Is the christian church a proper church?

The term Christian Church as a proper noun refers to the whole Christian religious tradition through history. When used in this way, the term does not refer to a particular "Christian church" (a "denomination" or to a building). However, some Christian groups do not accept this definition (e.g. , the Roman Catholic Church, the Oriental Orthodox churches and the Eastern Orthodox churches) instead considering only their own churches to be the one true church.

This article addresses the Christian Church broadly, taking account of the variety of conceptions about it, some identifying it with a concrete visible structure (the view of Oriental Orthodoxy, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Cathilic), others seeing it as an invisible reality not identified with any earthly structure (the general Protestant view), and others equating it with a particular set of groups that share certain essential elements of doctrine and practice, though divided on other points of doctrine and practice and in government (the branch theory as taught by some Anglicans). The Greek term? , which is transliterated as "ecclesia", generally meant an "assembly",1 but in most English translations of the New Testament is usually translated as "church".

This term appears in two verses of the Gospel of Matthew, twenty-four verses of the Acts of the Apostles, fifty-eight verses of the Pauline Epistles (including the earliest instances of its use in relation to a Christian body), two verses of the Letter to the Hebrews, one verse of the Epistle of James, three verses of the Third Epistle of John, and nineteen verses of the Book of Revelation. In total,? Appears in the New Testament text 114 times, although not every instance is a technical reference to the church.

In the New Testament, the term? ("church" or "assembly") is used for local communities as well as in a universal sense to mean all believers. 3 Traditionally, only orthodox believers are considered part of the true church, but convictions of what is orthodox vary.

The four traditional "notes of the Christian Church" or descriptors of the church, first expressed in the Nicene Creed are unity, holiness, catholicity, and apostolicity. The Greek word ekkl? Sia, literally "called out or called forth" and commonly used to indicate a group of individuals called to gather for some function, in particular an assembly of the citizens of a city, as in Acts 19:32-41, is the New Testament term referring to the Christian Church (either a particular local group or the whole body of the faithful).

Most Romance and Celtic languages use derivations of this word, either inherited or borrowed from the Latin form ecclesia. The English language word "church" is from the Old English word cirice, derived from West Germanic *kirika, which in turn comes from the Greek? Kuriak?

, meaning "of the Lord" (possessive form of? Kurios "ruler, lord"). Kuriak?

In the sense of "church" is most likely a shortening of? Kuriak? Oikia ("house of the Lord") or?

Ekkl? Sia kuriak? ("congregation of the Lord").

5 Christian churches were sometimes called? Kuriakon (adjective meaning "of the Lord") in Greek starting in the 4th century, but ekkl? Sia and?

Basilik? Were more common. The word is one of many direct Greek-to-Germanic loans of Christian terminology, via the Goths.

The Slavic terms for "church" (Old Church Slavonic? Cr? Ky, Russian?

Cerkov’, Slovenian cerkev) are via the Old High German cognate chirihha. In using the word? (ekkl?

Sia, "church"), early Christians were employing a term that, while it designated the assembly of a Greek city-state, in which only citizens could participate, was traditionally used by Greek-speaking Jews to speak of Israel, the people of God,7 and that appeared in the Septuagint in the sense of an assembly gathered for religious reasons, often for a liturgy; in that translation? Stood for the Hebrew word? (qahal), which however it also rendered as?

(synag? G? , "synagogue"), the two Greek words being largely synonymous until Christians distinguished them more clearly.

The term? Appears in only two verses of the Gospels, in both cases in the Gospel of Matthew. 7 When Jesus says to Simon Peter, "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church",9 the church is the community instituted by Christ, but in the other passage the church is the local community to which one belongs: "If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church."10 The term is used much more frequently in other parts of the New Testament, designating, as in the Gospel of Matthew, either an individual local community or all of them collectively.

Even passages that do not use the term? May refer to the church with other expressions, as in the first 14 chapters of the Epistle to the Romans, in which? Is totally absent but which repeatedly uses the cognate word?

(kl? Toi, "called"). 11 The church may be referred to also through images traditionally employed in the Bible to speak of the people of God, such as the image of the vineyard used particularly in the Gospel of John.

The early church originated in Roman Judea in the first century AD, founded on the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth who is believed by Christians to be the Son of God and Christ the Messiah. It is usually thought of as beginning with Jesus' Apostles. According to scripture Jesus commanded them to spread his teachings to all the world.

Springing out of Second Temple Judaism, from Christianity's earliest days, Christians accepted non-Jews (Gentiles) without requiring them to fully adopt Jewish customs (such as circumcision). Acts 2009-10-31712 The parallels in the Jewish faith are the Proselytes, Godfearers, and Noahide Law, see also Biblical law in Christianity. Some think that conflict with Jewish religious authorities quickly led to the expulsion of the Christians from the synagogues in Jerusalem13 (see also Council of Jamnia and List of events in early Christianity).

The Church gradually spread throughout the Roman Empire and beyond, gaining major establishments in cities such as Jerusalem, Antioch, and Edessa. 141516 It also became a widely persecuted religion. It was condemned by the Jewish authorities as a heresy (see also Rejection of Jesus).