u/TonyChanYT

Mt 16: >18 I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Strong's Greek: 1577. ἐκκλησία (ekklésia) — 114 Occurrences

BDAG:
① a regularly summoned legislative body, assembly
② a casual gathering of people, an assemblage, gathering
③ people with shared belief, community, congregation
ⓐ of OT Israelites assembly, congregation
ⓑ of Christians in a specific place or area
α. of a specific Christian group assembly, gathering ordinarily involving worship and discussion of matters of concern to the community
β. congregation or church as the totality of Christians living and meeting in a particular locality or larger geographical area, but not necessarily limited to one meeting place: Ac 5:11; 8:3; 9:31, 11:26; 12:5; 15:3; 18:22; 20:17; cp. 12:1; 1 Cor 4:17; Phil 4:15; 1 Ti 5:16
ⓒ the global community of Christians, (universal) church, Mt 16:18

In the New Testament and earliest Christian usage, ἐκκλησία referred to the assembly/community rather than a dedicated church building. The term "local church" was not in the Bible.

According to BDAG, Jesus in Mt 16:18 was talking about the universal church (③ⓒ).

There were other levels (meanings) of ekklésia-assembly-church.

Ro 16: >5 Greet also the church in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in Asia.

Greet the believers assembled in their house. Rome was a megacity in Paul's time. It had nearly a million inhabitants. There were other assemblies of believers (local churches) elsewhere in Rome.

Paul opened his letter to the Corinthians, addressing the network of assemblies (churches). 1Co 1: >1 Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, 2 To the church of God that is in Corinth,

The church of God in Corinth wasn't a single local church building. Paul was talking about the network of Christian assemblies in the city of Corinth:

>to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.

Paul connected the church of God in Corinth and every place where Christian assemblies existed. He was talking about a network of assemblies.

1Co 14: >23 If the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues,

Occasionally, the house churches gathered together publicly.

>and some who are uninstructed or some unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your minds? 24 But if an unbeliever or uninstructed person comes in while everyone is prophesying, he will be convicted and called to account by all, 25 and the secrets of his heart will be made known. So he will fall facedown and worship God, proclaiming, “God is truly among you!

Unbelievers could observe this big gathering of believers.

Paul closed his letter mentioning other churches, 1Co 16: >19 The churches of Asia send you greetings.

Asia was a Roman province. Paul mentioned the network of churches in this province.

> Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord.

Aquia and Prisca hosted a house ekklésia (assembly-church) in Ephesus, where Paul wrote his letter to the Corinthian ekklésia (assembly-church).

There were other examples of house assemblies/churches.

Acts 12: >12 When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying.

This did not explicitly say “church,” but it described Christians assembling in a private home in Jerusalem.

Col 4: >15 Greet the brothers in Laodicea, as well as Nympha and the church that meets at her house.

Philemon 1:1–2 >1 Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our beloved fellow worker, 2 to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church that meets at your house:

These passages indicate that the earliest Christians normally met in homes rather than dedicated religious buildings. Dedicated church buildings do not appear in the historical record until much later, especially after Christianity became legally tolerated in the 4th century under Constantine the Great.

There were different levels (meanings) of ekklēsia-assembly-church:

1. global universal church
2. provincial (regional) churches (Asia)
3. city-wide network of house churches
4. house church

The term “local church” did not appear in the Bible. The concept of local church in the NT involved house churches in a city. A city could have multiple house ekklēsia (assembly) churches. Occasionally, these house churches gather together publicly. There was no single church building housing the so-called "genuine local church" in a given city.

See also

• Define local churches

Pr 18: >24 A man of many companions may come to ruin,

This warns that having many superficial acquaintances or fair-weather friends does not guarantee safety or success. In fact, relying on many unreliable companions can lead to ruin socially, emotionally, or even financially because such relationships often lack depth, loyalty, and genuine commitment when trials arise.

>but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

In contrast, one single friend can demonstrate loyalty and devotion that surpasses even the natural bond of a blood brother. While family ties can be strained or broken, a true covenant friend remains present in difficulty, offering steadfast love and support.

Choose your friends carefully: quality is better than quantity.

u/lickety-split1800, u/MichaelLachanodrakon, u/aceofclubs2401

Lev 23: >15 You shall count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering. 16 You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall present a grain offering of new grain to the Lord.

LXX used H4004 πεντήκοντα (pentékonta) for 'fifty'.

Shavuot is celebrated 50 days after Passover begins.

BSB, 1Co 16: >8 But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, 9 because a great door for effective work has opened to me, even though many oppose me.

In Hebrew, the festival was (and is) called Shavuot (“Weeks”).

BBS footnote: >That is, Shavuot, the late spring feast of pilgrimage to Jerusalem; it is also known as the Feast of Harvest (see Exodus 23:16) or the Feast of Weeks (see Exodus 34:22).

