What "Church" Really Means

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I was reading an article on the word "church" by Will Kinney. Mr. Kinney likes the word "church" (which means "assembly" or "congregation") because he has a need to believe that his Sunday assembly overfloweth with God's holy elect. You see, just about every Churchite in the world believes that his or her fellow congregants are truly God's people because...well, because they show up.

Mr. Kinney writes:

"So why not change the word “church” to something else like ecclesia, or assembly or congregation? Well, like it or not, agree with it or not, God has put the word “church” in His Book and we Bible believers will not change it.

What we see with the word “church” in the New Testament is that it has a godly origin, a long and fruitful history in the English language, an accurate spiritual meaning, and it is found in the only Bible believed by thousands to be the providentially preserved, complete and 100% true Holy Bible - the King James Holy Bible."

Well, unfortunatley for Mr. Kinney, below is an example of the word "church" from the allegedly "preserved, complete and 100% true"...King James Bible. I am pretty sure we won't ever hear these verses cited by Mr. Kinney (if Mr. Kinney is still with us), nor any other Ekklesia-ite.

Ac 19:32  Some therefore cried one thing, and some another: for the assembly <1577> was confused; and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together.

Ac 19:39  But if ye enquire any thing concerning other matters, it shall be determined in a lawful assembly <1577>.

Ac 19:41  And when he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly <1577>.

Ooooh. This isn't good, because here in these King James verses we have an assembled congregation of all the angry, unbelieving men of Ephesus, and this word "assembly" is the exact same word "ekklesia" which is translated as "church" in 115 other places. These verses from Acts 19 have spiritual meaning, just as much as all those other verses using "ekklesia" as "church", albeit in a different context, have spiritual meaning.

Shhhhh. Don't tell the demonationalist-Congregationites about this because they can't handle the truth.

Yes, God did, indeed use the word "church" ("ekklesia") in His book, but it never meant what Churchites think it means. There have always been assemblies of God's people who gathered together with God's enemies as one congregation. This is the problem. We are to discern the fruit men bear, but we can never really know the state of their hearts. How often have we discerned the most wonderful fruit in others, only to learn later on that we were completely wrong?

Mr. Kinney is correct when he says that Bible believers will not change the word "church" - in any Bible version. Mr. Kinney claims that the word "church" has enjoyed a "long and fruitful history", but the problem is that that history has been fruitful for satan and his minions. Thanks to this "long and fruitful history", Churchites, like the angry silversmiths and other craftsmen of Ephesus, have carved out their own gods to worship. They call these false gods names like "Sunday", "pastors", "King James version" and "churches". However, Bible believers will know the truth whenever we read or hear the word "church".

Bible believers will also never change the word "kuriakos" which is translated as "Lord's". As in "the Lord's true people", a/k/a, the Lord's true, invisible church.

1Co 11:20  When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord’s <2960> supper.

Re 1:10  I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s <2960> day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,

No wonder, then, that Paul reminded the Corinthians that God's people, themselves, are the temple of the living God. (2nd Cor. 6:16). There is only one holy temple, and it (singular) sure ain't the ones (plural) Mr. Kinney has in mind. If you are a  member of one of the churches, then you need this warning from the apostle Paul:

2 Co 6:17  Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
18  And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.