Marcus O'Reillius
Active Member
The Church is not Israel.
1. Definition: The church is the community of all true believers for all time. This definition understands the church to be made of all those who are truly saved. Paul says, "Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her" (Eph 5:25). Here the term "the church" is used to apply to all those whom Christ died to redeem, all those who are saved by the death of Christ. But that must include all true believers for all time, both believers in the New Testament age and believers in the Old Testament age as well. So great is God's plan for the church that he has exalted Christ to a position of highest authority for the sake of the church: "He has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all" (Eph 1:22-23).
Jesus Christ himself builds the church by calling his people to himself. He promised, "I will build my church" (Matt 16:18). And Luke is careful to tell us that the growth of the church came not by human effort alone, but that "the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved" (Acts 2:47). But this process whereby Christ builds the church is just a continuation of the pattern established by God in the Old Testament whereby he called people to himself to be a worshiping assembly before him. There are several indications in the Old Testament that God thought of his people as a "church," a people assembled for the purpose of worshiping God. When Moses tells the people that the Lord said to him, "Gather the people to me that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live upon the earth..." (Deut 4:10), the Septuagint translates the word for "gather" with the Greek term "to summon an assembly," the verb that is cognate to the New Testament noun "church."
It is not surprising, then, that the New Testament authors can speak of the Old Testament people of Israel as a "church". For example, Stephen speaks of the people of Israel in the wilderness as "the church in the wilderness" (Acts 7:38, author's translation). And the author of Hebrews quotes Christ as saying that he would sing praise to God in the midst of the great assembly of God's people in heaven: "In the midst of the church I will sing praise to you" (Heb 2:12, author's translation, quoting Ps 22:22).
Therefore the author of Hebrews understands the present-day Christians who constitute the church on earth to be surrounded by a great "cloud of witnesses" (Heb 12:1) that reaches back into the earliest eras of the Old Testament and includes Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets (Heb 11:4-32). All these "witnesses" surround the present-day people of God, and it seems only appropriate that they, together with the New Testament people of God, should be thought of as God's great spiritual "assembly" or "church." Moreover, later in chapter 12 the author of Hebrews says that when New Testament Christians worship we come into the presence of "the assembly (lit. "church,") of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven." This emphasis is not surprising in light of the fact that the New Testament authors see Jewish believers and Gentile believers alike to be now united in the church. Together they have been made "one" (Eph 2:14), they are "one new man" (v. 15) and "fellow citizens" (v. 19), and "members of the household of God" (v. 19).
Therefore, even though there are certainly new privileges and new blessings that are given to the people of God in the New Testament, both the usage of the term "church" in Scripture and the fact that throughout Scripture God has always called his people to assemble to worship himself, indicate that it is appropriate to think of the church as constituting all the people of God for all time, both Old Testament believers and New Testament believers.
(from Systematic Theology, Copyright © 1994 by Wayne Grudem. All rights reserved.)
Israel, as evidenced by the prophets, is largely unrepentant and rebellious.
It is to them that prophecy speaks of the Day of the Lord as foreboding and full of doom and gloom. But not so for the Church.
1. Definition: The church is the community of all true believers for all time. This definition understands the church to be made of all those who are truly saved. Paul says, "Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her" (Eph 5:25). Here the term "the church" is used to apply to all those whom Christ died to redeem, all those who are saved by the death of Christ. But that must include all true believers for all time, both believers in the New Testament age and believers in the Old Testament age as well. So great is God's plan for the church that he has exalted Christ to a position of highest authority for the sake of the church: "He has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all" (Eph 1:22-23).
Jesus Christ himself builds the church by calling his people to himself. He promised, "I will build my church" (Matt 16:18). And Luke is careful to tell us that the growth of the church came not by human effort alone, but that "the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved" (Acts 2:47). But this process whereby Christ builds the church is just a continuation of the pattern established by God in the Old Testament whereby he called people to himself to be a worshiping assembly before him. There are several indications in the Old Testament that God thought of his people as a "church," a people assembled for the purpose of worshiping God. When Moses tells the people that the Lord said to him, "Gather the people to me that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live upon the earth..." (Deut 4:10), the Septuagint translates the word for "gather" with the Greek term "to summon an assembly," the verb that is cognate to the New Testament noun "church."
It is not surprising, then, that the New Testament authors can speak of the Old Testament people of Israel as a "church". For example, Stephen speaks of the people of Israel in the wilderness as "the church in the wilderness" (Acts 7:38, author's translation). And the author of Hebrews quotes Christ as saying that he would sing praise to God in the midst of the great assembly of God's people in heaven: "In the midst of the church I will sing praise to you" (Heb 2:12, author's translation, quoting Ps 22:22).
Therefore the author of Hebrews understands the present-day Christians who constitute the church on earth to be surrounded by a great "cloud of witnesses" (Heb 12:1) that reaches back into the earliest eras of the Old Testament and includes Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets (Heb 11:4-32). All these "witnesses" surround the present-day people of God, and it seems only appropriate that they, together with the New Testament people of God, should be thought of as God's great spiritual "assembly" or "church." Moreover, later in chapter 12 the author of Hebrews says that when New Testament Christians worship we come into the presence of "the assembly (lit. "church,") of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven." This emphasis is not surprising in light of the fact that the New Testament authors see Jewish believers and Gentile believers alike to be now united in the church. Together they have been made "one" (Eph 2:14), they are "one new man" (v. 15) and "fellow citizens" (v. 19), and "members of the household of God" (v. 19).
Therefore, even though there are certainly new privileges and new blessings that are given to the people of God in the New Testament, both the usage of the term "church" in Scripture and the fact that throughout Scripture God has always called his people to assemble to worship himself, indicate that it is appropriate to think of the church as constituting all the people of God for all time, both Old Testament believers and New Testament believers.
(from Systematic Theology, Copyright © 1994 by Wayne Grudem. All rights reserved.)
Israel, as evidenced by the prophets, is largely unrepentant and rebellious.
It is to them that prophecy speaks of the Day of the Lord as foreboding and full of doom and gloom. But not so for the Church.