Strong's Greek: 4005. πεντηκοστή (pentékosté) — 3 Occurrences

BDAG: >‘the fiftieth part’=two percent

The Greek word generally meant 2%. Jews borrowed the word to refer to the Feast of Weeks.

>in our lit. Pentecost (really ἡ π. ἡμέρα, because it means the festival celebrated on the fiftieth day after Passover.

The word appeared outside the Bible:

>Tob 2:1; 2 Macc 12:32; Philo, Decal. 160, Spec. Leg. 2, 176; Jos., Ant. 3, 252; 13, 252; 14, 337; 17, 254, Bell. 1, 253; 2, 42; 6, 299)

Did 1st-century Jews use the term 'πεντηκοστῆς'?

Yes, Philo and Josephus used the word to refer to Shavuot.

Was it only when speaking to Gentile Christians that Paul would use 'πεντηκοστῆς'?

No, Paul wasn’t translating for Gentiles in a novel way. He used the established Greek term already in use among Hellenistic Jews. 1st-century Jews, especially those in the diaspora, did use πεντηκοστή to refer to this feast.

u/ComradeYuki-Pye, u/thewordbeforeme, u/Responsible_Offer859

Mt 19: >16 Behold, a man came up to him, saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” 17 And he said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” 18 He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, 19 Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 20The young man said to him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

Why didn't Jesus tell the man plainly about saving by grace as Paul did later?

1. Jesus met the man where he was spiritually, using the law to expose his sin and self-righteousness.
2. Jesus’ teaching style often involved indirect revelation, inviting people to wrestle with their own hearts.
3. Grace was implicit in Jesus’ invitation to follow Him, though the man failed to accept it.
4. Grace is best understood when we recognize our inability to save ourselves.
5. The full revelation of grace through faith was still unfolding and would be more fully explained after Jesus’ resurrection.

Jesus didn’t explicitly mention grace in this conversation because He was addressing the man’s self-reliance and love of wealth. The encounter ultimately highlighted the impossibility of earning salvation and the necessity of divine grace. The rich young ruler needed to acknowledge his spiritual poverty before he could receive the free gift of salvation (Matthew 5:3). Jesus’ method here aligns with His broader teaching that one must "deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me" (Matthew 16:24)—a call that demands humility and dependence on God’s grace.

He wrote: >Physical/bodily means fleshly, molecular, protoplasmic, corpuscular existence. But the risen Jesus is not in this sense a physical/bodily reality.

I believe Jesus rose from the dead with a glorified body according to the new glorified physics, which is the updated version of the current physics. I assert that Jesus rose bodily and physically.

He said: > I do believe in the resurrection of Jesus.

But not physically or bodily?

>I’m just skeptical that it involved anything happening to his corpse.

I believe that Jesus' body wasn't lying in the tomb after his resurrection.

>I see the truth of Easter as grounded in the Christian experience of Jesus as a living spiritual reality of the present.

That's not a strong grounding. A stronger foundation is this: Jesus rose bodily from the dead on Resurrection Sunday.

Elsewhere, Dr Borg said >Personally, from my own religious experience, I would call myself a Christian of the first person of the Trinity. Now it doesn't mean that I dismiss the other persons of the Trinity. … I never have an experience that I would call an experience of Jesus.

I have: Jesus dwells in me continuously. This is my definition of being born again.

u/Ancient_Wonder_2781

I keep thinking I've seen this thread before somewhere :)

Oxford: >​the feeling that you have previously experienced something that is happening to you now.

The Bible never used a term equivalent to déjà vu (“already seen”), nor did it directly describe the psychological phenomenon as we experience it.

Ecclesiastes 1: >9 What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

This doesn't mean nothing new ever happens; it means human life follows repeating patterns: birth, conflict, ambition, love, death, empires rising and falling. Déjà vu often occurs when the brain recognizes a pattern so familiar that it feels as if it has been experienced before.

Wiki: >Mainstream scientific approaches reject the explanation of déjà vu as "precognition" or "prophecy".

Deja vu is not prophecy.

>People who travel often or frequently watch films are more likely to experience déjà vu than others.

To me, deja vu feelings are superstition. Practice hearing from God instead :)

Jehu killed King Joram (Ahab's son) and King Ahaziah of Judah. Then he had Queen Jezebel (Ahab's widow) thrown from a window, where she was trampled by horses and eaten by dogs. Afterward, he issued a challenge to the guardians of Ahab's 70 sons. Fearing Jehu, the leaders obeyed Jehu and killed all 70 sons, put their heads in baskets, and sent them to Jehu in Jezreel.

2Ki 10: >9 Then in the morning, when he went out, he stood and said to all the people, “You are innocent.

