EARLY IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE, THE CONVERT IS TOLD SOMETHING ABOUT “The Church”. The word ekklesia may be used, and it may be correctly spoken of as that which is called out. So far, so good, but then the problem begins. Called out of what? The usual explanation given is called out of the world. Fair enough, but what is the meaning of the world? The chapter entitled, Which World Did God “So Love”? was written to show that there are different “worlds” in Scripture, not just the one world supposedly consisting of everyone of every race who is not converted.
Then we looked at “adoption” to show who was adopted from where, concluding that the Sons of God were placed as sons (not adopted) out of the genetic seed of Abraham, through Isaac. We also looked at “strangers”, considering whether or not genetic stock other than Abraham’s seed could join themselves to Israel, and become as Israel by keeping the Law, Circumcision and the Passover. We found that there were different words for “strangers” and showed that this proposition was basically invalid. Consideration of the matter of “seeds” showed that there is no such thing as a spiritual seed, as is commonly presented, and that the genetic seed of Abraham cannot be spiritualised away. We will now see that “the Church” is called out from amongst Israel. In this chapter, “The Church” is placed in quotation marks, because it is commonly used in a way that is un-Biblical. The Greek word translated “church” means a called – out assembly. It is sometimes translated as assembly.
Thayer A gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place, as assembly.