Christ’s church goes by many, many different names in this day and time. The signs in front of Christian churches testify to the countless denominations that exist as well as thousands of independent or non-denominational groups. Christ’s church may indeed be hard to identify with a sign.
Wikipedia defines a Christian denomination as a “distinct religious body within Christianity, identified by traits such as a name, organization and doctrine.” According to the World Christian Encyclopedia, there were approximately 45,000 Christian denominations worldwide. That’s a lot of different names!
How Scripture answers "What is Christ’s church called?"
Scripture makes reference to Christ’s church in several ways. It’s referred to as the “church of God”1,2,7,10,11, the “household of God”4, the “household of faith”9, the “church of Christ”5, and possibly “the Way”8. However, it is most often referred to as simply the “church at [location]”3,6.
In fact, it may be more important (or at least more telling) to note that Christ’s church is never explicitly named one thing in Scripture (unlike, for example, what disciples were called in Acts 11:26). Instead, we find several descriptors or qualifiers around simply “the church”1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8.
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