The Church - Origin

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By Dr. J. Rodman Williams
Theologian

I. The Origin of the Church

The origin of the church rests entirely in God: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The New Testament refers to the church as "the church of the living God" (1 Timothy 3:15). Jesus Christ speaks of the church as "my church" (Matthew 16:18). Throughout the book of Acts it is the Holy Spirit who inspires the church and fills it with power and wisdom. Truly in the words of our familiar hymn, "She on earth hath union with God, the Three in One." The church is the church of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

This fact is important to stress because of a prevalent view that the church is essentially a human institution, one of the many forms of human association. Of course, the church is made up of people, but according to the Scriptures, for all its human composition, the origin does not rest in man but in God and His purposes.

In a certain sense the church began in Old Testament days. To be sure, the word church does not occur until the New Testament; however, the New Testament in looking back does speak, in one instance, of "the congregation in the wilderness" (Acts 7:38—in the King James Version the translation is "the church in the wilderness"). The word church is the translation of the Greek ecclesia, which means basically an "assembly of people" or a "congregation." Thus it can refer in the Old Testament to the people of Israel, those chosen by God to carry forward His purposes and promises in the world.

The Old Testament concept is that the whole nation of Israel was actively devoted to the worship of God, that they as a people were a divine congregation to meet in assembly to hear the divine commands, to proclaim to the world His eternal promises. This was "the church in the wilderness"—and in some sense the church later on as a nation. They were the Israel of God.

Hence, even in the Old Testament the ecclesia originated in God; the Israelites were a chosen people. Moses speaks in Deuteronomy: "You are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, out of all the peoples on the face of the earth" (7:6). Chosen of God, the ecclesia belonged to Him, and as His possession they were to keep His covenant and be a blessing to all mankind.

Unfortunately Israel as a nation failed to keep God’s commandments, to maintain His pure worship, to love Him and their neighbor. They were finally given up by God to punishment and captivity. Only a remnant of Israel returned, but few remained faithful—until Jesus Christ came to create a new ecclesia, a new assembly, a new fellowship, not circumscribed by race, as with the Jews, but containing all people who truly believe in Him. There is continuity with the ecclesia of the Old Testament, since Jesus of the flesh was an Israelite, but the new church rapidly broadens out to include all people.

Hence we may say that the church did not come truly into existence until the New Testament; therefore the English word church does not properly occur anywhere in the Old Testament. Even as Israel of the Old Testament was God’s chosen people, so the church of the New Testament is His choice through Jesus Christ.

Let us now note the first occurrence of the word church in the New Testament, Matthew 16:18—"And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it."

Note the personal nature of this statement. Not "the church will be built," but "I will build my church." The church will belong to Christ, and He will be the builder.

Moving on with the New Testament, only one other specific reference to the church is made in the Gospels (see Matthew 18:17). Christ does not refer to it again by name. So do we come to the book of Acts wherein the first mention is in 5:11—"And great fear came upon the whole church, and upon all who heard these things."

These words confirm that the church is now a reality. Referring back three chapters to Acts 2, we find the story of its coming into existence, even as Jesus had foretold.

It happened on the Day of Pentecost, the day on which the Spirit of God came as a mighty wind and as tongues of fire, the day on which fearful, weak disciples found themselves with new power and wisdom, the day on which about three thousand others were baptized and received the gift of the Spirit. It was the birthday of the church—"my church"—before prepared by God the Father, founded by God the Son, and empowered by God the Holy Spirit.

The church then, in origin, is entirely of God. Man neither planned it, nor founded it, nor built it, however much man may and must be a part of it. The church is the church of the living God, the church of Jesus Christ, the church of the Holy Spirit.

C. S. Lewis in his classic Screwtape Letters, purportedly written by an important official in Satan’s "lowerarchy" to Wormwood, a junior devil on earth, gives advice on how to destroy a young Christian’s faith. In one letter Screwtape says:

One of our greatest allies at present is the church itself. Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean the church as we see her spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners. That, I confess, is a spectacle which makes our

boldest tempters uneasy. But fortunately it is quite invisible to these humans.

How often true. Even members of the church sometimes do not see that the church is more than a human society made up of more or less good people doing this and that. The church, and only the church, is "spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners."

So lift up your eyes afresh, fellow Christians, and rejoice your hearts, for we are members of the only divine institution on the face of God’s earth—one that, coming from God, is destined to outlive the universe.