CONTENTS

ECCLESIOLOGY

or my thinking about the church

There are two kinds of church, the spiritual entity and a physical and human institution. (Perhaps this is better understood as a group of physical and very human institutions.) The Greek word, ecclesia, means those who are called into an assembly. Every human, past, present and future, is called. However, not all have responded and those who have not made such a response are not members of the spiritual church, regardless of their standing in any physical-human institution.

Those physical-human institutions called churches are called to represent Christ, and therefor The Godhead to the world. But, these institutions are made up of human beings, and many of these humans are not members of the eternal spiritual entity. The ability of physical churches to represent both Christ and The Godhead is far from perfect. A political leader or business head is not always properly represented by those who work for him or her. In the same manner, our free will means that neither Christ, nor The Godhead are truly depicted by those claiming to be their representatives. Much done in the so-called "name of god," has instead defamed both Christ and The Godhead. This reality can be explained, in part, by the fact that as much as the physical-human institution called the church tries, it cannot insure that every member is also a member of the spiritual entity on which the institution is supposed to be based. In fact, it appears to me that those churches which try hardest to limit their membership to those who are also members of the spiritual church are the least successful in this endeavor. Because of this, we should learn to be extremely suspicious of any institution claiming to exclusively represent the Godhead, or to be the (or one of the few) true church(es).
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