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The local church of today is an assembly of believers who meet for a specific purpose. This is different from the kingdom of God, which is His reign and rule and the dominion and people of His rule. In relation to the individual believer the church is a place of worship, fellowship and communion with God. It is important that the believer is involved in a church to be equipped and edified but the church is not the kingdom. Being in the kingdom means submitting to the rule and the reign of the Father. It also allows the believer to have victory over sin through Christ and permits them entry into the Kingdom of Heaven that is to come. In the New Testament, the Greek word that is used to describe “church” is ekklesia. Ekklesia is used many times in the NT, especially in Matthew’s gospel in reference to the church but in secular Greek and the Septuagint it also carried the meaning of a public assembly of people. It comes from the verb ekkaleo (“call out from") and refers to those who are "called out" . In this sense in Mathew’s gospel it is referring to the local church of the NT day, those who were “called out” of their homes to meet with other believers. In essence, this is how the local church is today, a group of people, meeting in a public or semi-public place for a common purpose. In the NT the word for kingdom in the Greek is basileia, which primarily carries the meaning of the sovereignty, the reign or the rule of a king. The OT Hebrew word for kingdom, malkuth, has a similar primary meaning. Secondary meanings of the word basileia point to the actual realm of the king’s reign (i.e. the scope, size and boundaries of his realm) and the people that live in that realm.
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