Tuesday, July 19, 2022

Reynolds and Sjodahl vs. the "Invisible Church" of Many Ecclesiologies

  

No Invisible Church. In the opinion of some scholars the church of Christ is an entirely invisible body, consisting of all true believers in our Lord, no matter what denomination they belong to, or do not belong to; no matter what their forms of worship may be. This church, they say, has no need of forms, ceremonies, chapels, creeds or ministry. Only Christ knows who the members are. And this church they explain, is the only one in which salvation can be obtained.

 

But this invisible, to men unknown, multitude is not a "church."

 

The word in the Old Testament, as Nephi knew it, is "kahal" which means an assembly, a gathering, called or invited to meet for certain purposes. (Psalm 22:22) In the Septuagint the Hebrew word "kahal" was rendered "ekklesia," which word, according to Liddel and Scott, means, "an assembly of the citizens summoned by the crier, the legislative assembly." At Athens the regular assembly with the "kyriai ekklesia," meaning the ruling body. From the Septuagint the word found its way to Greek-speaking Christians and was by them applied to Christian assemblies, and especially to the Church of Christ. Nephi, probably, did not know the Greek word "ekklesia," but he knew the Hebrew "kahal," which means the same; and the Prophet Joseph, properly, translates it "church." (George Reynolds and Janne M. Sjodahl, Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 7 vols. [Salt Lake City: Deseret Press, 1976], 1:403)