Is there a proper name of the Church in the Bible?

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Some “Christians” points out that the name Catholic Church is nowhere to be found on the Bible and are trying to point out that there are proper nouns that indicates the name of the Church that Christ built. Some of the verses are Acts 20:28, 1 Cor 1:2, Rom 16:16.

Linguistically speaking, do these verses indicate the name of the Church that Christ built? (some argue that it is a proper noun since an article precedes “Church of God”/“Church of Christ”) Thanks and God Bless! 🙂
 
Senyorico said:
Some “Christians” points out that the name Catholic Church is nowhere to be found on the Bible and are trying to point out that there are proper nouns that indicates the name of the Church that Christ built. Some of the verses are Acts 20:28, 1 Cor 1:2, Rom 16:16.

Linguistically speaking, do these verses indicate the name of the Church that Christ built? (some argue that it is a proper noun since an article precedes “Church of God”/“Church of Christ”) Thanks and God Bless! 🙂
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No there is no proper name. It is only “the church” in the Bible, and it’s a common noun. The closest one would come to a proper name in the New Testament is “the Way” and even that is stretching it.

The “proper” names came up in later centuries to distinguish the orthodox Christians from the heretics.

This became even more important in more recent centuries when the concept of a juridic person became dominant in business, law, and charities.

But in the first century there was no such concern.
 
Senyorico said:
Some “Christians” points out that the name Catholic Church is nowhere to be found on the Bible
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What does that have to do with anything?

This is a historical question, not a dogmatic one. Are they saying that the Bible is the only historical document they accept? Are they saying that they reject all other historical documents?
 
Senyorico said:
the name Catholic Church is nowhere to be found on the Bible
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The word Trinity is not in the Bible either; but the teaching is certainly there, just as is purgatory. Likewise the establishment of the Catholic Church. “catholic” simply means universal.
 
‘And they conversed there in the church a whole year; and they taught a great multitude, so that at Antioch the disciples were first named Christians.’ - Acts 11:26
‘Where the bishop is present, there is the Catholic Church.’ - Letter to the Smyrnaeans 8:2 by St ignatius of Antioch, AD 107
Notice how casually St Ignatius of Antioch makes reference to the name Catholic, which implies it was known and used before his time.
 
Senyorico said:
Some “Christians” points out that the name Catholic Church is nowhere to be found on the Bible and are trying to point out that there are proper nouns that indicates the name of the Church that Christ built. Some of the verses are Acts 20:28, 1 Cor 1:2, Rom 16:16.
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Those same Christians need to how where in the Bible that the name of the Church was only to be found in it.

Catholic comes from the Greek, which means, essentially, “Universal”. It was eventually used in the early Church as the Church was spreading out over the known world, and was being acknowledged as not just an offshoot of Judaism, but a church open to all, Jews and Gentiles (or as one wag put it “Catholics: here comes everyone”.
 
Pretty much either thy reject other documents, or are ignorant of them.
 
The same people are not believing the trinity and their argument is that the Church has a name and it’s not the Catholic Church 🙂
 
How do I demonstrate that these verses does not show the name of the Church?
 
Senyorico said:
How do I demonstrate that these verses does not show the name of the Church?
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The word which we translate as ‘church’ in English is the Greek term ἐκκλησία ekklesia. At the time the NT was written, it primarily had the meaning of ‘assembly’ or ‘congregation’ in the very general sense. For example, cities could hold a political ekklesia to resolve civil or judicial problems.

In many instances, the Scriptures uses ekklesia in this very general sense of referring to a local gathering of Christians. For example, Matt 18:17, Acts 7:38, Rom 16:4, etc.

When the NT authors wish to clarify that their use of ekklesia is generalised to the entire body of Christian believers, then they add a variety of modifiers. Sometimes they use of ‘the ekklesia of God’ (1 cor 1:2, see 2 Th 1:4 for plural churches), ‘the ekklesiai (plural) of Christ’ (Rom 16:16) or ‘the ekklesiai (plural) of the saints’ (1 Cor 14:33).

These are descriptive modifiers and do not produce proper nouns. This is evidenced primarily from context: there is no underlying consistent usage in the terms. Some churches are not referred to as ‘of God’ or ‘of Christ’ but only as ‘churches’, such as the seven Asian churches in Rev 1:4.
 
“Some Christians” are simply wrong. Where does the bible state that it is 100% complete, or that we are only to believe what is in it?

It is an excuse for intellectual sloth.
 
I dropped an “s” - they need to show where it says in the bible that the Church would be named.

That doesn’t exist.

They are “scripture only”, and there is nothing in Scripture which ways that it is the “only” source of information about faith. In fact, scripture indicates there is other information outside of what is written there.
 
For starters, you would need to go into the Greek, which likely neither you nor they can read; the Greek word (ekklesia)was not a “name” of the Church, but was a word for a community of believers; when the Church first started, its members were all Jews who believed that Jesus was the Messiah, the Anointed One of Israel.

Soon, Paul came along and eventually went to Jewish communities outside of the area - to areas of what is now Turkey, Greece, etc.

The name "catholic was first used (that we can trace) by St. Ignatius of Antioch, in 110 AD. The word meant “universal” and one could argue that it was the name of the Church, or that it was a description of the Church - or both.

What your acquaintances don’t likely know is that if they were to read the writings of the Church Fathers, they would see that they acknowledged and wrote about, among other things, the Sacraments - something your acquaintances might find “interesting”.
 
Senyorico said:
Some “Christians” points out that the name Catholic Church is nowhere to be found on the Bible
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Neither can Bible be found in the Bible. 🙂
That argument sits upon a certain ignorance re: the Entire Revelation of God to Man…
Which - obviously - precedes both Gutenberg, and Scribes… 😉
 
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