No, it was a perversion of scripture by the RCC. Ecclesia NEVER meant “church” as the RCC portrays it nor how many people today understand it.
No, it was a perversion of scripture by the RCC. Ecclesia NEVER meant “church” as the RCC portrays it nor how many people today understand it.
Both of these statements are a little off base, IMHO. "Church" as a noun can mean "church house" or it cam mean "a formal meeting for organized worship and/or instruction" or it can mean "the body of affiliated members of a local church assembly." What it does not mean, Biblically, and RCC intends it to mean, is an organization external to the local churches, and imposed on them for their regulation under a consolidated authority." This "Church" (capitalized to make it a proper noun peculiar to the unBiblical implementation) is a sacral society supposedly both visible and invisible. In comparison, the only Biblical invisible "church" is that of Christ's heavenly-manifested cumulative spiritual body noted in Hebrews 12:23, the public festal assembly/incorporated deliberative body free of imperfection, and found only in The Heaven.
This topic can be relatively lengthy, and is not essential to discussion of this post on the error of the hermeneutics of the ante-Nicene patristics.