Where does this "Company" stuff come from?
The assembly I congregate with is..
What is this assembly - or Company. Does it have a name?
Where does this "Company" stuff come from?
And apparently you don't like to read and be guided by the Scriptural references given you. isn't that so? What is this assembly - or Company. Does it have a name?
Just described. Perhaps catholicity is so inseparably integrated with your ecclesiology that you cannot even conceive of an independent autonomous assembly of the original New Testament variety?
The Company a delegated administrators..
Sorry, mistyped. /here is the correction: **The Company as delegated administrators.. **
Another typo corrected:
** "baptism-unto-repentance" ( **
Regarding "The Company":
The translators of the AV and DRB stayed away from capitalization of proper nouns other than names or titles of The Deity. But it is not wrong for us to employ proper nouns, adjectives, and definite articles in our exegetical use, when they identify a special entity worthy of such treatment. Also, the translators also often left out the definite article when it should have been included.
For instance, in Romans 10:8, Paul mentions ". . . the word of faith, which we preach; . . .". Where here "faith" in the Greek is articular, it is more precise to say "the Word of The Faith, which we preach;", thus demonstrating that there is a body of Scripture commonly understood to contain all the elements of doctrine necessary to grasp for assurance that one has a saving and practicing knowledge of The Faith upon which to place his/her trust.
In a similar fashion, we know that Jesus then did not have a church built as yet, but He did have a customary group of followers who were distinct from the "seeker disciples" in the multitudes. This body of close and recognized accompaniers was noted especially by Peter before Pentecost in Acts 1:21-22, where he used the participle συνελθοντων = companying ("men which have companied with us all the time") from Jesus' baptism by John until the moment he was speaking.
Examples of the concept of "the company" are as follows:
Lk. 6:17 οχλος μαθητων αυτου | (the) company of the disciples of Him
Translated: "the company of his disciples"
Lk. 11:27 επαρασα τις γυνη φωνην εκ του οχλου | was lifting up a certain women voice out of the company
Translated: "a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice "(the company of disciples, verse 1 context)
Lk 12:13 τις αυτω εκ του οχλου | a certain him-one of the company
Translated: "one of the company" (of His disciples, verse 1 context)
Lk. 24:22 γυναικες τινες εξ ημων | certain women out of us
Translated: "certain women also of our company" (of disciples)
Acts 4:23 προς τους ιδιους | in front of (the) theirselves
Translation: "to their own company" (of fellow-disciples)
Acts 15:22 ανδρας εξ αυτων | men of their own
Translated : " men of their own company" (of the Jerusalem assembly, of which Paul and Barnabas were not members)
So, the composition of this group, up to about 120 souls, was His committed followers, chiefly those baptized by at least some of The Twelve. They were also referred to as "His company" or "our company". So it is not striking to refer to this group as The Company, which then constituted the Jerusalem church that was first formed on the day of Pentecost, which was the beginning also of the Church Age.
Thus at Pentecost, an entity titled "Church" was formed from The Company. But throughout the ages, and in various locations, a body of believers termed as a church or titled as Church, should also be composed of, and only of, a committed defined body of localized discipled, reasonabl identified as The Company (of the committed, of the brethren, to whom members may be admitted by Disciples' Baptism).
During Jesus' ministry, I suggest that The Company was composed of, and only of, the Jewish men and women whose baptism into discipleship was administered by Jesus disciples and under his direct oversight and authority.
The problem is that the employment of the believer's baptism has strayed so far from the purpose delivered unto the eleven saints, and disorted and/or misapplied as a "sacrament" or a way to insert uninstructed humans into a religion By the will of man and not of God, that the pervasive misuse of the symbolism and function has almost obliterated Christ's intention to build His Churches by recruiting, indoctrinating, and maturing regenerated souls through personal supervision, as Paul did with Timothy and others, and as Peter did with Mark, and as John illustrated in 1 Jn. 2:13-14.
Take time to think about this with a mind open to Scripture before closing it an rejecting without a clear comparison with Scripture teaching. Be a Berean.