These leaders (L70) were innocent.

> It was I who conspired against my master and killed him,

Jehu took responsibility.

> but who struck down all these?

That's a rhetorical question. Jehu knew perfectly well that L70 executed Ahab's sons. Jehu pretended distance from the killings even though he orchestrated them. He forced them to recognize their own complicity. He was basically saying: “You know I killed the king. But these seventy princes? Other people carried that out.” This spread responsibility beyond himself. The L70 had now publicly sided with Jehu against Ahab’s dynasty. They cannot easily turn against Jehu afterward. They had blood on their hands.

This was classic ancient coup politics:

• create shared guilt,
• eliminate neutral parties,
• make defection dangerous.

>10 Know then that there shall fall to the earth nothing of the word of the Lord, which the Lord spoke concerning the house of Ahab, for the Lord has done what he said by his servant Elijah.”

Jehu let these cooperative leaders know that he carried out Elijah's prophecy. He framed the event as divine judgment. Jehu was saying: "This destruction is bigger than my personal conspiracy. The whole nation’s leadership participated because this was the LORD’s judgment on Ahab’s house.”

Actually, God did not endorse every method Jehu used. Later, in Hosea 1:4, God says: “I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel.”

u/Cautious-Ad-6277

Jesus told the Samaritan woman details about her marriages (Jn 4:17). Peter knew about Ananias and Sapphira’s deception (Ac 5:3).

1Co 12: >4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

Utterance of knowledge or word of knowledge was one of the spiritual gifts.

A “word of knowledge” was a piece of information revealed supernaturally by the Holy Spirit. The speaker could not naturally know.

Is this gift available today?

Sure. However, don't just believe in any claims of words of knowledge.

1Th 5: >19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies, 21 but test everything; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.

Test the word of knowledge. It should align with the Bible. Don't ignore words of wisdom. If you don't have the inner peace of the Indwelling Spirit about it, wait.

See also

• How to hear God?

u/AceThaGreat123, u/supremekimilsung

The term immaculate conception is not in the Scripture. I prefer to adhere to Scripture's wording when it comes to doctrines. I put little weight on it when others use it in an argument. People who like to generalize tend to overgeneralize. More precisely, I know this. I don't use the term in my argumentation. I am not encouraging or stopping anyone from believing in this doctrine. It is not my place to do so.

Is the doctrine blasphemous?

I have no authority to say one way or the other.

u/VentiArchon7: Is it OK for me to pray to Mary or believe in the Immaculate Conception?

That's up to you, but for me, I don't see any need.

See also

• Should we pray to the saints?

I keep seeing this verse on a gym shirt last week and it finally clicked why it bother me so much.
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” People put it on graduation cards, locker room walls, motivational posters. But have people actually read the two verses right before it?

Paul is in prison. He’s talking about being hungry. About being in need. About being abased. So, the “all things” he’s talking about is enduring hardship, not crushing your goals. He’s saying he can be content in any circumstance because of Christ. So when someone quotes it before a big game/ a job interview, they’re kind of saying the opposite of what Paul meant one could say.

He wasn’t promising success. He was promising peace in suffering.

Do you think this kind of misuse actually matters, or am I being too picky about it? 😬😬

Hi everyone, I am a Korean man currently living in the US where my faith has grown tremendously and I have built a deep, meaningful Christian community. I am facing mandatory South Korean military conscription soon, and the thought of going back is causing me immense dread and anxiety.

I deeply dislike the military environment, and I am terrified of hitting the brakes on my career, youth, and losing the spiritual community I have built here. And again all of my friends (including followers of Christ) and my dad and uncle all said if I can escape it, I should do it due to the inherently negative experience of Korean military.

Because I have no immediately clear legal alternative, I’ I’ve been thinking about loopholes to safely evade the service and even seriously considered illegally evading the draft and not returning to the country, even though it means criminal charges, losing my passport.

I am struggling deeply with the theology here. Is evading a mandatory civic law explicitly a sin if the system is rigid and offers no realistic alternative? Am I violating God’s desires by wanting to protect my career and my current faith environment through illegal evasion, or is it understandable to walk away from an institution I morally object to?

Like I’m just so anxious and unsure of even praying about this because i overthink a lot due to childhood trauma and have been used to not disappointing people and sometimes including God - I feel everyone judges me negatively so i try to please everyone.

I would appreciate biblical counsel on this. Thank you so much.

1Ki 19: >15 The Lord said to [Elijah], “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria.

Hazael was a Gentile. The narrative never explicitly described Elijah actually performing the anointing ceremony. In addition, unlike Cyrus, Hazael was never explicitly called “the anointed” or the noun “messiah” (māshîaḥ) in the Old Testament text.

