{"id":34,"date":"2003-10-01T00:04:29","date_gmt":"2003-10-01T04:04:29","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T04:00:00","slug":"hold-fastsound-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblearchive.com\/blog\/hold-fastsound-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Hold Fast…Sound Words"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jim Upton<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

"If a word means anything, it means something" a wise friend
\nonce said. Think about it. Serious writers select words carefully, perhaps painstakingly,
\nso they convey just the right thought. God was a serious writer when He wrote the
\nScriptures; each word was exactly the right one for the meaning He wanted to express.
\nNotice that God did NOT write:

"And great fear came upon all the chapel<\/i>, and upon as many
\nas heard these things" (Act. 5:11) "For first of all, when ye come together in
\nthe chapel<\/i>, I hear that…" (1 Cor. 11:18) "To the intent that
\nnow unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the chapel<\/i>
\nthe manifold wisdom of God" (Eph. 3:10)<\/p>\n

Listen carefully to many in your assembly and you may hear things like:\n<\/p>\n

"The correspondent of the chapel…", "The chapel
\nsent flowers to the funeral", "The chapel is having a fellowship dinner next
\nSunday", "Our chapel is having special gospel meetings next spring", The
\nelders in our chapel…", "Our chapel had fellowship with…" etc..
\nReally?? It would be very interesting indeed to watch, for instance, a building use its
\nphone to call the local florist to have them send flowers to the mortuary or, to cook a
\nmeal, set up the tables, and put the tablecloth and silverware in place. You can envision
\nall sorts of strange, humorous, and fascinating performances by this exceptional structure
\nof wood and cement. These remarkable operations would surely attract the newspapers who
\nwould hail this as very advanced technology! <\/p>\n

Ridiculous you say. Absolutely. But isn’t that what we’re
\noften really saying in our everyday conversation?<\/p>\n

True, it may not be too important in many instances, but in others it
\nis indeed important. For instance: <\/p>\n

"And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, an upon this rock
\nI will build my chapel<\/i>; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
\n(Matt. 16:18)<\/p>\n

"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the chapel,<\/i>
\nand gave himself for it." (Eph 5:25)<\/p>\n

Christ did not shed His precious blood and suffer the holy wrath of God
\non sin for the benefit of some building of wood, cement, roofing, and paint. No;
\nthat’s appalling and perhaps blasphemous. We reject that idea with all the energy in
\nour being.<\/p>\n

The word church is, of course, the translation of "ekklesia,"
\na gathering of called-out ones, an assembly of people — specifically, in the New
\nTestament, believers in the Lord Jesus Christ called out of the world and assembled
\ntogether by the Holy Spirit. We often — and correctly — refer to such a
\ngathering as an assembly or congregation. In spite of our care to honor the Lord by not
\ncalling the building a church and by saying that the assembly meets in a chapel (or hall),
\nwe often get careless and refer to the gathered people of God as a chapel; clearly, a
\nchapel is a material structure not an assembled group of people, and most certainly not a
\nvery special and blessed people redeemed by the precious blood of the incarnate Son of
\nGod.<\/p>\n

Then there’s that phrase that we often hear, "Time to go to
\nchurch," or "After church we went to…." Really? Does the local body of
\nredeemed saints have a starting or ending time on any specific day? Notice also, we would
\nthink it strange if one were to say, "Time to go to family," etc.<\/p>\n

Happily, we don’t hear the word "assembly" being used to
\nrefer to the chapel, such as, "we need to put a new roof on the assembly", or is
\nthat going to be the next step?<\/p>\n

Surely we’re not protesting about slips of the tongue that most of
\nus fall into at one time or another. But if our thinking is muddled or too indiscriminate
\n— or perhaps we are ignorant of the implication — we need to rethink the matter
\nmore carefully.<\/p>\n

Nor are we speaking of the legal or incorporated name of a
\nstate-recognized body (nor the people of that organization) for the purposes of holding
\nproperty, handling funds, etc.. Obviously, the assembly and the legal organization involve
\nthe same people, but we quickly realize that the legal name ("…Chapel") has
\nquite a different meaning and is not a suitable reference to God’s precious people
\ngathered together by the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n

Why all the fuss? At least three things are involved:<\/p>\n

1) Accuracy. Scripture is consistent; we do well to speak and write in
\nharmony with God’s mind. He is a serious writer. Honor of His Word is vital to sound
\ngrowth. <\/p>\n

2) The value of the great salvation Christ has procured. He didn’t
\nsuffer for sin at the hands of a holy, eternal God on the shameful cross on Calvary for
\nmere material consumables such as a chapel<\/i>. Christ’s horrible agony and death
\nwas for eternal souls<\/i>, made in the likeness of God Himself. In humble moments we
\noften wonder with amazement why "Christ died for us" — an incredible
\nstatement if it didn’t appear on the pages of God’s holy, inerrant Word. To
\ninfer, whether thoughtlessly or ignorantly, that His marvelous redemption covered a
\nmeeting place is certainly an affront to the Sovereign of all the universe.<\/p>\n

3) It conveys to the untaught mind a terrible error, a totally wrong
\nidea. The chapel is not a source of preaching the Gospel, providing comfort to the
\ntroubled heart, or refuge for the seeking soul. It is not a living body which represents
\nthe resurrected Savior to the world. It is not in itself a holy thing. It is indeed a tool
\nfor these and other purposes, but only<\/i> a tool. Useful? Certainly. To be respected
\nfor it’s purpose? Absolutely — and we should be thankful for such a provision by
\nGod to help in carrying out His work. <\/p>\n

Let our expressions thoughtfully follow God’s perspective,
\nespecially in areas so precious to Him and His beloved Son. This may require that we think
\ncarefully as we speak and write.<\/p>\n

"And He is the head of the body, the church<\/i>, who is the
\nbeginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the
\npreeminence." (Col. 1:18)<\/p>\n

"Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of
\nthe church<\/i> will I sing praise unto thee." (Heb. 2:12) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jim Upton "If a word means anything, it means something" a wise friend once said. Think about it. Serious writers select words carefully, perhaps painstakingly, so they convey just the right thought. God was a serious writer when He wrote the Scriptures; each word was exactly the right one for the meaning He wanted to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-study"],"yoast_head":"\nHold Fast...Sound Words - Rey Reynoso's Bible Archive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/biblearchive.com\/blog\/hold-fastsound-words\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hold Fast...Sound Words - Rey Reynoso's Bible Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jim Upton "If a word means anything, it means something" a wise friend once said. 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