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The Church: A Critique of the Universal Church Theory
By Roger W. Maslin

PART II
CHAPTER II
OUTSTANDING MISUNDERSTOOD TEXTS

      Matthew 16:18 "I will build my church." - The most outstanding misunderstood text is Matthew 16:18 where Jesus promised, "I will build my church." By these words Jesus was indicating that His institution was distinct from the old congregation in Israel, the Greek ekklesia or ant institution then in existence. Essentially, he was describing an institution that was and would continue to be his own peculiar possession.

     There is no basis for the widely spread idea that Jesus purposed here to build a universal, invis­ible church. Neither is it "a noble instance of verbal transfiguration" as Dr. Boardman supposes.1 Rather it is an appropriation of a familiar Greek word, giv­ing it a Christian significance.

     Christ found the word with its meaning already fixed. The meaning was suited to his purpose, and he therefore took it and appropriated it to
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1 Cf. p. 12.
[p. 60]
his institution. By the appropriation it did not lose its original signification: its meaning was not changed. It was because it had that very meaning that Christ selected it and applied it to his organization.1
     The usage then, in this passage, is the generic use. Christ simply used the word ekklesia as the name of his institution just as the home or school are institutions, and he distinguished it by the personal pronoun "my."

     The only other place He used thv word in the Gospels indicates the same idea. In Matthew 18:17 the problem of the persistent offender is to be brought before the church. Probably no particular congregation is in mind but even in using ekklesia generically he confines its meaning to the local assembly.

     Jesus's references to the ekklesia in the Gospel of Matthew refers, then, to the divine institu­tion which he organized.

     This, as Marsh points out, can be regarded only as local:

     And unless we apply the words 'divine institut­ion' to something visible and directly attributable
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1 Theodosia Ernst (Philadelphia: American Bapt­ist Publication Society, n.d.) II, p. 91. This is a novel anonymously written to present great church truths.
[p. 61]
to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the will always be ambiguous and misleading.1
     Galatians l:13 "I persecuted the church of God." — Galatians 1:132 is another verse cited to support the idea that ekklesia referred to the Christian community at large. Careful examination, however, reveals otherwise.

     Dr. Hort classifies this as "the original Ekklesia of Jerusalem or Judea, at the time when there was no other."3

     Acts 8:1-3, 9:13 and other scriptures confine this persecution to the church at Jersualem, and these were the saints that he pursued to strange cities.4 This persecution "appears to have been limited to the constituency of a single church."5

     All of this is borne out by Dr. Thomas when he says that "It is a curious fact that there is no
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1 A. H. Marsh, The New Testament Church (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1898), p. 118.
2 Parallel references: 1 Corinthians 15:9, Philippians 3:6. These passages have the definite article.
3 Hort, op. cit., p. 116.
4 Acts 26:11.
5 Thomas, op. cit., p. 232.

[p. 62]
proof that Paul's 'persecution' ever went beyond the church at Jersualem."1

     This verse and its parallel references can be dismissed as references to a single local church.

     1 Timothy 3:15 "The church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." - Here is another verse that is supposed by some to teach an invisible universal church. This passage speaks of a visible assembly, with rules for behaviour while it is in ses­sion — such is impossible to fit the universal church theory. This is a local church which is a pillar and ground of the truth.

     It is singular that any reader of this epistle should interpret this personal counsel to a local pastor, as to the proper behaviour of a pastor or his people in relation to the body to which they both belong, as in any way referring to the world church.2
     To this Dr. Hort agrees when he admits that the Apostle's idea is "that each living society of Christian men is a pillar and stay of 'the truth' as an object of belief and guide of life for mankind.3
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1 Ibid., p 231.
2 Thomas, op cit., p. 232.
2 Hort, op. cit., p. 174.
[p. 63]
He asserts that this designation is here given to "a local Christian community."1

     Both "house" and "church" are used here with­out the articles; "it should read, properly, a house of God, which is a church of a living God, a pillar and stay of the truth."2

     This more literial reading makes the ekklesia indefinite and applicable to every assembly which is a depository of the truth. The precise classification of ekklesia in this connection is a generic use.

     Hebrews 12:23, "The general assembly and church of the firstborn." — Whatever ekklesia refers to in this verse, it is obvious that it does not refer to a universal, invisible church. Because of the ambiguous nature of this verse it is extremely difficult to ascertain with any degree of certainity just what its use is here.

     Dr Thomas classifies this as a reference to the heavenly church as distinct from the earthly church, and irrevelant to any inquiry into the nature.
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1 Ibid.
2 Thomas, op. cit., p. 232.

