Biblical Symbolism (Part Two)

The Bible concerns God, His Plan, and His relationship to His elect, who are, collectively, the church. It has been called the preparation manual for the 144,000 firstfruits who will constitute the Bride of Christ at His return. For this reason, we find many parables, analogies, similitudes, allegories, and imagery that identify and define God’s church. Dozens of such figures in Scripture refer to it.

Humans find it difficult to understand God’s expectations of today’s church, much less the full implications of becoming part of the God Family. In Scripture, God uses varying analogies to aid those being converted to come to a more complete understanding of His purposes. This study will begin an examination of some of these metaphorical expressions.

1. What is the most straightforward and obvious scriptural reference to the church Christ said He would build? Acts 20:28.

Comment: The New Testament names the body of believers “the church of God” in twelve specific verses (Acts 20:28; I Corinthians 1:2; 10:32; 11:16, 22; 15:9; II Corinthians 1:11; Galatians 1:12; I Thessalonians 2:14; II Thessalonians 1:4; I Timothy 3:5, 15). Yet, literally tens of thousands of Christian religious groups today claim to be connected with the true God but possess names bearing little similarity to what God names His church in the Bible.

Because “church of God” is generic, the Bible adds “at Ephesus,” “at Corinth,” or at other locations to define which part of the church is meant in a specific context. In I Timothy 3:15, Paul adds “living” to the phrase—“church of the living God”—showing that God allows some leeway in expressing the church’s name, utilizing more of His specific names and attributes as part of the identification.

The organization producing this article uses “Church of the Great God,” a biblically authorized name as found in Ezra 5:8 (also Deuteronomy 10:17; Nehemiah 8:6; Psalm 95:3; Proverbs 26:10 [implied]; Daniel 2:45; Titus 2:13; Revelation 19:17). Herbert W. Armstrong had this title of God inscribed on the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, California: “Dedicated to the honor and glory of the Great God.”

2. Do people really understand what the church of God is? Matthew 16:18.

Comment: Amazingly, multitudes of organizations in the Catholic and Protestant world have no idea what the church actually consists of. This fact illustrates that even on the simplest of levels, the Bible is a coded book. When using the word “church,” many refer to a physical building or a legal corporate structure.

A comparative few seem to understand the church consists of the members themselves. The English word “church” is used to translate the Greek ekklesia, meaning “called-out ones” or “assembly” (see our booklet, “Guard the Truth!” for more on this concept). The “congregation in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38) consisted of those called out of physical Egypt; the New Testament church are those called out of the spiritual Egypt of false belief and practice dominating this world. Without this knowledge, it is extremely difficult to identify the church Christ built.

3. Is the church compared to a family? Romans 8:16-29; Ephesians 3:14-15; Colossians 1:15; I Peter 2:17.

Comment: Another little understood concept begins to unfold when biblical writers use the analogy of a family for the church. Such family terms are widely used in Scripture. God is our Father, and Jesus Christ is His Son. Church members are called “children of God” and “brethren” (“brothers”), and together are a “brotherhood” and ultimately, the Bride of Christ.

When Christ is identified as the “firstborn of many brethren” (Romans 8:29), and the Christian assembly, God’s church, is designated as the “church of the firstborn” (Hebrews 12:23), we can grasp the rudiments of the Plan of God—that God is reproducing Himself. As the Archegos, Christ is the first to go through the process, leading the way for others to be transformed into His image, to become as He is (I John 3:1-2). As heirs with Christ (see also Galatians 3:26-4:6), our inheritance is the same as His, for we will be brothers with Him, part of God’s Family, not lesser “angelic beings.”

4. Is the church referred to as a city? Hebrews 12:22-23; Psalm 48; Joel 2:15; Revelation 21:2, 10.

Comment: In Hebrews 12:22, the author lumps the church together under three different names of cities: Zion (which was not just a mountain but also a name of the city of David), Jerusalem, and “the city of the living God.” He has drawn this symbolism of churches as cities from the Old Testament, where psalms and prophecies often use the names “Zion” and “Jerusalem” as code for God’s people or church.

False churches or false religious systems are also symbolized by cities such as Babylon (Revelation 17:5).

5. Can mountains and hills also refer to churches? Hebrews 12:18-23; Micah 4:7; Isaiah 2:2; Psalm 2:6; 15:1; 74:2; Zechariah 8:3.

Comment: Hebrews 12:18-23 is a pivotal passage in tying the various symbols of the church together. He employs “Mount Zion” to stand for God’s New Covenant people, which he then ties to “the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.” Similarly, in Galatians 4:24-26, Paul refers to “Mount Sinai” as a symbol of the Old Covenant and “Jerusalem above,” New Jerusalem, to represent the New Covenant. Later, John links New Jerusalem to the Bride of Christ (Revelation 21:1-2, 9-10), the ultimate destiny of God’s elect.

Other passages show hills and mountains symbolizing nations or kingdoms, which may be the most accurate interpretation of these symbols. The church, under the rule of Christ, represents the Kingdom of God in this present age.

These metaphors just begin the search into biblical symbols of the church—imagery that will deepen our understanding of the times and our place in God’s Plan.