{"id":1164,"date":"2010-08-12T18:32:12","date_gmt":"2010-08-12T23:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?p=1164"},"modified":"2011-03-31T16:03:53","modified_gmt":"2011-03-31T20:03:53","slug":"ekklesia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/ekklesia\/","title":{"rendered":"Ekklesia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Close Your Church for Good, <\/em>Chap. 3, Part 4. Having introduced the <a href=\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/defining-church-3\/\">definition of the church<\/a>, I now attempt to clairfy some misconceptions of the church. I begin with the Greek word <em>ekkl\u0113sia<\/em><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * * * *<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">First, it is true, as mentioned above, that the Greek word used for \u201cchurch\u201d is <em>ekkl\u0113sia<\/em>, which means \u201cgathering\u201d or \u201cassembly.\u201d The term could be used of any type of gathering, whether social, political, or religious, and even of groups of people that never actually \u201cgather.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">It is important to note that \u201cchurch\u201d is not exactly a translation of the Greek <em>ekkl\u0113sia<\/em>. The term \u201cchurch\u201d actually is derived from the German <em>Kirche<\/em>, which in turn comes from the Greek adjective <em>kuriakos<\/em>, \u201cbelonging to the Lord\u201d (cf. 1 Cor 11:20) or possibly the Latin <em>circus<\/em>. In the early history of the church, when the New Testament was getting translated from Greek into Latin, there was no clear equivalent in Latin for <em>ekkl\u0113sia<\/em>, and so various terms were proposed. Tertullian used <em>curia <\/em>(\u201ccourt\u201d) while Augustine famously wrote of the <em>Civitas Dei<\/em> (\u201cCity of God\u201d). One surprisingly common term used by various Greek writers was <em>thiasos<\/em> (\u201cparty\u201d), which generally referred to a troop of revelers marching through the city streets with dance and song, often in honor of Bacchus, the god of drunkenness. The point is that many early writers did not know how to translate or describe the term <em>ekkl\u0113sia<\/em>, but the terms they proposed offer tantalizing clues as to how the church functioned and was viewed during its early years.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Some help on translating <em>ekkl\u0113sia<\/em> may come from recognizing that it is derived from the word <em>kale\u014d<\/em>, \u201cto call.\u201d Some who have understood this refer to the church as \u201cthe called out ones.\u201d But it must be pointed out that the emphasis in such a usage is not on the people who gather, or where they gather, but rather, who or what does the gathering. To put it another way, the most important factor in an <em>ekkl\u0113sia<\/em> is who causes and calls the assembly. When compared with the Scriptural usage of the term, it quickly becomes obvious that it is God who calls the assembly, and forms the gathering. Therefore, whenever the term \u201cchurch\u201d is used, it is either stated or implied that it is a gathering of (or by) God.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">It is likely that the New Testament writers borrowed the term from the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) where the people of Israel are often referred to as the <em>ekkl\u0113sia<\/em> of God. They were called and gathered by God from the world to accomplish a specific purpose and task. In the New Testament, the emphasis is that when God gathers, He does so not by gathering people together as a nation, but by gathering people together into a person, namely, Jesus Christ.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">This is the first misconception about the church that must be unraveled. It is not a place or a building (more on this in chapter 8). Church is not something you go to. Nor is it an event. It is not something you can do. It cannot be scheduled. Instead, the church is people whom God has gathered into Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Close Your Church for Good, Chap. 3, Part 4. Having introduced the definition of the church, I now attempt to clairfy some misconceptions of the church. I begin with the Greek word ekkl\u0113sia. * * * * * First, it is true, as mentioned above, that the Greek word used for \u201cchurch\u201d is ekkl\u0113sia, which [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[15,32],"class_list":{"0":"post-1164","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"tag-close-your-church-for-good","7":"tag-theology-church","8":"entry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ekklesia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/ekklesia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ekklesia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Close Your Church for Good, Chap. 3, Part 4. Having introduced the definition of the church, I now attempt to clairfy some misconceptions of the church. I begin with the Greek word ekkl\u0113sia. * * * * * First, it is true, as mentioned above, that the Greek word used for \u201cchurch\u201d is ekkl\u0113sia, which [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/ekklesia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Redeeming God\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/290798794274804\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/290798794274804\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-08-12T23:32:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-03-31T20:03:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Mailchimp-Header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"562\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"182\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeremy Myers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@redeeminggod\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@redeeminggod\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeremy Myers\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/ekklesia\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/ekklesia\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jeremy Myers\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c\"},\"headline\":\"Ekklesia\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-08-12T23:32:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-03-31T20:03:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/ekklesia\/\"},\"wordCount\":533,\"commentCount\":7,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c\"},\"keywords\":[\"Close Your Church for Good\",\"Theology of the Church\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/ekklesia\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/ekklesia\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/ekklesia\/\",\"name\":\"Ekklesia\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-08-12T23:32:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-03-31T20:03:53+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/ekklesia\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/ekklesia\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/ekklesia\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Ekklesia\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/\",\"name\":\"Redeeming God\",\"description\":\"Liberating you from bad ideas about God\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c\",\"name\":\"Jeremy Myers\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eddb31e43c2836234b746787cbef8f12?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eddb31e43c2836234b746787cbef8f12?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jeremy Myers\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\"},\"description\":\"Jeremy Myers writes about Scripture and theology in a way that redeems God and people from the prison of religion. 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