I’m doing the boring chore of name and Scripture indices at the moment. Here’s an excerpt from the forthcoming book.
First of all, we must dismiss this view, held by many pious men throughout history, that the Church is in the OT. The New covenant was not made in the OT, and I have shown the Church to be a New covenant institution. The NT records the making of the New covenant in Jesus’ blood (Lk. 22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25). This is why Jesus spoke of the Church as future in Matt. 16:18 (Jn.7:39). The Christian Church is the Body of Christ and is inescapably joined to the resurrection of Christ (Eph. 2:4-6; Col. 2:12; cf. 1 Cor. 12:13; Rom. 14:9). Thus, it was quite literally impossible for the Church to exist prior to the death and resurrection of Jesus. The Apostle Paul writes,
Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. – Romans 7:4
The Great Commission could not be given until “all power” was given to the Risen Christ (Matt. 28:18f.). The preaching in the book of Acts relies on the resurrection (Acts 2:14, 24; 4:2; 10:40; 13:22-23; 15:6-11; 17:18, etc.). Paul’s admonitions to holiness in Romans 6 are predicated on our vital connection to the resurrection. Moreover, the Church is built upon Christ (1 Cor. 3:11. Cf. Rom. 10:9), and “the apostles and [NT] prophets” (Eph. 2:20). If the Church is a New covenant community (as it is in 2 Cor. 3), it stands to reason that it could not be in existence before the New covenant was made.
All this means that those saved before the inauguration of the Church, both among the Nations and in ancient Israel, are separate from the Church. Israel was (cf. Hos. 2:2; Jer. 3:8) and shall be (Hos. 2:19) married to Yahweh – whom we equate in most instances with God the Father. The Church shall be married to Christ (2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:25, 32; Rev. 19:6-9). We cannot entertain a theology that has these OT saints in some suspended animation until Jesus has died and risen, and then joined surreptitiously to the NT Body of Christ. Though we insist that their salvation was firmly grounded in the foreseen merits of the Cross, that is not the same thing as declaring them all within the sphere of the Church. There is no necessity forced upon us by Scripture to include the saints of all the ages within the Church.
By Intention the Church is Mainly Gentile
Another thing which is often overlooked but which ought to be thought about, is the frank truth that the Church, although it has its seeds in Jewish soil (Acts 1-7), is intentionally predominantly Gentile in constitution. The Apostolic teaching is that the Church’s design is to bring the Gentiles into relationship with God. This can be viewed along at least two related lines:
- The Jews rejected Christ and are judicially blinded to this very day (Rom. 11:8-10, 25, 28).
- We are awaiting “the fullness of the Gentiles” (Rom. 11:25). Once this period has concluded God will once again turn to Israel – the natural branches (one of the worst exegetical foul-ups is to equate the Olive Tree with its branches!).
Although any Jew who today repents and receives Jesus as Savior is incorporated into the Church (Eph. 2:12-16)[1], Paul teaches that God will yet deal again with the nation of Israel, “the natural branches.”
The Church is, at its core, a called together population of redeemed peoples, Jew and Gentile, but mostly Gentile, permanently indwelt by the Spirit, and betrothed to the Risen Christ. Because this conception is unknown within the pages of the Old Testament, the Church as “the Body of Christ” is called “the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.” (Col 1:26). It is not, contrary to some, that the concept of the Church was known by OT saints but not realized until the New Testament era. That blatantly contradicts Paul’s statement in Colossians 1. Rather, the idea of the Church was “hidden in God” (Eph. 3:9); it was a secret (musterion) that no one but God knew about until God disclosed it.[2]
Everyone understands that the OT is filled with promises of salvation for the Gentile nations. It is the presence of these promises which smooth out the transition between the Testaments and explain the “lack of surprise” at the Church’s existence in the Apostolic writings. But this turning to the Gentiles because of the neglect of Messiah by Israel was no more foreseeable from an OT perspective than a huge time gap between the first and second advents was foreseeable.
The NT Church is a covenant entity. As we have seen, in Galatians 3 Paul explicitly relates the Church to the Abrahamic covenant. In Galatians 3:16 the apostle writes:
Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He
does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to
your Seed,” who is Christ.
It is essential to carefully note the particular part of the Abrahamic covenant which the Apostle assigns to the Church. Both in Galatians 3:8 and in Romans 4:16-17 Paul assiduously picks out the promise of Genesis 12:3 and 22:18. He is not like those unconcerned exegetes who carelessly ascribe all the covenant promises contained within the Abrahamic covenant to the Church.
What might be called my main thesis is that Christ will perform all this restorative and promissory work by the New covenant, which in Him (Isa. 49:8) provides the requisite cleansing unto righteousness that obligates God to fulfill His covenants. This Christ-centered approach is what I call “Biblical Covenantalism.”
[1] Contra N. T. Wright (Paul and the Faithfulness of God, 1443-1449), these verses in Ephesians 2 are not to be understood as asserting that in Christ Jews are no longer Jews and Gentiles no longer Gentiles, only that Jew and Gentile are one in the Church. Hence, Jewish Christians are not bound to divest themselves of their OT covenantal traditions as long as those “markers” are not pushed on Gentile believers (which would be Galatianism).
[2] See Jeremy M. Thomas, “The ‘Mystery’ of Progressive Dispensationalism,” CTJ 09:28 (Dec 2005), 297ff.
6 comments On The Church is a New Testament Institution
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Requested Verses (by Anonymous)
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1 Corinthians 15:21-22
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1 Corinthians 15:21 For since by a man death [came,] by a man also [came] the resurrection of the dead.
