The Greek word “ekklesia” means "the ones called out" (the "Elect"); it does NOT mean “church”
John 15:17-21
15:17
These things I command you, that ye love one another.
15:18
If the world hate you, ye know that it HATED me before [it hated] you.
15:19
If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world HATETH you.
15:20
Remember the Truth that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they WILL also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
15:21
But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not Him that sent me.
Let us make it clear from the very beginning that the established religious system, which manifests itself in the abomination called "church", is
NOT of God. We intend to make it very clear, by studying the Greek words found in the New Testament, that the pattern which God intends His people to follow and live by is the
ECCLESIA system, and is
RADICALLY different than that which calls itself "church" in our day. As you read this short study the truth will dawn on you that Christians today have been fed a
LIE, and that they have been enslaved by the religious systems of men. If you truly love Jesus and desire to follow Him in total obedience then you must seriously consider the facts that follow. We encourage each and every person who names the name of Christ to
PRAY, FAST AND SEEK GOD concerning the important differences between how the first Christians lived and how Christians live today.
THE CORRECT MEANING OF "CHURCH"
(The following information is from ACMTC Library and BenWilliamsLibrary.com)
Let's start by defining the word. "Church" comes from the Old English and German word pronounced "kirche." In Scotland, it was "kirk."
The following entries are from the Oxford Universal English Dictionary:
Church [Old English
cirice, circe; Middle English
chereche, chiriche, chirche; whence
churche, cherche, etc.: -Greek
Kuriakon...]
Kirk The Northern English and Scottish form of CHURCH, in all its senses.
In the earlier Greek It was pronounced
"ku-ri-a-kos" or
"ku-ri-a-kon." As you can see, this word doesn't even resemble the Greek word
"ecclesia" whose place it has usurped. The meaning of
"Ku-ri-a-kos" is understood by its root:
"Ku- ri-os," which means
"lord." Thus,
"kuriakos" (i.e.,
"church") means
"pertaining to the lord." It refers to something that pertains to, or belongs to, a lord. The Greek
"kuriakos" eventually came to be used in Old English form as
"cirice" (Kee-ree-ke), then
"churche" (kerke), and eventually
"church" in its traditional pronunciation. A church, then, is correctly something that
"pertains to, or belongs to, a lord."
Now, as you can see, there is a major problem here. The translators broke the rules in a big way. When they inserted the word
"church" in the English versions, they were not translating the Greek word
"kuriakos", as one might expect. Rather, they were substituting an entirely different Greek word. This was not honest! The word
"church" would have been an acceptable translation for the Greek word
"kuriakos." However, not by the wildest imagination of the most liberal translator can it ever be an acceptable translation for the Greek word
"ecclesia." Are you following this? Consider it carefully. This truth will answer many questions you've had about churches, and the kingdom.
"Ecclesia" is an entirely different word with an entirely different meaning than
"kuriakos." In fact, the Greek word
"kuriakos" appears in the New Testament only twice. It is found once in I Corinthians 11:20 where it refers to
"the Lord's supper," and once again in Revelation 1:10 where it refers to
"the Lord's day." In both of those cases, it is translated
"the Lord's..." - not
"church." This word does not appear again in the New Testament. Nonetheless, this is the unlikely and strange history of the word
"church" as it came to the English language. Eventually, through the manipulation of organized religion
"church" came to replace
"ecclesia" by popular acceptance. Again, we must emphasize the importance of knowing word meanings in order to know the intent of those who wrote the Scriptures.
THE CORRECT MEANING OF "ECCLESIA"
Now, let's look at the word,
"ecclesia". This Greek word appears in the New Testament approximately 115 times. That's just in this one grammatical form. It appears also in other forms. And in every instance, except three, it is wrongly translated as
"church" in the King James Version. Those three exceptions are found in Acts 19:32, 39, 41. In these instances the translators rendered it
"assembly" instead of
"church." But, the Greek word is exactly the same as the other 112 entries where it was changed to
"church" wrongly.
In Acts 19,
"ecclesia" is a town council: a civil body in Ephesus. Thus, the translators were forced to abandon their fake translation in these three instances. Nonetheless, 112 times they changed it to
"church." This fact has been covered-up under centuries of misuse and ignorance. The Greek word "ecclesia" is correctly defined as: "The called-out (ones)" [ECC = out; KALEO = call]. Thus, you can see how this word was used to indicate a civil body of select (called, elected) people.
Source:
http://www.aggressivechristianity.net/articles/ecclesia.htm
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Church includes anything and anybody from a building to the Vatican, from a minister to a pope, a pastor to a priest, an evangelical to a scientologist.
Church is derived from kurios, which means Lord, and led to k-ir-k and to ch-ur-ch. However, church cannot be derived from Ekklesia.
Ekklesia comes from ek and kaleo. Kaleo means to “call out” and ek means “out” in the sense of “away” and “from”.
I, therefore, argue that “church” is a bad translation of “ekklesia” and that, as a result of this erroneous translation, the whole concept of “church” is not a New Testament concept so that whatever we understand by “church” today has no Scriptural warrant whatsoever.
Source:
https://forum.evangelicaluniversalist.com/t/ecclesia-should-never-have-been-translated-as-church/2995
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On the mountain, Jesus "called to Him those He Himself wanted" (
Mark 3:13).
Presumably there were more people following Jesus than the five handpicked men Mark mentions. Out of that group, He called Peter, Andrew, James, John, Matthew, and others. He called them not to a study of the law, of science, or of a trade; rather, He called them to Himself. Jesus called the ones He wanted, and His call was a sovereign one, because everyone He called to that office came to that office, and they came willingly to join that band of men who were to be a part of whom He was.
In a sense, this is a microcosmic look at what Jesus does for the whole kingdom of God—He calls those whom He wants. The Greek word that is translated as "church" in the Bible is
ekklesia. This word is made up of a prefix and a root. The prefix is
ek or
ex, which means
"out of " or "from." The root word is a form of the verb kaleo, which means
"to call." Thus
, ekklesia means "those who are the called-out ones."
Source:
https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/ekklesia-called-out-ones
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See also:
https://randyhartwig.com/church-why-i-dont-use-that-word-anymore/
https://called-out.com/2015/07/09/ekklesia-is-not-church/
So the
King of kings’ Bible has it right, and the translations that
wrongly translate “ekklesia” as “church” – to keep their
evil places of idol worship in business – have it
WRONG.