True but it tells of the early gathering of people i.e the church. The word church means “an assembly, a company of people gathered together for a certain purpose. It is not a building. But going on, the NT is not a linear book just like the OT is not a linear book. During Acts all those letters that Paul and the Apostles wrote took place then.
The word church means “an assembly, a company of people gathered together for a certain purpose. It is not a building.
>>Are you giving it a 21st century definition, or are you looking back at how the term was defined outside of scripture.
You can’t simply take a wooden reading of the Bible and impose preconceived notions on the particular text.
The question should be: Was Jesus visible, and if the Church is his body isn’t it also visible?
The problem with Evangelicalism is it starts with anti-Catholicism as the beginning of its scriptural interpretation rather than looking for clues how St. Paul or the other writers would have thought based on their cultural , linguistic, and other considerations.
The fact is you had a firm ecclesiastical hierarchy in place within 50 years of the Book of Acts. That’s not me talking. That is a historical fact.
Should we begin our history with interpreting scripture in the light of 16th century squabbles in the Western Church, or should we make an honest effort to start afresh when reading the Bible?