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Church or Building

Is the church the building as we know it today or is it the body?

The Bible never refers to a building in which God's people meet as a church. The name, church, always refers to the people in the Bible. When Paul and Barnabas came to Antioch and wanted the meet with people, the Bible says that "when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them" (Acts 14:27). The church had to be gathered together for a meeting. The church was the people.

A couple of centuries ago, certain groups like the Baptists did not call their buildings churches. They were called meeting houses. They used this terminology on purpose because they knew that the church was the people. We could learn from them today.