Why use the word "Assembly" instead of "Church" II: The Body of Christ

As presented in my previous teaching Why use the word "Assembly" instead of "Church" we know that the proper translation for the Greek word "ekklesia" (usually erroneously translated as "church") is the English word "assembly." I will show how exquisitely well the word assembly translates the word ekklesia by looking at the various English definitions of assembly and how they relate to the truth of scripture.

First we will look at how scripture describes the assembly of Christ.
"God put all things under Christ’s feet, and he gave him to the assembly as head over all things. Now the assembly is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all" (Ephesians 1:22-23). We see here that the assembly is Christ's body. Read 1 Corinthians 12. Note verse 27, "Now you are Christ’s body, and each of you is a member of it."

Here are some interesting English dictionary definitions of the word "assembly" along with related scriptures.

• A group of persons who are gathered together for a common purpose.
• Every day disciples continued to gather together by common consent in the temple courts, breaking bread from house to house, sharing their food with glad and humble hearts,  praising God and having the good will of all the people. (Acts 2:46-47)
• When they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness. (Acts 4:31)
• Peter went to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many people had gathered together and were praying. (Acts 12:12)
• When you are gathered together in the name of our Lord Jesus the power of our Lord Jesus is present. (1 Corinthians 5:4)
• A group of parts that fit together to form a self-contained unit; A unit consisting of components that have been fitted together
• From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Ephesians 4:16)
• The act of constructing something
• Jesus said "I will build my assembly" (Matthew 16:11)
• To equip the saints for the work of service, that is, to build up the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:12)
• So the assembly throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and going on in the respect of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase. (Acts 9:31)
• Encourage one another and build up one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
• You yourselves, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood and to offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:5)
• Whole, unit - an assemblage of parts that is regarded as a single entity
• There is one body and one Spirit, just as you too were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:4-6)
• Now you are Christ’s body, and each of you is a member of it. (1 Corinthians 12:27) 
• Jesus prayed, "I am not praying only on their behalf, but also on behalf of those who trust in me through their testimony, that they will all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray that they will be in us, so that the world will trust that you sent me. The glory you gave to me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one – I in them and you in me – that they may be completely one, so that the world will know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me." (John 17:20-23)

We see that, while assembly can mean a group of people meeting in a particular place and time, biblically it can also refer to the body of Christ with similar or exact definitions to match those English definitions I presented above (a group of parts that fit together to form a self-contained unit; whole; unit; an assemblage of parts that is regarded as a single entity). The word assembly parallels to the body of Christ and its parts coming together as one. It all relates back to the body because another possible word to use for ekklesia (aside from assembly & congregation) is council which definitions start out with "body" & "A body of people" That goes way past the non-biblical word that is church.

In marriage two become one. We are the bride of Christ. Just as Jesus prayed for us to do so in John 17 quoted above, we become one with God. The assembly is the body of Christ. "For just as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body – though many – are one body, so too is Christ" (1 Corinthians 12:12). "The body is a unit, it is made up of many parts that form one body" (1 Corinthians 12:12, NIV). Christ is a body, Jesus is the head of that body, those who trust Him are the rest of that body. God has loved us with such favor that we are Christ with Jesus! Just as my hand is me and a part of me so too are we parts of the body of Christ and we are Christ. We aren't simply Christians, we are Christ because we are one with the head of the body, Jesus. How is this the case? Jesus explained in John 17:23 that God the Father loves you just as much as He loves Jesus.

Why use the word "Assembly" instead of "Church"

Words are important. The Holy Spirit chose the exact words for the writers of scripture to use. God did not leave anything to chance.
"Every word of God is purified; he is like a shield for those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, lest he reprove you, and prove you to be a liar." (Proverbs 30:5-6)
When God's word is translated it should be kept pure, using accurate words to represent the meanings of the original words. We wouldn't want the word meaning life to be translated as house. We wouldn't want a word meaning eye to be translated as head. We shall focus on one such word which is translated so inaccurately.

The Meaning of Ekklesia
English translations of the bible continue to translate the Greek word ekklesia as the English word church. Church is a word that means "a building designed for public forms of worship; the practices or doctrines of the Church of England and similar denominations." Ekklesia is in fact a word which means assembly. An assembly is a group of people gathered together. (The word congregation can also be used to translate ekklesia but I do not prefer it because it currently refers to a group of attendees in a church building).
The word ekklesia is not a word with exclusive spiritual or religious meaning on its own (unlike the word church). Ekklesia was used of secular assemblies in scripture (see Acts 19:32,39,41, where it is properly translated as assembly). It was also used outside of scripture pertaining to a political assembly in ancient Athens.
The first time ekklesia is used in scripture is by Jesus in Matthew 16:18 where He says "I will build my assembly (ekklesia)." After this ekklesia in scripture usually refers to the assembly of God, the assembly of Christ, His assembly that He has built. We can read the appropriate context to discern this meaning.

