LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1967, Page 58

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58 THE DOCTRINAL ESSAY

the right direction, but he would have added that it is
only a step, and a small one at that, toward understand-
ing of the church as it is described in the New Testa-
ment and as it actually existed in apostolic times.

The church actually consists of the people of God,
sons of God by faith in Jesus Christ. The New Testa-
ment church is the inheritor of everything that is said
about the people of God in the Old Testament: “You
are My sons, I have called you” (Is.41:9). At least
seven times Isaiah talks about the church as the son
whom God has called — called to salvation prepared by
God Himself for those who love Him. Sons are not
slaves but sons, who can be expected to conduct them-
selves as sons in the Father’s household.

Cavalier Attitude

The word “church” does not occur in Mark, Luke,
John, 2 Timothy, Titus, 1 and 2 Peter, 1 and 2 John, or
Jude. This fact has led to the conclusion that the whole
idea of “church” is insignificant in the New Testament
scheme of things. Some regard it as justification for
playing fast and loose with the whole concept of the
church, making up their own definitions of what the
church is and treating the practical reality of the church
with indifference or even with what must be described
as contempt.

Whoever derides the church and assumes the right
to chip it up at will, in accordance with his own pride
or prejudice, must be told that he cannot use the New
Testament to justify this cavilier attitude or the wreck-
ing techniques that it calls forth.

The church is God’s own special product in the
world, and He watches over it. He has founded the
church, and He keeps it going. It is His seed planted in
the world, and He keeps it growing. It is His doing,
and no man is going to take the glory of it from Him.
Justified by grace, it is the church without any orna-
mental epithets and with only one attribute: it is the
church of God. He is the origin of the church, and He
is the glory of the church.

Ekklesia, Ekklesiai

In the Acts of the Apostles the congregation or
assembly in a certain place or locality of Christians, of
believers in Christ, of faithful followers of Christ, is
the ekklesia, without any question of precedence over
other congregations in other places or of correlation
with them. Singulars and plurals are used interchange-
ably. Little distinction is made between church and
churches. As I read the Book of Acts, ekklesia does
not divide up into ekklesiai, the church into churches;
nor is the sum of the ekklesiai looked upon as producing
the ekklesia. The ekklesiai are there, and so is the
ekklesia. The same word is used for the Jewish con-
gregation at Jerusalem and for the Gentile congregation
at Antioch (Acts 8:1; 13:1). This is the church of God
as you find it in the Book of Acts.

In his epistles St. Paul does not distinguish between
Jewish and Gentile Christians. Individual congregations

Stand alongside one another, and if necessary the plural

is used (2 Cor. 11:8; 12:13; Phil, 4:15). There are con-
Sregations, and there is the congregation. Indeed, the
singular and the plural are used interchangeably. Both
singular and plural are used in reference to the con-
sregation in general or to the congregation in a certain
place. As small a fellowship as a house church is stil]
ekklesia (Rom. 16:5). Each community, each assembly,
each congregation, however small, represents the total
community, the ekklesia. (1 Cor. 1:2; 2 Cor. 1:1)

Unity

In St. Paul’s language there is one church, which
manifests itself in many places; indeed, in every place.

St. Paul’s letters to the Ephesians and to the Colos-
sians are notable for Pictures of the unity of the church,
described in Ephesians as the body of Christ, with par-
ticular emphasis upon Christ, or it is not the church.
The unity is as close as that of the head to the body.
The church is Christ’s body. No one can take away
from Paul this graphic picture. Some modern theolo-
gians have been sucked up by the theory that there is
a Gnostic influence in Ephesians, but there is little
evidence of any kind in the Ist century or in the pre-
Christian era that there was any such concept in exis-
tence which could have influenced Paul. As far as Paul
is concerned, this is the Holy Spirit’s way of describing
the unity of the church, which is brought into existence,
nourished, and sustained by the Spirit Himself.

There are not too many other references to the
church outside the Acts of the Apostles and the epistles
of Paul. 3 John talks about the church with and without
the article, and there seems to be no distinction between
the two. James 5:4 speaks of elders of the churches.

Christ Gives Unity

In every case, wherever the church is spoken of in
the New Testament, it is thought of as an assembly or
as assemblies acting in unity. It is not that there were
no difficulties in that church and in those congregations,
There were. Some of those difficulties were probably
greater than those commonly met with today. However,
it is Christ that gives the church its unity, not the
people — the people who profess to follow Christ but
do not always live up to that profession; the people
who swear allegiance to Jesus Christ and then betray
Him; the people who sin much and need to be forgiven
every day; the people who walk the way by faith in
Jesus Christ along a road they cannot foresee but go
anyway because they depend on Him. This is His
church. Christ said, “On this rock” — the rock of His
incomparable Sonship with the Father, His anointed
role as the Messiah, His humanity and His deity —
“I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it.”

There can be no doubt that our Lord was praying for
His church in John 17:21: “That they all may be one as
You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also
may be one in Us.” The people for whom Christ prays
are the ones given Him by God (v. 2); they have been