10: God’s Strategy For Civil Conquest 1 of 7 - EKKLESIA (a)

As we looked at previously in Jesus’s Great Commission, we saw how it was Jesus’s Civil Mandate - to go disciple and teach all nations (Matt. 28:18-20). We have already looked in detail at what that exactly and practically meant - to have godly civil servants who submit to Jesus as King and to God’s Law.Now, did God ever give a command in the Bible and not instruct us how to do it? NO, never! I know at least 7 strategic instructions that God gives us from the Old and New Testament how Christians can successfully conquer a city and nation for the Kingdom of God - for King Jesus ruling with God’s Law.Since ALL 7 strategies come from God in His Word, I would say Christians are guaranteed success - IF they obey God’s 7 strategies. Moreover, history has also proven this to always be true.EkklesiaWhat is “ekklesia?” Ekklesia is the Greek word for “church.” But when Jesus said, “I will build My church” in Matthew 16:18, it was NOT what we think of as “church” today! It was not understood to be a building or where you go to just hear a sermon, music, or maybe some other nice Christian activity.The word “ekklesia” originated in Athens, Greece, around 594 BC. The word was literally “called-out.” The word was used to “call out” citizens for a political assembly in the city to make decisions for city affairs and laws. The church (ekklesia) met regularly to strategize, elect magistrates, and address civil law.The term was later adopted in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint) for the political assembly of Israel, and subsequently by New Testament writers representing the Believer’s assembly. Church (ekklesia) was NOT a religious term! It was the common secular word used in Israel for any church (ekklesia) of disciples schooled by any rabbi for his specific religious / political philosophy and agenda.Jesus’s disciples understood their church (ekklesia) to be for the same purpose. For that reason, they continued asking Jesus after His resurrection right up to His ascension when was He was going to overthrow Rome (Acts 1:6):“So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking Him, ‘Lord, has the time come for You to free Israel and restore our kingdom?’”Jesus confirmed that time for Israel would come (Acts 1:7)! But for now they were to go witness to the rest of the world (Acts 1:8)! But for three years Jesus was preaching about the Kingdom of God and commanded to “seek first the Kingdom of God” (Matt. 6:33). And Jesus kept talking about the Kingdom of God to the very end (Acts 1:3). Then after Pentecost the apostles established these ekklesias assemblies (churches) all over the world. The apostle Paul also kept declaring about the “Kingdom of God” in every city and nation he went to (Acts 17:2-7; 19:8; 20:25; 28:30-31; Col. 4:11; 2Thess. 1:5).In the New Testament and for over 300 years these small ekklesia groups (churches) regularly met in homes. In fact, today’s traditional “church” format is nowhere to be found in the New Testament. Today’s traditional “church” format did not start until the 4th century when Constantine the Great kicked the Roman pagans out of their big heathen temples and had the Christians start meeting in these pagan temples, and then even started building more and bigger “churches.” Christians then started following the big pagan “church” format when large crowds would come and just listen to a speaker on an elevated stage every Sunday. The new big “church” format replaced the smaller house churches where they would all bring food, share a meal together, and all would participate (Acts 2:42 NLB):“They all continually devoting themselves in the apostles teachings, fellowship, breaking bread, and prayer.” Everyone contributed (1 Cor. 14: 31):“In this way, all who prophesy will have a turn to speak, one after the other, so that everyone will learn and be encouraged.” Practically speaking, large “church” meetings in the big pagan temples now made it virtually impossible to function as the New Testament house ekklesias (church).* Ekklesia met in homes regularly sharing supper together. That’s implicit in the Lord’s Supper (Acts 2:42, 46; 20:7-11; 1Cor. 11:33; 2Peter 2:13; Jude 1:12; Rev. 3:20).* Ekklesia met in homes where everyone could participate (Rom. 15:14; 1Cor. 11: 4-7; 14:26-31; Col. 3:16; Heb. 10:24-25).But ekklesia also had a civil mandate to seek first in advancing a kingdom in the world, the Kingdom of God - for people individually it was to embrace Jesus as their “Savior” and for the nation it was to embrace Jesus as their “King!”The ekklesia (assembly) was so much understood as being politically active that King James I of England authorized a new English translation of the Bible, published in 1611, to image ekklesia away from political activism. King James’s new English translation did this in two ways:* To have people stop reading John Calvin’s Geneva Bible which had footnotes exposing civil authority implications and undermining the king’s monarchy.