Question:
What was the name of the first church? Did the church of which Christ was the cornerstone in Zion have any name?
Answer:
We do not know if God gave His church any definite name. It is often called the “Congregation of the Lord” in the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 23:3. We can go back to the beginning and read, “Then began men to call themselves by the name of the Lord.” Genesis 4:26, margin. In Genesis 6:2, they are called “the sons of God,” in Exodus 19:6, “a kingdom of priests,” “a holy nation.” In the New Testament, this congregation, this nation, is called “the church in the wilderness.” Acts 7:38.
The word “church” comes from ekklēsia, meaning a company regularly called out. Sometimes it is “the church of God,” sometimes “the church of Christ,” sometimes only “the church.” In Ephesians 1:23 and elsewhere, these called-out ones are called the body of Christ; and in chapter 2:19, 20, “the household of God,” on which both prophets and apostles built, Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone. All these refer to “the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” 1 Timothy 3:15. Twice, the term “Christian” is used. Acts 11:26; 26:28. One epistle is addressed, for instance, to “the church of the Thessalonians;” another, “to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse;” another, “to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi;” another, “to the saints which are at Ephesus;” another, to “the churches of Galatia;” another, “unto the church of God which is at Corinth;” another, “to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints;” sometimes, “the church that is in their [or his] house.”
From these and other passages, it is evident that the “church” dates from the time that souls responded to God’s call to come out from the world and that God has given that church no definite specific name. The Roman Catholic Church dates from the apostasy in Rome. It began when the mystery of iniquity began to work, and men should arise in the church and draw away disciples after themselves (see 2 Thessalonians 2:7; Acts 20:29, 30). The true church of the living God centers in that body of believers, which has the twofold witness of the Scriptures, and God’s ten commandment law, performed through Christ Jesus, in her own life.