1 Corinthians 15:22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. (NASB2020)
If you think there is another way to be saved other than the new Covenant, which was promised to Israel, then you need a better explanation. Israel along with all men in paradise before Christ were delivered by Him into The kingdom of God (the Church) when Christ arose. Paul explained the Church in Ephesians. Who is the root supporting the Olive Tree of Romans 11? Israel did not fall away, but the unbelievers fell away, they were cut off individually.
Wait for the book Jerry. I believe I address it there.
Hi Paul… I see your faith and thank you for sharing your opinion.
The Greek word translated as the English word “church,” in most Bible translations, is ἐκκλησία.
ἐκκλησία (ekklesia), originates from two terms: ἐκ + καλέω (Greek) – ek + kaleo (English transliteration)
ἐκ = out / καλέω = to call / “called out”
1 Peter 2:9 “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called (καλέω) you out (ἐκ) of darkness into his marvelous light.”
The most favored Greek lexicon among scholars and commentators is A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (BDAG; 3rd ed., p. 303). Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., Bauer, W., & Gingrich, F. W. (2000). In University of Chicago Press.
Here is the entry for ἐκκλησία (ekklesia)
a. of OT Israelites (Deuteronomy 31:30; Acts 7:38)
b. of Christians (Matthew 18:17; 1 Corinthians 11:18)
BDAG informs us that the term, ἐκκλησία (ekklesia), is used in Scripture with regard to secular assemblies (Acts 19:39), as well as with reference to the people of God (Deuteronomy 31:30; Matthew 18:17).
The term ἐκκλησία (ekklesia) is used 100 times in 96 verses of the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament prominent at the time of Jesus), and 114 times in 111 verses of the Greek New Testament.
Ekklesia, as it pertains to the people of God, is…
There is no “The Church,” capital “C” in the Bible, except for the translation that initially deviated from Holy Scripture, The Latin Vulgate:
Matthaeus 16:18 “Et ego dico tibi, quia tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram aedificabo Ecclesiam meam, et portae inferi non praevalebunt adversus eam.”
This error was initiated in the 4th century when Jerome transliterated the Greek term ekklesia into the Latin term ecclesiam, while commissioned by Pope Damasus to write the Vulgate translation.
Roman Catholics attempted to make “Ecclesiam” a proper noun, and thus an institution, comprised of clergy and laity. They were eventually corrected by William Tyndale in the 16th century, leading to his martyrdom.
This informal term, ekklesia, as it applies to the people of God, is a congregation or assembly; a gathering or grouping of the called-out ones of God. It is first used in Deuteronomy 4:10 in reference to the people of God, gathered before God, at Mt. Sinai.
As you can see, the “church age” is not a thing unless your starting point is Deuteronomy 4:10. Did the New Testament (New Covenant) church begin at Pentecost?
The ekklesia is comprised of faith-filled believers as well as faith-less unbelievers; all who gather, also known as the church visible. The formal term for believers in our times is Christian, or, as a group, Christians.
1 Peter 4:16 “But if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but glorify God that you bear that name.”
The Old Testament ekklesia was the nation of the twelve tribes of Israel (including sojourners and proselytes), called out of Egypt to be God’s possession; a people in covenant with God.
Many in the Old Testament ekklesia were not saved because they were not united by faith with those who listened to the good news (Hebrews 4:2).
The Object of faith for the Old Testament saints was the Coming One; the coming Christ who is to bruise the head of the serpent (Genesis 3:15). In Hebrews 11, we learn that Moses regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward (Hebrews 11:26).
The New Testament ekklesia is comprised of Jew and Gentile, called out of the world to be God’s possession; a people in covenant with God.
Many in the New Testament ekklesia are not saved because they do not understand the word of the kingdom, some fall away because of tribulation or persecution, and others are unfruitful because the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word (Matthew 13:18-22). The righteous shall live by faith, and those who have faith preserve their souls (Hebrews 10:38-39).
The Object of faith for the New Testament saints is the crucified, buried, and resurrected Christ, Jesus of Nazareth; our coming King (Matthew 25:31-46).
Within the Old Testament and New Testament ekklesia are the saints of God, counted righteous by faith; the sons of Abraham (Galatians 3:7, 29). Together we are made perfect (Hebrews 11:40; 12;23)—resurrected and raptured (caught up to God; Greek, harpazo) at the parousia, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ; our blessed hope.
Bible scholar D. A. Carson >>>
“…it cannot be wrong to think of the OT assembly of the people of God as the ἐκκλησία (ekklesia) when the biblical writers are happy to use that language. To maintain a distinction between “assembly” and “church” when the Greek uses just one word for both is surely no ground for maintaining that the church began at Pentecost, for the church of God is the assembly of God, and it began in OT times. The bringing together of Jews and Gentiles in one olive tree (Romans 11), in one new humanity (Ephesians), does not mean that the post-Pentecost church is a new body, but that it is the same but expanded body.” Carson, D. A. (2016). Editorial: When Did the Church Begin? Themelios, 41(1), 2.
The phrase, “ekklesia of God,” is used to describe the gatherings of the people of God in the Old Testament, as well as the New Testament:
Nehemiah 13:1 “And in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly (ekklesia) of God.”
1 Corinthians 10:32 “Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church (ekklesia) of God.”
Dear Whoever you are (Tom)?
Your bad manners are only exceeded by your bad manners! You probably didn’t mean it, but if you would have stopped for a moment and asked yourself if just maybe the person whom you presumed to educate may have taken 21 hours of Greek in Seminary and may be familiar with BDAG and D.A. Carson you would not have talked down to him in such a condescending way. Everyone knows what the term means. It is how it is employed for the Body of Christ that matters. If you would like to reason more substantively with the short piece I wrote that would be fine. But what led you to think I was some uneducated ignorant hack I don’t know. I surely hope you do not take this superior and patronizing attitude with others.
Wow! BiC’s comments exceeded the original post. 😉