Say What A Third Time??

Hello once again and I hope this writing finds each of you doing well. I want to do one last word study and include two words this time. The words are 'church' and pastor'. So let's begin.

The word church has come under some abuse in these times as people have begun to use the term in different ways with no regard for what God's Word originally had to say about it. Our English word "church" is used to translate the original Greek ekklesia (meaning the "called out"). This word refers to nothing but the people and never a building. It is used of the whole body of believers universally which Christ Himself would establish (Matthew 16:18), it also refers to a local body of believers within a given community (1 Corinthians I :2), and it is also used having reference to a local body of believers assembled together (1 Corinthians 14:34; Colossians 4:16). Over time this word has suffered abuse as different belief systems have come into view. For instance, how many churches are there? According to God's Word, THE authority for Godly activity, there is only one. Jesus did not say, "upon this rock I will build my churches" (Matthew 16: 18). In the Greek it is singular, there is only one church. People many times ask, 'what religion are you? , meaning many times, 'to what denomination do you belong?'. This question was never asked in the scriptures because there was no separation in belief, no doctrinal differences. The church should be one as Christ meant it to be, one in worship, one in practice, one in doctrine (teaching), one in spirit. After all, "There is one Lord, one Faith, one baptism (immersion) (Ephesians 4:5). ( IT IS CHRIST'S CHURCH AND NO ONE ELSE'S)

The last abused Scriptural word that we want to look at is 'pastor'. The word pastor is simply one of the words used to describe the work of an elder (1 Peter 5; Acts 20:28). The work of a pastor ( elder) is distinguished and completely separate from that of the evangelist (preacher) in Ephesians 4: 11. The problem today is that we have men in the local church who are called 'elders' as distinguished from others who are called 'pastors' (or, sometimes, "the pastor"). The one who is called 'pastor' is also called "the preacher'. In scripture, there is always a plurality of elders (pastors) in a local congregation and never one. This is nothing short of a worldly idea and has no scriptural foundation. Congregations have adopted this idea, and, for the most part, the local elders ( who scripturally are supposed to be the pastors) have been put on the shelf and often times the preacher and the people buy into this idea.

Every generation needs to call bible things by bible names and make sure the proper name is give to the proper thing. Let us "hold fast the form of sound words" (2 Timothy I : 13) as we continue to restore the Church to the original, Christ established form.

God Bless until our next time.