Constantine started it all - back in the early part of the third century. Up till then believers in Jesus Christ had experienced very tough times. They were hounded, murdered and tortured by Jewish leaders in league with the authorities in the Roman empire. Believers were forced into scattering and gathering in secret places, not unlike the conditions true believers experienced under communist governments last century.

After the conversion of the Emperor Constantine (323 - 337 AD) the state built special temples for the use of christians. The uniting of state and church resulted in a church system we can still recognise today. Most believers are said to have resisted the wooing and intimidating demands of the Roman authorities, preferring to meet freely under the moving of God's Spirit. But the main line church system was now initially and firmly established on earth. You submitted to it and it became the only intermediary vehicle through which people were to find God and to serve God.

This powerful church system brought believers under its control and its religious culture. It became known as the Roman Catholic Church, no one could become a true christian without belonging (and I do mean belonging) to it. Eventually, rebels sought to break free from the controlling influence of the church system and the Protestant church movement was established, (the word Protestant is derived from the word protestor). Unfortunately, knowing no other way, the Protestant reformers unwittingly established a church system similar to that introduced by the Romans.

Many of these early pioneers were tortured and martyred for their stand against the established church system, and it is because these men and women had the courage to stand on the strength of their convictions that we have an English translation of the Bible today. For until this time the Bible was printed in Greek or Latin, a language only the priestly scholars could read. However, when these Protestant translators came across the word ekklesia in the Greek manuscripts they translated it into English as church of kirke, such was the subtle conditioning of the Roman structure upon them. This mistranslation carried with it a wrong concept of ekklesia resulting in the Protestant movement being swallowed by a system similar to that which they were trying to escape. As a result of this mistranslation we have an erroneous church system which is still accepted and practised by the majority of Christendom today.

The word church in the majority of English Bibles is translated from the original Greek work ekklesia. Ekklesia is a composite of two Greek words: "Ek" which means out of, consisting of, and "Klesis" which means a calling, to call. So ekklesia literally means The called out ones, which in the New Testament refers to a body of people who our Heavenly Father has called out of the Synagogue (for Jews), pagan temples (for Gentiles), and the world (for all). It is interesting to note that the only time Tyndale used the word church in his translation of the New Testament was in reference to a pagan temple in Acts 19:37. Tyndale more correctly and uniformly translated ekklesia as congregation, meaning an assembly of people. However, even this word has since become associated exclusively with church.

Most dictionaries quickly reveal the origin of the word church, tracing the word back to its Old English or Anglo-Saxon root, Circe. Circe was in fact a Greek goddess whose name was written as Kirke and pronounced as such. The word church is known in Scotland as kirk, and in Germany as kerke . These words show their direct derivation from the Greek kirke even better than the English church. However, even the Old English Circe for church, reveals its origin. The fact that the word church can be traced back and related to Circe, a pagan sun-goddess should be enough to make one question the historical nature of the church.

The word church itself is directly related to the pagan temple worship of the sun-deity. Satan has always provided a counterfeit of God's original design and it is no coincidence that the pagans had a temple sacrifice system similar to the children of Israel. Satan has managed to corrupt God's plan for The Ekklesia by using man's attempt to christianise different religions. Men who set themselves up as religious leaders, whose self appointed mandate was to convert the heathen, incorporated pagan practices and terminology into christianity in an attempt to accommodate the traditional beliefs and practices of different peoples. However, Jesus is not interested in alliances of any sort and came to put an end to all religious systems, requiring unconditional surrender to His Holy Spirit in place of all temple worship systems.

While on the Cross, Jesus uttered the words: It is finished - John 19:30. The veil to the Holy of HHolies supernaturally split in half, symbolising the end of the temple sacrifice system. Permitting all to have access to the Holy of Holies or inner sanctuary, identifying the risen Jesus Christ as the High Priest. All true believers are now the Priesthood - 1 Peter 2:4 - so that there is no need for any human intermediaries for mankind to know our Heavenly Father. The whole temple worship system was dismantled and destroyed on the Cross. If Jesus destroyed the old temple system what replaced it? The answer is simple - The Ekklesia - comprising individual believers, as living stones, as priests and citizens of the Kingdom of God who together form a spiritual temple - 1 Peter 2:5. The specifications and identifying characteristics of this spiritual temple definitely do not resemble the organisation known as the church which we are all familiar with, irrespective of the labelling (e.g. Anglican, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Catholic, etc)

If a comparison is made between the New Testament specifications of The Ekklesia , and the spiritual body which replaced the Old Testament temple system, then the present church system does not even remotely resemble the original specifications. One can only conclude that Satan has indeed managed to corrupt our concept of the precious body of Christ - The Ekklesia.

This article is a short summary based on the research and writings of historians and reputable scholars. We would like to thank those readers who have supplied and assisted us with the contents of this article.