“Church” is a translation of the Greek ekkleµsia , literally, “a calling out.” This was a common Greek word for any called or summoned assembly, and reflects the fact that people were called to public meetings by heralds. The Septuagint uses ekkleµsia to translate the Hebrew qahal , which in the OT designates Hebrew assemblies or all Israel, as a community. In the NT ekkleµsia is used to designate (a) Christians gathered for worship ( 1 Cor. 11:18 ; 14:3 , 28 ); (b) local congregations consisting of all Christians living in one place ( Matt. 18:17 ; Acts 5:11 ; 8:3 ; etc.); (c) the entire body of Christians, the church universal to which believers in all places belong ( Matt. 16:18 ; 1 Cor. 10:32 ; 12:28 ; Heb. 12:23 ; etc.). The nature of the church is clarified by the words used in the NT to describe it. Among these are body, temple, household, family, assembly, and by extension, fellowship.
Jesus Christ is the head of the church; the church is His body ( Eph. 1:22 , 23 ; 5:23 ). Thus Christ is Lord of the church and preeminent over it ( Col. 1:18 ). If the church is fully subject to its divine Head, He can sanctify and cleanse it so that it will be holy and without blemish ( Eph. 5:23–27 ). As head of the church, the seat or source of direction and intelligence, Christ will guide it in all its plans and activities, coordinating all parts and supplying wisdom and vital force to every member of the body so that all can work together effectually ( Eph. 4:15 , 16 ; Col. 2:19 ).
Jesus Christ “builds” His church ( Matt. 16:18 ) into a holy temple “fitly framed,” exceedingly beautiful and symmetrical, with Christ Himself as the chief cornerstone and the apostles and prophets as the foundation ( Eph. 2:21 ; cf. 1 Peter 2:6–8 ). The Christian church was founded when Jesus called the apostles. It grew as the Holy Spirit, through the apostles’ preaching and the witness of members, carved out other living stones ( 1 Cor. 3:16 , 17 ; 1 Peter 2:5 ), which were to become the “habitation of God through the Spirit” ( Eph. 2:22 ), a “spiritual house” in which men and women who have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour offer “spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God” ( 1 Peter 2:5 ).
Converted men and women—living stones—become members of the “household of God” ( Eph. 2:19 ), and are no longer strangers or foreigners in a revolted world, but a part of the “whole family in heaven and earth” ( Eph. 3:15 ). “Believers on the earth and the beings in heaven who have never fallen constitute one church” ( 6T 366). Others in this household include the angels, the Holy Spirit, Jesus, the Father, and, doubtless, unfallen beings from other worlds ( Heb. 12:22–24 ).
All the members of Christ’s church on earth constitute “the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven” (verse 23). Twice-born, faithful members of every local church are a part of this great universal church, “all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ” ( 1 Cor. 1:2 ). They enjoy communion and fellowship with others who accept Christ as the head of the church ( 1 John 1:3 ).
Jesus Christ is founder of the church universal, in the inclusive sense of the whole family of God from Adam to the end of the world, and in the particular sense of the Christian church established during His incarnation. In rejecting Christ, literal Israelites, collectively as a nation, were cut off like dead branches from the true stock of Abraham. True Israel was then the faithful remnant that accepted the Messiah, and to this original stock Gentile Christians were grafted ( Rom. 11:5 , 17 , 24 , 26 ; cf. 9:6 ). Thus the tree now includes the spiritual, as well as literal, children of Abraham who believe in Jesus Christ ( Gal. 3:16 , 26–29 ).
Christ provided divine guidance for His church in the form of an inspired record of His own life and of His will as revealed through prophets and apostles ( John 16:13 ; Heb. 1:1 , 2 ; 1 John 1:1–3 ). He sent the Holy Spirit as His representative and as a helper for the church; He provides the church with a teaching ministry and other necessary spiritual gifts, manifested through various members of the church ( Eph. 4:8–16 ; 1 Cor. 12:4–12 , 28 ; Rom. 12:5–8 ); and He gave the church a commission to go into all the world proclaiming Christ, teaching all men to observe all that He commanded, making disciples and then baptizing into Christian fellowship those who would accept Him and obey His Word ( Matt. 28:18–20 ). To the church He gave authority to ordain teachers ( Acts 13:1–3 ), to admit members into the church, and to expel from it those who apostatized ( John 20:22 , 23 ; Matt. 16:19 ; 18:15–18 ).
