When the Apostle Paul wrote concerning the new man in the Epistles to the Ephesians (2:15; 4:24) and to the Colossians (3:10), the recipients may not have had a full understanding or appreciation of such a word. The known world at that time was not as big as it is today. When people spoke concerning the world, they referred mainly to the world around the Mediterranean Sea under the Roman Empire. But in God’s intention, the world was not that small. The world includes the entire globe. Two thousand years ago the world was considered to be flat. At that time no one realized that the world was a sphere. However, today in a conference we may see saints who come from all the six continents. To see brothers and sisters who represent so many nations of the world stirs up my burden to minister on the one new man. This is the right time for us to see the one new man.
We all have to admit that since the time of the apostles until at least the sixteenth century the church was going downward. By the sixteenth century the church had fallen to the bottom, into the dark ages. It could not go any lower. At this time the Lord came in to start His recovery. He started the recovery from the very base of the biblical truth, justification by faith. Luther did see something concerning the church as well, but he did not have much time to care for this matter. He saw something of the church, yet he did not see enough.
A little more than two centuries later Count Zinzendorf, with so many other brothers, the so-called Moravian brothers, saw something more concerning the church. In Bohemia, on the land owned by Zinzendorf, they started to have the practice of the church. That was the first step of the Lord’s recovery of the church practice. By reading church history, you could realize that before Zinzendorf, no one was so clear concerning the church practice. Their practice was good, yet it was not complete.
One century later, in the early 1800s, the Lord went on from Bohemia to England, raising up a group of seekers, including John Nelson Darby and other brothers. They began to practice the church life. Their practice was a great improvement over that which was practiced under the leadership of Zinzendorf at Bohemia. These brothers began to see that the church is the assembly of God’s called out ones (Eph. 1:22; 1 Cor. 1:2). The church is the gathering of all the dear saints who have been called in Christ out of this world. Thus, they began to drop the English term “church,” because they realized that it had been damaged through wrong usage. At that time fallen Christianity considered the church to be a physical building, perhaps with a “high tower” and a bell. Even today, many parents say to their children on Sunday morning, “Let us go to church,” referring to the wood, the stone, the brick, and the glass. How pitiful that was, and how pitiful it still is today. The Brethren dropped this wrong concept, and they even dropped the term church. They began to use the word “assembly.” After this the Assembly of God followed them to use the word assembly.
I agree with the word assembly. The word assembly is better than the word church. The Greek word for church is ekklesia. The ekklesia is a gathering of the called ones. The root and basic element of the word ekklesia is the word for calling. Ek means out, and kaleo means call. The church is the called out ones coming together, being gathered or assembled together. The Brethren saw this and they made this very clear in their teachings. Even today you can see this in their books. How we thank God for this. The Brethren did have a good start in dropping the wrong usage and wrong concept of the term church and in using the right word for the church, that is, the assembly. Although the English word assembly does not convey the thought of being called out, in the Greek, as I mentioned already, the basic thought is the gathering of the called out ones.
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