It is difficult to know where to start in a study of the nature of a church. There are so many false ideas in this world, false ideas that are promulgated by good men who are earnest in their endeavors to be faithful to God. I do not want to start out on the negative, explaining what a church is not, but sometimes that is necessary in order to get false ideas of the church out of the minds of the hearers.

But I want to start like this:

The definition of words is very important – so important that without this topic put first, all the following topics will lose their meaning.

Elect means: to chose or to call out, especially when God calls out his children from among the people of this world.

The word "church" means "A called out assembly". Here is where the problem starts. Many people take the word church and the world elect as having the exact same meaning, but these two words do not have the same meaning. Elect means to call out from among the lost, while church means to call to assembly from among the saved. There is first a calling out to salvation, then a calling out to assemble with the people of God in the church established by Jesus Christ during his personal ministry.

How did these two words come to mean the same thing? In the beginning of the ministry of Christ, there was no church at all. Jesus Christ began to call out his church during the very first of his earthly ministry, and this church immediately had the authority to baptize – see John 4:1,2. (By the way, John 4 occurs before Luke 6 when some believe Christ organized his church. If the church was organized in Luke 6, the baptisms of John 4 were invalid. According to I Corinthians 12:28, Jesus first added the apostles to the church. There had to be a church already in existence before Jesus added the apostles to the church, just as the people saved and baptized on the Day of Pentecost were added to the church that was already in existence.) Jesus Christ was with his church through his entire earthly ministry, teaching them the eternal word of God, and giving them authority to act on his behalf after his ascension.

Shortly after the ascension of Christ into heaven, the truths of God’s word began to be polluted. Acts 15 records that certain brethren believed the law must be kept before a person could be saved, just like today, there are those who believe we must do certain things in this flesh before we can be saved. The truth is that Jesus saves the spirit when a person repents of their sins and confesses Christ as their personal Saviour.

Churches that did not believe all the truth of God’s Word are called irregular church and are the beginning of the Catholic Church, as we know it today. Infant baptism was introduced about 250 AD and the church government was changed about 275 AD from congregational to presbytery, which is a group of ministers who preside over the affairs of each church and group of churches. Church and state were united under Constantine in 313 AD, and persecution against any other belief began. Popery was officially established by Leo II in the mid 500’s AD, infant baptism is established by law and the worship of Mary is established.

As time progresses, the truth was polluted more and more until finally, about 600, Gregory was proclaimed the first pope of the Catholic, or universal church. These people called their church "Catholic" because they were proclaiming that church was all over the world and was the answer, or had the answer, to all spiritual questions. Catholics have claimed many of the first scholars when they were not Catholic at all (because the Catholic church was not yet established when these scholars lived) – in other words, history was changed to suit those that had the power to change history.

The word "Catholic" means "universal", thus the Catholic Church believes in a universal, visible church. They do have local churches, but their primary allegiance is to the pope, who is the head of all their churches.

Wickedness prevailed in the Catholic Church all through the dark ages, or the period of time from 550 AD to about 1720 AD, or the time of the Protestant reformation. This is the time of Martin Luther, who came of the Catholic Church and started Lutheran Church. John Calvin who started the Presbyterian Church. There were many other leaders of the Protestant reformation, but there were no Baptist among them. Baptists do not have their beginning in the Protestant reformation because we were already here. The Church of England, from which the Methodists come, was started about the time John Calvin started his church. Congregationalists started in 1602, as another off shoot from the Catholic Church.

When Martin Luther and John Calvin came out of Catholicism, they brought with them many Catholic doctrines, some of which continue in the Lutherans and Presbyterians today. For example, Lutherans and Presbyterians still observe infant baptism, as an official policy of the denomination. Luther and Calvin also brought the idea of a universal church with them from Catholicism. But they did not want to continue believing the visible universal church (if they continued in that belief, they were admitting the church they left was correct), so they changed that doctrine to the invisible universal church.

The word church is the Greek word ekklesia and is translated with three different English words: church, churches, and assembly. Church is 76 times in 75 verses, churches is 37 times in 36 verses and assembly three times, and assembly three times (Acts 19:32, 39, and 41), or 116 times in 113 verses.

I want to look at these three different words in the English language.

The word church when it is used as an institution.

Ephesians 1:22 - And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, 23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. Christ is the head of all his churches combined, but he is also the head of each individual church.

Ephesians 3:21 - Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. It is true that all the combined churches will give God glory throughout all ages world without end, but it is also true that each individual local church during this present age will give glory to him. By the way, in eternity when all the local churches are gathered together as one – they will be assembled, which is the primary definition of the word church.

Ephesians 5:25-27 - Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. Marriage is an institution, just like the church is an institution. There are individual marriages, and there are individual churches. There is no such thing as a universal marriage, neither is there any such thing as a universal church, visible or invisible.

The word church when it is used as a local church.

Go through the introduction to the books of the Bible written by Paul, and see the word church and churches.

The word "churches" is always used to speak of more than one local church.

The word ekklesia translated assembly in Acts 19. It is translated assembly because it is called out, but it is not a church.