord (YHWH) will fight for you while you keep silent.” NASU
The same was true of David: “And David spoke the words of this song to the Lord (YHWH) in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. 2 He said, “The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; 3 My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge; My savior, You save me from violence. 4 “I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, And I am saved from my enemies. 2 Sa 22:1-4 NASU
WOW! Just look at these verses and realize the relevance of salvation for us today! In those days these words were used to describe everything attributed to God, Yahweh (YHWH). For us, they are also now attributable to Jesus, whom YHWH made both Lord and Christ. (I cannot help but explain something here for those who may not know: LORD in all capital letters in the OT is the proper name of God, YHWH. Some translation say Jehovah, but the most accurate is YHWH. There is a difference between Lord and LORD. Jesus is our Lord. His and our Father is our LORD.)
Jesus Christ was YHWH’s plan for Salvation to Gentiles who would be grafted in to fully share in the promises of God to Israel and their inheritance! This is exactly what it says in the gospel of Luke. This is what Simeon declared when Jesus was brought to the Temple some forty days after his birth: Lk 2:30-32, for my eyes have seen your salvation 31 that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” ESV
All these aspects of salvation are available are available, now, today, to all who positively affirm what Romans 10:9 and 10 says, which is part of Paul the apostles prayer to God for Israel! Salvation is not something currently out of reach; it is readily obtainable. Get it now, while supplies last!
(See Chapter IV, page 19 of my new book at http://www.fredswolfe.com)
E.W. Bullinger, 1837-1913
E. W. Bullinger (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Many of my Christian friends look at my Tweets on Twitter and must think I am out of my mind when it comes the Christian Doctrine. Studying the 4 gospels for doctrine is no different than studying the 5 books of Moses, as they are all a part of the old covenant, to Israel. Yes, we can learn alot from that study, but nothing doctrinally for us.
What I espouse in my book is nothing new even though it sounds foreign to your ears. Romans was the first doctrinal epistle written to the Church of God; Ephesians was the second and Thessalonians was the last since it culminates in the Rapture of that church. Paul’s epistles are as relative today as they were in his day. They are not historical writings; they were given to Paul by our Lord Jesus for the purpose of how Christians are to correctly believe.
Corinthians is the first Reproof epistle, Philippians is the 2nd. Galatians and Colossians are epistles of Correction. As Timothy was instructed by Paul all the Scripture he wrote is either for Doctrine, Reproof and Correction. I know, that just too simple to be believable, but it is the Gospel of God in Christ Jesus, whether you believe it or not.
As Paul said in his Reproof epistle, 1Co 14:38, “if any one be ignorant, let him be ignorant.” Being Ignorant is a choice Chrisians make every day. They laugh at practically everything that comes out of my mind and onto this medium, but one day we will all have to give an account of our stewardship of the secrets of God. It will not be a pleasant day for those of you who choose Ignorance and Pride and Haughtiness instead of the revelation God kept hidden until he revealed to the apostle Paul by way of the ascended Christ.
BUT, DON’T TAKE MY WORD FOR IT. Google E.W. Bullinger and just take a look at all the titles he produced in his lifetime. You will discover that he believed practically everything I believe about the Word of God. You can also look at http://www.TruthorTradition.com.
You will discover many significant things, but the purpose of this writing is to address the Holy Spirit, God and His gift to us, called holy spirit. The difference between the 2 is the article “the.” The article presence or absence of the article “the” in the Greek Manuscripts determines which one the apostle Paul is talking about. One is the Giver and the other is His gift. You will see that this is one of Bullinger’s titles.
Yes you can Ignore everything I say hear just like you have ignored everything I have said heretofore, like Jeremiah and all the other Prophets were ignored by Israel. My advice to all you nay and gainsayers is, “Wake up and smell the coffee!”
Happy Trails.
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