* Also, King James demanded that his bishops NOT translate “ekklesia” as “assembly,” which best defined the Greek word that revealed political gatherings. Rather the king demanded it to be translated as “church,” reflecting it as an institution and away from its political function for his own political protection.This is not to suggest that the church’s only mandate was to Christianize civil governments any more than to Christianize families or individuals. However, the State and the Family are the ONLY two other institutions God has ordained and for which ekklesia (church) is to Christianize.When the King James translation became “standardized in 1769,” within a generation the “church” began to ignore and finally today has forgotten altogether its biblical civil mandate. But in the book of Acts God makes it unavoidable clear that the word “ekklesia” was used for political civil gatherings. However, for the political civil gathering they did not there translate “ekklesia” as “church” but rather “assembly!”Three times the word “ekklesia” is used for the political civil gathering: Acts 19:32, 39, 41. Some translations avoid even translating the word “ekklesia” (assembly) in some of the verses, leaving it out altogether! But “ekklesia” is in all three verses in Greek texts. So today with Christians no longer ruling with God’s Law over Christians and non-Christians, non-Christians are now ruling over Christians and non-Christians with man’s law. Satan has hijacked God’s ordained civil institution.Bill Federer, renowned Christian historian, in his book, Who Is The King In America, also confirms and describes the original meaning and intent of the word church as “the governing body citizens in Athens was called ‘ekklesia.’”R.J. Rushdoony, Christian scholar and historian of the last century, wrote:“The early church often used the term ‘synagogue’ into the second century because they were governed by Old Testament law.” The word ‘church,’ as it is commonly understood today, does not convey the full meaning of the original use of the word. The church was more of a political term. We even see in 1 Corinthians 6:1-6 that the Apostle Paul instructed the church to settle all of their internal disputes by using their own courts.“Historically, the church was the name for the city council, the governing body of an area. In fact, during the fourth century, the church courts for the first time became just and expedient because Roman Emperor Constantine the Great had church bishop/elders wear black robes in public so that all Roman citizens would recognize them as the new Roman civil judges. This is where the tradition of ministers wearing black robes originated from.“It is no wonder that the early church was viewed with suspicion by the Roman Empire. The church was an imperium in imperio, an empire within the Roman Empire.”Is the above not what the Apostle Peter also said in reference to Christians (1 Peter 2:9):“For you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation!”The people of God clearly were, and should be today, a nation within a nation - a Christian shadow government working to have the whole nation be ruled under God’s Civil Law.Rushdoony also wrote:“The church claimed to have its own emissaries, ambassadors (2 Cor. 5:20) representing their King of kings, and its own ekklesias, governing bodies. In fact, the original word for “parish” is “paroikia,” which means “embassy.” All of the above terms are related to political governance.“An ambassador has extraterritorial sovereign rights and powers, as an embassy does. And this is why the ekklesia, from the beginning, refused to submit to Roman licensure, or taxation, or regulation. If the church, the ekklesia of Christ, turns from God’s Law, it turns from God’s Kingdom to the kingdom of man. This is a form of apostasy and treason to God and His Law.“The one whose law we submit to as our social bond is our Lord and Savior. Is it the state or is it God? The church, as God’s governing council, must be governed by God’s Law, according to 1 Corinthians 6. Its members must obey and apply God’s Law. To seek justice in man’s law is to deny that God is the only source of law and justice. For the Corinthian Christians, the choice should have been obvious: it was to be either God’s Law or Greco-Roman law.”For Believers, the Apostle Paul was clear (1 Cor. 6:1):“How dare you go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints?”However, this does not mean that if we are apprehended or under secular authority in some way we should not appeal to whatever law we can for our benefit. Paul appealed to Caesar but only because he had been apprehended by Caesar’s authorities (Acts 25:8–11).In early America, judges and juries used the Bible as their law. Remnants of Biblical law still exists in our society today, though it has been under attack and rapidly being replaced by anti-Christ law and judges.This is ONLY because Christians have lost Jesus’s “ekklesia” vision for His “assembly” to be politically active… not to just disciple Christians, but to also “go and make disciples of the nations” – praying and working to get God’s people with God’s Law ruling over our nation!Ekklesia (b) strategy to be continued … Get full access to Jim McCotter LIVE at jimmccotter.substack.com/subscribe