[p. 64]
of the present institution. He reasons that "the acconpanying mention of the 'heavenly Jersualem', aa well as the words cited, shows that the actual Christian church is not here alluded to."1

     Dr. Carroll classified this use as a reference to the general assembly of Christ which is not in existence now. It is a reference to a prospective heaven­ly church.2 Many of the later writers have followed cr. Carroll in this interpretation,

     Many of the later writers have followed Dr. Carroll in this interpretation.

     Dr. McDaniel makes a similar designation when he classifies this verse as a reference to "the redeemed of all time."3 He does not mean by this, however, what the universal church theory contends, but qualifies his statement by saying: "It is future, as distinguished from the present church, and institu­tion focalizing and functioning in particular congreg­ations.4
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1 Thomas, op. cit., p. 223.
2 Cf. Carroll, op. cit., p. 42.
3 McDaniel, op. cit., p. 28.
4 Ibid., p. 29.

[p. 65]
     An examination of the passage itself reveals a distinction between the panegyris, which properly denoted the festive gathering of all the Greek city states, and the ekklesia, which denoted and organized business body.

     Obviously, this distinction can have only one meaning as applied to the Christian community but consideration must be made of the divergent viewpoints, namely, that it is a reference to a prospective heavenly church, a reference to the church institution, or only a classical use of the word.

     Dr. Dana favours this latter view and bases his conviction on the Hellenistic background of the author, together with the descritpion of the events immediately connected.

     He objects to the glory church view on the basis of the perfect tense phrases, "Ye have not come" (verse 18) and "Ye have come" (verse 22).

     Dr Dana observes:

     According to the force of the Greek perfect tense we know that he means a present reality with its beginning in the past. . . . It is rather awkard to think of the church as a present reality in heaven.1
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1 Dana, op. cit., p. 65.
[p. 66]
     Dr. Dana concludes that "the meaning of ekklesia here is its common classical sense of assembly.1

     Its immediate association with the first-born, however, militates against this interpretation. It is wholly unlikely that a classical assembly of men would be characterized as first-born, and angels never come under that classification.

     Furthermore, the record does not state that the church is already in heaven, but says only that it is enrolled in heaven.

     "First-born" is a name that applies to any saved person. The first-born child of a family among the Israelites had certain priviledges because he was the first-born, that the children born after him did not have. All saved persons have certain privileges because they have been born again. Whether first in time or last, they still have such privileges as being joint-heirs with Christ, and priest to God. Since the first membership requirement of any New Testament church is to be saved, it is perfectly legitimate to ascribe this title to the church, because those who compose the church are first-born ones.
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1 Ibid., p. 66.

[p. 67]
     So it is more likely that the reference here is to the church as an institution. This is logically deduced from the fact that the writer is addressing these words to "the several Hebrew Christians congregat­ions."1

     The "general assembly" may be referring to the myriads of angels immediately connected in the proceeding verse.

     Kendrick feels that the best construction of these difficult and disputed words is: "And to myraid ones, a festal host of angels, and a congregation of firstborn ones, who are registered in heaven."2 He claims that the reason he follows Delitzsch in constructing this passage is that this construction avoids many difficulties "and brings together the angels and the church into a union entirely corresponding to that in which they appear throughout the New Testament."3
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1 Armitage, op. cit., p. 119, 120.
2 A. C. Kendrick, Commentary on the Epistle to The Hebrews (An American Commentary on the New Testament. ed. Alvah Hovey; Philadelphia: America Baptist Publication Society, 1889) VI, p. 176.
3 Ibid.

[p. 68]
     Granting that the festal gathering is a description of the myraids of angels, it is logical to understand the author as meaning that any assembly of redeemed people has direct access to the very glorious presence of God and the angels surround the church in its every activity.

     This same truth is expressed elsewhere in the Scriptures. I Corinthians 11:10 indicates the presence of angels in the assembly and enjoins that a woman appear with a covering on her head in reverence of them.

     At least a hint of this same truth is express­ed in Ephesians 3:10 as the principalities and powers witness the expression of the manifold wisdom of God through the church.

     Even though the epistle to the Hebrews is not addressed to any particular church, and the author's message is not concerning church truths, an illusion to the New Testament institution cannot be forbidden. Though not specifically applied in this connection to the New Testament institution, it's characteristic constituency of first-born ones must ultimately refer to this divine institution.

[p. 69]
     The passages which have just been discussed are not the only ones used as proof texts for the universal church theory, but they are the ones which are most frequently misinterpreted, with the exception of the references to the church in Ephesians and Colossians which are discussed in the following chapter.

     The selection and discussion of these texts has been for illustrative purposes. When the remaining proof texts are examined carefully, they also bear out the local use or one of its logical derivatives.

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