Parables Christian Ministry Library

Lesson #15 - Hebrew Words - The Church - Pt3

I hope and pray that I have given some fundamental background to the word "church". The conclusion to this matter is very simple. The "church", as it is commonly used in scripture, is an assembly of people who believe and follow the Lord. In the Brit Chadashah it is called the body of the Messiah - Ephesians 1:23; the children of God - Yochanan 1:12; the faithful in Yahshua the Messiah - Ephesians 1:1; believers - 1 Timothy 4:12; saints - Romans 1:7; Avraham's seed - Galatians 3:29; a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a peculiar people - 1 Kefa 2:9; and a host of other titles. In the Tenach, the assembly (church) is called believers of YHVH - B'reshith 15:6, Divre-HaYamim Bet 20:20; Avraham's seed - Mizmor 105:6; the faithful - Havakuk 2:4; a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a peculiar people - D'varim 7:6; and a host of other titles. The most frequent title is Israel.

This is not the time to do a detailed study of Israel. We will do that another time. I will deal later with the fact that Israel is the name of the nation of people who YHVH foreknew would accept his words and preserve them. They are the name, as a nation, of people who would be YHVH's assembly. They are YHVH's assembly (church) as a nation of people. That "nation" of people now are called the body of the Messiah (Christ). YHVH foreknew that the assembly called Israel would fall into unrighteousness and unbelief, and they would reject Him for a foreknown period of time. But they would reject Him as a nation. He also knew that they would return to Him as a nation. In the meantime, individuals, whether Hebrew or of the nations, would come to know this same Messiah, by the preaching of the gospel, and be individually planted into the one and same Messiah. Israel as a nation is still in unbelief. Virtually all the prophecies in the Tenach concerning Israel speaks of them coming back to the land as dry bones and then at some point will be restored by faith in the Messiah (Yechezk'el 37). This "assembly" is referred to again as the nation Israel. Meanwhile, there is still only ONE "assembly". There has always been ONE assembly. There are not two assemblies with different means by which to enter. Entrance into the assembly has always been by faith only. This is very clearly taught in Ephesians chapter two. The building that YHVH is constructing is in two sections. The foundation and the structure are built together, "in whom all the building fitly framed together grows into an holy temple in the Lord." More on this at a later time.

Before we move on to our next word I need to take the time to correct a misstatement I made in part 2. The D'varim 4:10 reference is not the first mention of the term QAHAL (church, assembly). As I have said in the past the first mention is very important. The first mention sets the foundation for what a word is going to mean, especially symbolically, for the rest of scripture. The very first mention of qahal is in B'reshith 28:3. Verse 3 reads in the Hebrew, "veel shadday yevarek ‘oteka veyapherka veyarebeka vehayiyta loQEHAL ‘ammim". This reads in the English as "And may El Shaddai bless you and make you fruitful, and add to you and may you become an ASSEMBLY of nations." Here, YHVH is foretelling that the seed of Avraham is to come through Yitzchk and Ya'akov and eventually to produce the Messiah. YHVH's church is always HIS assembly. It has many names throughout the scriptures, but it is always His assembly. It did not begin in Acts chapter 2. The believers in Acts 2 were gathered to observe a feast to YHVH, Shavuot, or the feast of Weeks, not to BEGIN "the assembly". This leads us to ask the obvious question. What is the promise they were waiting for? It has been traditionally taught that the promise was the inaugural appearance of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit). But this is a huge oversimplification, not to mention leading to the erroneous belief that the Ruach haQodesh was not working in the salvation of believers in the Tenach. There are several more words that need to be properly defined before we tackle this subject.

Next time, we will research the word "repentance". This word, more than any other, must be defined from its origin. This word has been so twisted and mangled, that it bears little or no resemblance to it's original meaning, and has misled literally millions of so-called Christians. We are going to get a little controversial, but I believe with all that is in me that the Lord is crying out to His "church" today to turn from their wrong ways and turn back to His ways. See you next time.

Shalom Alecheim!