Gino,
You asked:
David,
Isn’t something like close to 80% of the time, when looking at all
instances of the word church, i.e. including both “church” and
“churches”,
that it is referring to a local body of believers?
That
only as few as 20% of the time when looking collectively at “church”
and “churches”, that it is referring to all the believers at once?
Not sure of the point of this question.
Matthew
18:20 says "where two or three are GATHERED TOGETHER in my name, there
Am I...", which speaks of a local gathering. The Word highlighted above
is Synago from which the word synagogue is derived.
Matthew
16:18 says, "And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon
this rock I will build my CHURCH; and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it." The Word for church is ekklēsia Which means an assembly of people.
Both
words describe people gathered or assembled together, though implied in
them is a larger gathering. I think an essential part of our Christian
walk is to Gather together with other believers. In Isolation, there is
no fellowship. Fellowship is essential in coming to Truth. The Spirit of
the Lord is divided amongst different believers. This is indicated by
the seven letters in revelation, and when Paul speaks of the Gifts of
the Spirit. No one believer has the whole Truth, or has all the gifts of
the Spirit. Thus the gathering together is essential to having the
promise of unity, or the oneness of the Body being fulfilled.
What
we have in our modern pluralist churches, however, is a gathering of
all like minded believers. Using the "Body" analogy, all the hands are
gathered at the Baptist churches, and all the feet are gathered at the
Methodist, and all the arms at the Lutheran churches etc. The Catholic
church believes in the oneness of the church as is the definition of
Catholic, yet it has excommunicated, and persecuted all its "members"
because of the perversion of Nicolaitanism. Now the Pope wants to
include non-believers and bring a false oneness to the church, or a one
world religion.
Unfortunately,
now our best example of the true church is still, where two or three
are gathered in his name. The institution of the church is too busy
being Lutheran or Baptist or Catholic, to be Christ followers. The
Institution/community has taken over and the individual is beholden to
it, and not to God.
I
want to change topic here a bit for you. BHO spoke of UBUNTU in his
speech at the funeral for Mandella. In a sense, the church has fallen
for this humanist philosophy. Because at the heart of this philosophy is
man being beholden to man. The institutional churches "Like" this
philosophy because they are the greater good. If you are not aware of
this read the following link.
It
is my belief(opinion) that this is what the OWR will consist of. That
is putting man in the position of God in the relationship of the
believer. If you look at the bottom of the link, many of the mainstream
denominations are already advancing this in the churches. The human
relationship to the society being more important than the human
relationship to God. That is what I am standing against. That is not the
oneness I am talking about, but rather the oneness that Jesus prayed
for in the high priestly prayer of John 17. Read the chapter below I
quote parts.
20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
Here
we have Jesus praying that we become one with him and the Father, not
one in a human community. Our relationship is with God, not a church
institution. Far too many see the latter as being a Christian.
Not having understood your question, forgive me for straying off topic.
God Bless.