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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Psalmuel (talk | contribs) at 23:06, 28 October 2006 (We need to identify some clear references for our statements. The term "church" originated in the Bible. Please show us one instance where it referred to a building. Also.. see WP:3RR). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article is about the concept/term "Church". For other uses, see Church (disambiguation).

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Definition

A Church is widely known as a building used for public religious services, usually referring specifically to those for Christian worship. It also popularly refers to the group/body of persons that share faith based in Christianity. All other uses extend from this (Judeo-Christian) and related contexts.

Origin (Ref. NKJV Bible)

The concept started in the Bible, by a man called Jesus, the penultimate character, a Hebrew from Nazareth. He used this term "Church" (ref. Strong's Concordance - 1557) which was governmental/political, used in ways such as: "Ecclesia", assembly, congregation or council of common objective. Literally meaning a "convocation", see Ecclesia (Church), Ecclesia (ancient Athens). It is a team that worked together to resolve a problem faced by the wider community or society, it was not a "building".

In the Bible, the term was never used before this, Jesus used the term "temple" on many other occations (e.g. Mark 14:49) (ref. Strong's Concordance - 2413), but this use of "church" was something clearly disparate. Matt 16:18 "And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.".