The Doctrine of the Church.
The question of the Church can be divided into three topics. First, what is the nature of the Church? Second, who built the Church? Third, when did it begin? Once these questions are answered many adversarial assertions made by opponents to Landmarkism are easily rebutted.
What is the nature of the church?
The nature of the church can be entirely understood by the Greek word which is translated into the English “Church.” The word is Ecclesia. It was a well known word in secular usage at the time when Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit employed it in the New Testament. The literal meaning of the word is “a called out assembly.”
Two features of this word are essential in understanding the nature of the New Testament church.
—First, is that an ecclesia is composed of people who are called out. They have been called for some purpose for a task to be done. In Greek municipalities when a need arose for some civic decision to be made a portion of that city was called out from among its inhabitants. The persons called had to be qualified (land owners, adult men, and bon fide citizens) to be a part of the ecclesia.
—Second, is that those who were called had to be assembled.
Together these two facts give the definitive nature of the church. It is not simply any assembly, or a general assembly of a religious order. The calling of church members is by Christ personally. The church is a visible body, a local body. An ecclesia in Greece was visible and local, it could not be anything else. As an illustration: the Greek word has been used to describe a body of the Roman military. Soldiers are men called out from the general civilian population and they are assembled. It is a rank and file of the military and they are obedient to their leadership. Just as a church is to be obedient to the leadership of Christ and the Holy Spirit. Literally they stand under one another in submission.
Further evidence that the nature of the Church is without exception a local and visible body is found in the metaphors used for it. Metaphorically the church is called—the Flock, the Body of Christ, the House of God, and a Holy Temple. The context of all these metaphors is that they picture a visible, physical entity, (a flock, a body, a house, a temple are all tangible objects). This Doctrine of the nature of the church requires no further explanation, modification, or accommodation to fit the facts of the church in the New Testament. There are not two kinds churches in the New Testament—one visible and one invisible.
In Detail: Scriptures require the Church to have internal fellowship, unity, Discipline, a codified system of Doctrines and beliefs. The church is a place of comfort, support, and caring. It has Ordinances and officers, and a form of democratic government. And above all it is conceived in love and has for its head and law-giver only Jesus Christ.
Return Home