God's Assembly in the Old and New Covenant
In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures, the word ekklesia is used to translate the Hebrew word qahal. Qahal, in English translations, is usually translated as assembly. 1 Chronicles 28:8 says "all Israel" is "the assembly (qahal) of the LORD." So just as the assembly (ekklesia) of God refers to people in the New Testament so does the assembly (qahal) of God refer to people in the Old Testament.
To further drive this point here are two scriptures making it clear that assembly refers to a people rather than a place (unlike the word church).
Romans 16:5 says, "Greet the assembly that is in their house."
2 Chronicles 1:3 says, "Then Solomon and all the assembly with him went to the high place which was at Gibeon, for God’s tent of meeting was there, which Moses the servant of the LORD had made in the wilderness."
These two scriptures talk about the assembly being in or going to a place not the assembly being a place as the word church would make us think.
The connection between the Old Testament assembly and the New Testament assembly is completely lost when the word church is used.
Just as the high priest on the day of atonement "made atonement for all the people of the assembly" (Leviticus 16:33), "Jesus became a merciful and faithful high priest in things relating to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people." (Hebrews 2:17)
So when Jesus, the king of kings, said, "I will build my assembly" He was not introducing a completely new word or concept. Jews of His time would have surely realized a connection and even a continuation of His assembly, His people, now under a new covenant with Christ in which the unbelieving Jews are broken off and the believing gentiles are grafted in (see Romans 11).

The Origins of the Word Church
There is some uncertainty on the exact development of the word "church." The Compact Oxford English Dictionary says its origin is "from Greek kuriakon doma ‘Lord’s house’." According to The Online Etymology Dictionary, it is from the Old English cirice, from West Germanic kirika, and from Greek kyriake, meaning Lord’s, and the Greek adjective kyriakon, of the Lord. The inspired writings do not use the Greek word kyriakon. In every passage where the word “church” appears, the manuscripts from which we get our English translations read ekklesia. There is no etymological connection whatsoever between kyriakon / kyriaka (church) and ekklesia (assembly). Ekklesia and church  should have the same or similar meanings if we are going to use the word church to translate ekklesia but they do not.

The Mistranslation of Ekklesia into English
Why do translators choose to use the word church and not translate ekklesia properly as assembly?
King James of England “authorized” and funded a translation of the Scriptures which he and Archbishop Richard Bancroft gave certain rules for the translators to follow. The third rule states, "The Old Ecclesiastical Words to be kept, viz. the Word Church not to be translated Congregation &c." This third rule deliberately says to use the word church instead of congregation (which was a proper translation of ekklesia). This rule also meant the translators had to use commonly accepted religious terms in contexts that pertain to God's people, hence the use of words like [note proper translation is in parenthesis] church (assembly), pastor (shepherd), bishop (overseer), minister (servant), ministry (service), ordain (appoint), deacon (servant), baptize (this is a transliteration of baptizo, meaning immerse or submerge), & presbytery (elders). Modern translations have corrected the use of bishop and presbytery because of their catholic connotations but still retain the words that have protestant connotations such as church, pastor, minister, ministry, ordain, & deacon.

Here is an example that you can open you King James bible to that proves the bias of the translation for the word church. The New Testament, at Hebrews 2:12, quotes the Old Testament, at Psalms 22:22, word for word. Remember King James forbade translating ekklesia as "congregation."
Psalms 22:22, "I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee."
Hebrews 2:12, "I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee."

When this King James version was done, it was very important for it to retain the word "church" because the King had jurisdiction over the church. That was his specific edict. He has no religious jurisdiction over the congregation (people), but he does over the church (the organization and its physical buildings). He knew the correct translation, obviously, but he didn't want it in there, that way they retain control over "the church."

While the King James version was not the first English translation to use the word church it was clearly bias for the use and the word church clearly does not translate ekklesia. Because of its influence as a translation and the institutionalized church system still persisting to this day the word church has been used in virtually every English translation since. Because of the word church being incorrectly put into our bibles we have read the modern idea of the modern church (it being a place, a building, or a denomination) back into the New Testament causing ekklesia not only to lose its meaning but to have its meaning almost utterly replaced.

The Church is not The Assembly
Because the translators used the word “church,” meaning a building, instead of a more accurate word reflecting a functioning body, it has affected our whole approach to the meaning of body of Christ. The original intent of ekklesia was relational and not institutional. Christ never created an institution, commanded an institution, or condoned an institution. He told His people to make disciples which is what He Himself did. He did not tell anyone to build buildings, attend buildings, or fund buildings. Jesus wants us to build exploding individuals not imploding institutions.
Because of thousands of years of man made tradition churches today bare little to no resemblance to the assembly as they were described in the New Testament. Autonomy is replaced by authority. Open relationships are replaced by leadership, preaching, and rigidly defined meetings. Yes true Christians can attend churches but looking at the church system and equating it as a whole to the people of God is an error. The collective attendees of church institutions world wide do not equate to the bride of Christ. The spirits, hearts, and fruits will tell you who God's children are not a list of "members," a church directory, or even the many titles we give ourselves.

Learn more in Part II Why use the word "Assembly" instead of "Church" II: The Body of Christ