Apologetics Courses

Principles of the
New Testament Church
By Mr Stacey Wyncoll

Dear Friend

The Christian Church has been described as one of the most bizarre organisations in the world. Which other group could claim to have so many different people, from so many different backgrounds, from so many different countries, but coming together for one purpose? However, the uniqueness of the church is not due to those who today who are part of it, but rather because of who founded it and how it was formed. The aim of this study is to consider how the church came into being and to provide an overview of the identity, purpose and structure of the church.

What is the Church?

Today there are organisations, which call themselves a church. However, this can mislead people into thinking that these organisations are churches, when in fact they are not. In this section we examine the principle of what the Christian Church is.

Ask people what the church is, and you can sometimes get some strange answers. For example, on one occasion when I asked some young people this question, they responded by saying that it was “Sunday Club”. Whilst this was their view of what the church is, it is not a view that the Bible supports, since the term “Sunday Club” does not appear in the Bible. Furthermore it would also appear that these young people view the church as something that only exists on a Sunday, which is again contrary to what the Bible says.

A more common definition of the term “Church” is that it is a building for religious meetings. Today this is indeed how many people use the term, however nowhere in the Bible is the term church used to describe any building at all. Indeed historically there is no record of any building being referred to as a church until after 300 AD, by which time the term church had been in common use for over 250 years. Furthermore if the word Church were intended to refer to the building, the Bible would present some strange scenarios. For example, in Romans 16:3 Paul writes “Greet Priscilla and Aquilla my fellow workers in Christ Jesus”. Then in Romans 16:5 continuing what he has said about Priscilla and Aquilla, Paul writes, “Greet also the church that meets at their house”. If the meaning of the term church were intended to mean a building, then Paul would have just asked that a physical building, that’s walls presumably met inside Priscilla and Aquilla’s home, should be greeted. This would of course be nonsense, and therefore the use of the term church cannot be intended to mean a building.

So what is the church? In his concordance and dictionary of Hebrew and Greek words, James Strong defines the word Church that comes from the Greek word “ekklesia” as a “religious congregation”. Therefore it is clearly meant to refer to the gathering of people, rather than a place or building. However, although the explanation of a religious congregation gives us a starting point for understanding what the church is, we will encounter problems if we are satisfied with this definition alone. For example, there might be those who are in the congregation who are opposed to God and even the church. Are they despite their opinions, to be considered to be part of the church? To resolve this and other potential issues, we therefore need to delve further into the pages of the Bible.

Surely one of the greatest helps in defining the church, is found in Colossians 1:24. In this verse Paul writes about the work of Christ and finishes the verse by saying, “for the sake of his body, which is the church”. So in this verse the church is simply described as the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. The term body may seem a strange one to use. However, other organisations that are made of several individuals, or consist of several groups are also sometimes described with the term body. For example, in a recent media article reporting a meeting of those responsible for overseeing the Olympic Sports organisation, it described the meeting as a gathering of the “Olympic body”.

So in a sense when we speak about a body, we are talking about those who have been united together under a common banner, and for common purpose. In the case of the Church, we are united with Christ and with other fellow believers in Christ. (Ephesians 5:29,30) However this still leaves the question of how we can become members of the body of Christ.

In 1 Corinthians 12:12,13 Paul writes, “The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptised by one spirit into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” So in essence what Paul is saying, is that in order to be part of the body of Christ, which we commonly call the church, we need to be baptised by the Spirit. We will consider the baptism of the Holy Spirit further in the next section. In the meantime how then can people be baptised with the Holy Spirit?

Luke records in Acts chapter 11 how the apostle Peter is criticised by some of the believers in the Lord Jesus Christ for meeting and eating with uncircumcised men. (Acts 11:2,3) Peter explains that when he met with those at Cornelius’ House, (Recorded in Acts 10:23 – 48) that the Holy Spirit came. “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.’ So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God.” (Acts 11:15 – 17) These verses then equate the baptism of the Holy Spirit with believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore those who accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour will be baptised in the Holy Spirit and become part of the body of Christ.