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Do you know who the Church is?

It is all the Christifideles (Christ-faithful people) united around their still-faithful or their contrite-and-recovered bishops.

That may be the Catholic Church but that is not the Christian/Bible church...

The Christian church is all those who are born again and are IN Christ Jesus and are indwelled with the Trinity...Got nothing to do with any bishop...We gather around Jesus, not any bishop...

Understood. I was offering that as the Catholic and NT point of view.

Gathering around Christ after His Ascension into Heaven entailed gathering around a Bishop, that is, an Apostle or one of the Apostle's successors.

Romans 1:1
Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God...
(Almost identical wording at 2 Corinthians 1:1, Galatians 1:1, Ephesians 1:1, Colossians 1:1, 1 Timothy 1:1, 2 Timothy 1:1. Paul establishes his authority at the outset by identifying himself as an Apostle.)

Romans 1:5
[Christ] through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name's sake...

Matthew 10:40
"He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.

Matthew 28:18-20
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

Mark 6:7
And He summoned the twelve and began to send them out in pairs, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits

2 Peter 3:2
"... you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles.

Plus the new local churches described in the NT are established by successors or co-workers of the Apostles, such as Matthias, Timothy and Titus. I think it's Titus who is described as starting local churches in every city in Crete bu appointing presbyteroi ordained by the laying on of hands.

There's a whole lot more. I'm just hastily assembling the first NT sources that come to hand.

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