Brief Explanation of the Old and New Testament Church

I know that for some of you this might fly in the face of what has been popularly taught today, because there are many that would say that the church is only during the NT, and I actually believed that for many years. To be honest with you, when I first went to college, we used to argue whether the church started at Pentecost or with Jesus' ministry. I came to find out that neither answers were right. My study of the Bible, moreover, has led me to believe that the church comprises of all believers throughout history (during Old and New Testaments). Although this might seem novel to some, this position has actually been held predominately throughout the history of the church. Let me give you some Scripture for why I believe this:
- (Ephesians 5:25) “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…”
- (Matthew 16:18) “…I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”
- (Acts 2:47) “And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”
These passages assert, of course, that God has one, singular people in the New Testament. I only wished that Christ had died for those in the Old Testament, too. Well, I believe he did, because the pattern of God calling out a people to worship him is not confined only to the NT. In fact, there are several OT examples where it is clear that God thought of his people as a church, or “a called out assembly,” as the word “ekklesia” denotes.
- (Deuteronomy 4:10)(God said to Moses): “Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.”
The word “assemble” here is the Hebrew word from which we get our Greek word for church in the NT. Therefore, it is not unimaginable that some of the NT writers would refer to the OT people of Israel as a “church.”
- (Acts 7:38) Speaking of the Israelites, Stephen calls them “the assembly (or church) in the desert.”
- (Hebrews 2:12)(Quoting Christ from Psalm 22:22) “He (being Jesus) says, ‘I will declare your name to my brothers; in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises.”
He is saying that he will declare the name of believers to the church gathered in heaven.
- (Hebrews 12:1) "This “great cloud of witnesses” which stretches back into the earliest eras of the OT according to the preceding context, has to include those who are the church in heaven in 2:12.
- (Hebrews 12:23) Speaking about NT believers who worship, the writer says, that they come into the presence of those in heaven: “to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.”
This truth should not surprise us when you consider that in the New Covenant Jewish and Gentile believers have been made “one” (Ephesians 2:14), they are “one new man” (v. 15) and “fellow citizens” (v. 19), and “members of the household of God” (v. 19).