En Tois Epouranios #15

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By Michael S. Mecikalski 

"In The Heaven Far Above All Heavens" #15

Certainly we should be thankful, praising The Father with every fiber of our beings thru The Holy Spirit and thru His Son and Our Head, Christ Jesus the Lord. For we have been given the priceless "gift" of Rightly Dividing The Word of Truth (II Tim.2:15); one portion of the awesome wisdom & love of God; no confusion. Love The Father for this; He deserves it! Rev.21:2 states, "And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."

Eph. 1:17-23 speaks of Christ being "head over all things to the church"(v.22), and that this church is "His Body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all"(v.23). This church is the fullness of Him that is set "at His (The Father's) own right hand In Heavens The Heaven Far Above All far above all principality & power! (vs. 20,21).

Is the "church" of Rev. 21 the same as the "church" of Eph.1? Who wrote Rev.? When was the book of Rev. written? Who wrote Eph.? When was the book of Eph. written? Is the church of Eph.1 the bride? yes/no? Why or why not? Does it matter? (answer = it does matter to The One who owns the spiritually discerned, precious Word OF God).

When we think of a "church," what thought comes to mind? What is a church? The Greek word for church used throughout the N.T. is "ekklesia;" take notice of its meaning:

(i). A called out company of people; an assembly of people convened for the purpose of council & deliberation(Acts );

(ii). An assembly gathered for sacred purposes (Acts , Heb. );

(iii). An assembly of believers gathered for worship (I Cor.14:19,35; Phil.4:15);

(iv). A whole collective body assembled for the purpose of worshipping & honoring God (Eph. ). The Hebrew equivalent of "ekklesia" used by the Holy Spirit in the O.T. is "kahal,"

which means:

(i). Israel as a called-out people from the rest of the nations (Gen.28:3);

(ii). Those called out from each tribe of Israel to participate in the tribal council of Simeon and Levi (Gen.49:6);

(iii). An assembly of Israelites called out for worship (Deut. & 31:30).

Scripturally then, the word "church" is primarily associated with Truth, God's purposes and the people who believed & were "called-out" serving The One True God; a man-made building or a man-made title was never in view. Important is this fact, allow it to sink in! The world we live in promotes many untruths. It chooses to be confused about many things; this of course is part of our battle. We do not go to church, we are the church which is Christ's body!!!