>16 And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place.

There was no mention that Elijah physically poured oil on Jehu or Elisha. Instead: >19 So he departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen in front of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak upon him.

Elijah symbolically anointed Elisha by casting his cloak on him.

Some years later, Elisha traveled to Damascus while King Ben-Hadad was sick. Ben-Hadad sent his official Hazael with lavish gifts to ask Elisha whether he would recover. Elisha told Hazael in 2Ki 8 >12b "I know the evil that you will do to the people of Israel. You will set on fire their fortresses, and you will kill their young men with the sword and dash in pieces their little ones and rip open their pregnant women.” 13 And Hazael said, “What is your servant, who is but a dog, that he should do this great thing?” Elisha answered, “The Lord has shown me that you are to be king over Syria.”

Again, no anointing oil was mentioned. God anointed/appointed Hazael to be king over Syria and commit atrocities against the people of Israel.

Some days later, Elisha instructed a young prophet (Y1) to anoint Jehu. 2Ki 9: >4 So the young man, the servant of the prophet, went to Ramoth-gilead. 5 And when he came, behold, the commanders of the army were in council. And he said, “I have a word for you, O commander.” And Jehu said, “To which of us all?” And he said, “To you, O commander.” 6 So he arose and went into the house. And the young man poured the oil on his head, saying to him, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I anoint you king over the people of the Lord, over Israel. 7 And you shall strike down the house of Ahab your master, so that I may avenge on Jezebel the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the Lord."

Elisha didn't pour oil on Jehu; Y1 did. God used Y1 to physically anoint Jehu with oil. Jehu was an Israelite, a military commander under King Jehoram of Israel, the son of Ahab. God raised Jehu up to destroy Ahab’s dynasty because of its idolatry, especially the promotion of Baal worship under Ahab and Jezebel.

1. Neither Elijah nor Elisha physically anointed Hazael, a Gentile king.
2. Elijah didn't anoint Elisha with oil.
3. Neither Elijah nor Elisha anointed Jehu with oil. Instead, a young follower of Elisha did so in the name of the Lord.

The physical anointing rite was sometimes absent, delegated, or transformed into symbolic acts.

Let's define pastor as the job title of a person who heads a local church.

1 Corinthians 16: >19 The churches of Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Prisca, together with the church in their house, send you hearty greetings in the Lord.

Were Aquilla and Priscilla pastors?

No, because there were no pastors at that time. That responsibility belonged to the elders. Acts 20: >17 Now from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church to come to him.

The term was elders.

>28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

At that time, a local church was shepherded by a group of elders. One of the elders' jobs was to teach.

Both Aquilla and Pricilla were teachers, Acts 18: >He <Apollos> began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

Aquilla was likely an elder as well since he was a competent teacher and the church was in his home.

u/ExpressingHonestly, u/Onehundredbillionx, u/AVoiceinWilderness

Some didn't at first, Acts 9: >26 When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple.

Gradually, he gained more and more support, Acts 9: >27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus.

1. The Lord Jesus appeared to Paul.
2. Paul demonstrated his repentance by public preaching of Jesus.

Galatians 2: >9 James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.

3. The pillars of the church accepted Paul.

Acts 19: >11 God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.

4. Paul performed miracles.

Acts 19: >15 One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?”

5. Even demons recognized Paul's authority.

2 Corinthians 10: >10 For some say, “His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.”

6. Paul's writings impressed many, including Peter, 2 Peter 3: >16 He [Paul] writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

These were six reasons why Paul gained apostolic authority in the nascent church, 1 Corinthians 1: >1a Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God

Paul's authority was multifaceted. It was divinely initiated (Christ's call), personally embodied (his preaching and suffering), spiritually verified (miracles and exorcisms), communally recognized (by the apostles), and intellectually established (through his inspired writings). This combination eventually overcame initial skepticism, establishing him as the "Apostle to the Gentiles" and one of the most influential figures in human history.

u/daughter_of_God87, u/BibleIsUnique, u/NaStK14

Jeremiah prophesied in 33: >17 “For thus says the Lord: David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel,

That's messianic pointing to King Jesus.

>18 and the Levitical priests shall never lack a man in my presence

That too was messianic, pointing to the high priest Jesus (Hb 7:24).

>to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices forever.”

Jesus's death on the cross fulfilled the above once and forever (Hb 10:10).

Hb 10: >1 For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities,

The law was a shadow type pointing to the true, perfect type.

> it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? 3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Only Jesus and his cross would do. Jesus is the true, perfect type of sacrifice.

>10 By that will [of Jesus] we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Only the man Jesus could fulfill Jeremiah's prophecy.

Jeremiah called for the perfect king, high priest, and sacrifice. Jesus fulfilled them all in one person.