It’s been a few months since we visited our ongoing study regarding the form and function of church. We left off with an introduction to the universal concept of church as defined by the Westminster Confession of Faith of 1646. Recall that generally speaking, the doctrine of the universal church finds chief support in Matthew 16:18 as compared with Matthew 18:17, though as we’ll soon see, whether rightly or wrongly some other verses are brought into the mix for support as well.
Additionally, in that last post, we looked at three key issues which have been the source of debate and disagreement regarding the nature of a universal church theory. They were:
- The theory of the universal church conflates the concept of the people of God (church) with the concept of ekklesia (gathering), the New Testamen Greek word that is translated as church in our English bibles..
- The theory of the universal church, at its core, asserts too much continuity between Israel and the Church.
- The theory of the universal church is rooted in equating the church with the kingdom of God and the church with the family of God.
We left that post with anticipation of a historical look at this theory’s development and to hopefully determine whether any of these objections have merit. That is where we find ourselves today, reviving our studies on the doctrine of the church.
In order to accomplish this historical review, we’ll lean heavily on the overview provided in the Systematic Theology of Louis Berkhof who provides a succinct history on the doctrine of the church. I’ll be quoting him extensively as a solid, well-respected, point of reference, but ultimately to show how some of the conclusions we may reach are not unique, but have at least been mentioned in times past. It of course does not mean that by citing him that we necessarily have come to agreement with his conclusions. Generally speaking, Berkhof’s conclusions are typical of the Reformed tradition.
By way of continuing our review, in order to resume our series here, and as an introduction to Berkhof, we will follow his outline beginning with a well thought out introduction to the meaning and use of ekklesia in the New Testament (Old Testament as well). For an expanded study, our post on this issue may be found here: What is an Ekklesia?
Berkhof writes,
“The New Testament also has two words derived from the Septuagint, namely, ekklesia, from ek and kaleo, “to call out,” and sunagoge, from sun and ago, meaning “to come or to bring together.” The latter is used exclusively to denote either the religious gatherings of the Jew or the buildings in which they assembled for public worship, Matt. 4:23; Acts 13:43; Rev. 2:9; 3:9. The term ekklesia, however, generally designates the Church of the New Testament, though in a few places it denotes common civil assemblies.” Pg. 555-556
As in our study, Berkof points out the two significant terms in the New Testament which find their roots in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), sunagoge (synagogue) and ekklesia, which as we’ve mentioned is translated into English as church. After doubting the validity of deriving the meaning of ekklesia from the compound of ek and kaleo, Berkhof adds,
“Deissmann (1866-1937, German Protestant) would simply render ekklesia as ‘the (convened) assembly,’ regarding God as the convener. Because the idea of the Church is a many-sided concept, it is quite natural that the word ekklesia, as applied to it, does not always have exactly the same connotation. Jesus was the first one to use the word in the New Testament, and He applied it to the company that gathered about Him, Matt. 16:18, recognized Him publicly as their Lord, and accepted the principles of the Kingdom of God. It was the ekklesia of the Messiah, the true Israel. Later on, as a result of the extension of the Church, the word acquitted various significations. Local churches were established everywhere, and were also called ekklesiai, since they were manifestations of the one universal Church of Christ.”
Here we may observe a few noteworthy points, namely the recognition that ekklesia refers to the “convened assembly” and that Christ’s use of ekklesia, from Matthew 16:18, alluded to those who were “convened” or gathered around Him. That’s an important point that is often neglected and may aid to ones understanding of whether Matthew 16:18 is a universal church reference or not. Remember that this particular verse is often championed as evidence of universal church, i.e. that Christ’s use of ekklesia here necessarily implies that He is talking about the whole community of God’s people. Contrary to this, Berkhof is describing it as the actual fellowship of those around Him, beginning with the twelve.
After this, Berkhof begins his descriptions of these various uses or connotations of ekklesia in the New Testament, the first of which he discusses is the most frequent usage. According to him the most frequently used meaning of ekklesia “designates a circle of believers in some definite locality, a local church, irrespective of the question of whether these believers are or are not assembled for worship.” Here, Berkhof concludes that an ekklesia may be an ekklesia, even if they are not actually gathered together. Additionally, he concludes that regardless of whether they are gathered or not, geographic location is still a determinant factor. He then lists several passages as examples for gathered and ungathered, which I’ve included below.[1] This of course brings up an interesting point of discussion, which we’ll take up another time, namely, is a church a church when it is not gathered.
The second use of ekklesia in the New Testament, he concludes, sometimes “denotes what may be called a domestic ekklesia, the church in the house of some individual,” citing instances of this word in Rom. 16:23; I Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15, and Philemon 2. Along a similar line, Berkhof notes that at least once, Acts. 9:31, the word is used in the singular to denote a collection of churches from Judea, Galilee, and Samaria. This usage is a debated passage and as he points out, “this does not yet mean that they together constituted an organization such as we now call a denomination.”
His final two uses, again by way of review for our own study here, are critical towards understanding the issue at hand, namely whether it is accurate to speak of an universal church, and if so, what exactly this should refer to. He states, “in a more general sense the word serves to denote the whole body throughout the world, of those who outwardly profess Christ and organize for the purposes of worship, under the guidance of appointed officers.” With some hesitancy, Berkhof suggests this is found in 1 Cor. 10:32; 11:22; 12:28 and possibly the intention for the use of ekklesia in Ephesians. Interestingly, he doesn’t cite Matthew 16:18 as so many do, so we’ll need to examine these additional references if we’re to find evidence of a universal theory of church. Finally, he states that the word in its “most comprehensive meaning signifies the whole body of the faithful, whether in heaven or on earth, who have been or shall be spiritually united to Christ as their Savior.” He cites some examples that I’ve listed below.[2]
Wit this point, let’s recall the actual meaning of the word under discussion here, namely ekklesia, which refers to a gathering and note too the most frequent usage cited above. Would it therefore be proper or accurate to refer to the whole body of the faithful, whether in heaven or on earth, or whether or not they have been united to Christ or not (saved) as the ekklesia, i.e. church?
Summarizing then these uses of ekklesia in the New Testament, at least according to Louis Berkof, we have the following
- A convened assembly with God as Covener.
- First used by Christ in Matthew 16:18 – a reference to those convened about Him.
- A circle of believers in a definite geographic location.
- May or may not be gathered together (for worship), meaning that they may be called a church whether they are physically present together.
- Ekklesia in the New Testament often referred to a gathering in a particular house of an individual.
- Ekklesia may generally refer to the collected body of believers throughout the world.
- The most comprehensive meaning of ekklesia refers to the whole body of believers, whether in heaven or on earth, who have been united to Christ.
After giving an overview of how the meaning of the English word “church” was transferred to the use of ekklesia, which we looked at earlier in this post, Berkhof overviews other scriptural concepts that refer to the people of God (i.e. Body of Christ, Temple of the Holy Spirit, New Jerusalem/Jerusalem above, Pillar and ground of the truth) and then opens up his section on The Doctrine of the Church in History. Here is where we will pick up in the next post for the purpose of understanding how this concept of the universal church has developed in history.
In the meantime, you can get caught up on this series here: