What is the church? What does "church" (ekklesia) mean?
The church is the body of all who have trusted Christ, "called out" (ekklēsia) from the world and joined to Him. It is not a building or a denomination but the people: "Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body" (Eph 5:23).
What the text states
Ekklēsia means "called-out ones," an assembly. The church universal is every believer from Pentecost to the rapture, "baptized into one body" by the Spirit (1 Cor 12:13); the church local is a congregation of them in a place. It began at Pentecost (Acts 2), is built on Christ the foundation (1 Cor 3:11), and is His body (Eph 1:22-23) and His bride (Eph 5:25-27). It is not Israel, and it is not a replacement for Israel; it is the "mystery" not revealed in the Old Testament, Jew and Gentile in one new body (Eph 3:3-6).
Covenant theology treats the church as the continuation or new form of Israel. We hold, dispensationally, that the church is a distinct body begun at Pentecost, while Israel's covenants await literal fulfillment.
Go deeper
Checked 2026-09-29 by Darren. 62 Scripture citations verified against the KJV rows. Wave 5. 62 quoted fragments table-passed against the verses table, splitting at every ellipsis. FOUR CORRECTIONS, each to the KJV row: Acts 4:12 "in none other" is not contiguous, replaced with "none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved"; Deut 1:39 "have no knowledge" corrected to "had no knowledge"; Eph 3:2 "dispensation of grace" corrected to "dispensation of the grace of God"; Rom 11:23 "shall be graffed in again" corrected to "shall be graffed in" (the KJV runs "shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again").