Hello everyone, we have studied this topic for decades, and I hope you find our findings interesting.
We do not use unbiblical names for the congregation, because the congregation belongs to God. This means that we have been bought for Him with the precious blood of Jesus. (Revelation 1:5–6) His one flock (John 10:16), without nameplates, is equal to His congregation.
Note, therefore, the ownership:
– “Unto the church of God which is at Corinth.” (1 Corinthians 1:2; 2 Corinthians 1:1)
– “Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:32; 11:16; 15:9)
– “…neither the churches of God.” (1 Corinthians 11:16)
– “What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God?” (1 Corinthians 11:22)
– “…how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it.” (Galatians 1:13)
– “For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 2:14)
– “…that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God.” (1 Timothy 3:15)
The congregation is therefore God’s! That is why we use only this biblical name for it.
It is also biblical to name according to the locality. For example, 1 Thessalonians 1:1: “unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ.” In the same way one may say, for example, the congregation of Turku, the congregation of Helsinki, the congregation of Tampere, and so on.
We who live in the same city, having come to faith and then been baptized according to the Scriptures, are the congregation of our own locality. (Titus 1:5; Revelation 1:11) — And NOTE! According to the Bible, the congregation does not include the unbaptized. Such have not yet come into the same faith in which the first Christians were. (Acts 2:41) —
To what, then, should you join yourself? — Join yourself to Jesus in the way that the Bible teaches! Then you belong to His congregation.
Man-made nameplates over meeting places are elements of division, which every believer should remove from his own life, so that he no longer functions under such.
WE are not Lutherans, Pentecostals, Baptists, Adventists, Free Church members, or ecumenicals, or any other -ists and -isms. We are neither Catholics nor Protestants… We are only children of God, bought with the blood of Jesus. We belong to the same congregation as the first Christians. (John 2:19–22; 1 Corinthians 3:16–17; 1 Peter 2:15, etc.)
The Bible does not teach Lutheranism, Pentecostalism, or any other -ism..
Blessings to us!
Weijo Lindroos, from the Turku Congregation
Maariankatu 2
20100 Turku
Finland
Email:
weijo.lindroos@pp.inet.fi
writings:
In English