Ecclesia (Church)

The Christian Church is a term generally used to refer to the whole group of people belonging to the Christian religious tradition throughout history. In this understanding, the "Christian Church" does not refer to a particular Christian denomination but to the body of all believers. Some Christians believe that the term "Christian Church" or "Church" applies only to a specific historic Christian body or institution (e.g., the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, the Non-Chalcedonian Churches of Oriental Orthodoxy, or the Assyrian Church of the East). The Four Marks of the Church first expressed in the Nicene Creed are unity, holiness, catholicity, and apostolicity.

Thus, the majority of Christians globally (particularly of the apostolic churches listed above, as well as some Anglo-Catholics) consider the Christian Church as both a visible and invisible communion, while Protestants generally understand the Church to be an invisible reality not identifiable with any earthly institution, denomination, or network of affiliated churches. Others equate the Church with particular groups that share certain essential elements of doctrine and practice, though divided on other points of doctrine and government (such as the branch theory as taught by some Anglicans).

Most English translations of the New Testament generally use the word "church" as a translation of the Ancient Greek term "ἐκκλησία" (transliterated as "ecclesia") found in the original Greek texts, which generally meant an "assembly". This term appears in two verses of the Gospel of Matthew, 24 verses of the Acts of the Apostles, 58 verses of the Pauline Epistles (including the earliest instances of its use in relation to a Christian body), two verses of the Letter to the Hebrews, one verse of the Epistle of James, three verses of the Third Epistle of John, and 19 verses of the Book of Revelation. In total, ἐκκλησία appears in the New Testament text 114 times, although not every instance is a technical reference to the church.

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