It is apparent, therefore, that the church is a brotherhood of believers, a spiritual communion, a loving fellowship of those who accept Christ as Lord, who take up His cross and obey His Word, and who are thus accepted by God as His sons and daughters. God’s universal church is more than an association or organization of people; it is a community of believers consisting of His elect of every land and age who have been united to Him by faith, forgiven by grace, and ennobled by the indwelling Spirit. This union with Christ’s body is signified by baptism and is expressed visibly by participation in His ordinances, by meeting together for worship, and by service for His cause. Finite men and women cannot determine who is or is not numbered as part of the church universal, for the essence of the church is Jesus Christ existing in the minds, or hearts, of those who have accepted Him as their Saviour, who love Him and one another, and who obey His Word as they understand it. The essence of the church is a life union between Christ and His people, created by the mysterious working of the Holy Spirit.
From time to time, in order to convey to all people a particular message of warning or instruction, or to lead them to a more complete understanding of His will, God has raised up special movements. God’s Spirit has manifested Himself through human instrumentalities, leading them to associate together to advance His purpose for humanity. Seventh-day Adventists believe that God raised up the Advent movement in the last days, immediately prior to the second coming of Christ, to this end. They believe their movement to be a fulfillment of prophecy ( Rev. 14:6–12 ; 12:17 ). They also hold the basic evangelical truths, in common with conservative Christians generally, but believe that their special function in God’s purpose is to draw the attention of the world to the imminent second coming of Christ and to God’s holy law, both of which sublime truths are largely ignored by the world. Neglect of God’s law has also obscured the seventh-day Sabbath of the fourth command of the Decalogue, the memorial of the creation of the world and of personal salvation through Christ. The accomplishment of this task demanded more than the devotion of a host of Christians scattered among many denominations. It called for a united, organized body dedicated to the common task and working together in unison to achieve the goal described in the prophecy. That prophecy specified how the people fulfilling it could be recognized, and what their task would be ( Rev. 12:17 ; 14:6–12 ).
Seventh-day Adventists believe that the church is both visible and invisible—visible in a body of people God calls out and commissions to accomplish His purpose at a given period of history, and invisible in the multitude of sincere and devoted men and women of all churches, or no church, who worship Him in spirit and in truth to the extent of their knowledge of truth.
While they believe that the prophecies of Rev. 14:6–12 and 12:17 point specifically to their history and work, Seventh-day Adventists do not believe that they alone constitute the true children of God today. While they hold that the SDA movement is the visible organization through which God is proclaiming the last special message for the world at this time, they also heartily accept the words of Jesus, “Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold” ( John 10:16 ).
They believe that God works in and through all organizations whose leaders are willing to accept divine guidance in their decisions, and to the extent that they do so. They believe, also, that the message they as SDA s are bearing to the world—and which, indeed, gave rise to the Seventh-day Adventist Church—was divinely ordained for this time, and that this sublime commission constitutes the Seventh-day Adventist Church, in a unique way, God’s visible church on earth today. They believe that while the leaders and ministers of the church, like other dedicated Christians, are subject to human limitations and that they may at times err in judgment, God nevertheless guides in the decisions they make, and overrules when an error in judgment or action would be fraught with grave consequences for the church. Furthermore, they believe that the General Conference in session, with representatives of the church from around the world present, constitutes the agency through which God guides and directs His cause on earth today.
Finally, they believe it to be God’s purpose to recover the remnant of His people, the multitude of earnest sincere believers in every church who are living up to all the light they have. All these are potential members of that final “remnant” described in Rev. 12:17 . In the spirit of Christian humility SDA s consider it their solemn task and privilege to complete the work begun at the time of the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century by calling attention to certain great truths of Scripture that Christendom as a whole has lost sight of, and, by giving to the world God’s last great message recorded in Rev. 14:6–12 , to reach all open-minded men and women with the announcement of Christ’s soon coming to earth in power and glory, and to help them prepare to meet Him in peace.