Month: August 2022

Otis Q. Sellers on ἐκκλησία, Part 4: The Rock and His Substance

Otis Q. Sellers (1901-1992), in 1922 the year he studied at Moody Bible Institute

Previous installments: Introduction, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

When Jesus came to Cesarea Phillipi with His twelve disciples (μαθητaς, mathētas) (which included Judas), whom He named apostles (ἀποστόλου ὠνόμασεν, apostolous ōnomasen (Luke 6:13), He first asked them, “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? (Matthew 16:13), and they gave various answers.

Then He narrowed His interest: “Whom do you (ὑμεῖς, humeis)[1] say I am?” (Matthew 16:15). In the next verse we have Peter’s answer:

You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Peter was an individual. For whom else did he speak? Sellers deduced from other places in Scripture that ten besides himself agreed, but

there was one, Judas Iscariot, who deep within himself did not agree. This was not his confession of faith. And in view of this, the reply of the Lord is made in an especially guarded manner. He speaks directly to Peter, but each man can include himself in or count himself out. He answers Peter by saying: “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 16:17[2]

That is, the truth Peter spoke

did not come to them from any human source, previous learning, aptitude, or personal ability. Neither did it arise out of race or nationality. It had come to them from the Father in heaven, even as John later would say: “He that believeth that Jesus is the Christ is generated (γεγέννηται, gegennētai) of God. 1 John 5:1[3]

Continue reading “Otis Q. Sellers on ἐκκλησία, Part 4: The Rock and His Substance”

Otis Q. Sellers on ἐκκλησία, Part 3: to have a position out of Christ is the status of individuals first, then of their societies.

Otis Q. Sellers (1901-1992) in his library/studio. Late ’70s/early ’80s.

Previous installments: Introduction, Part 1, Part 2.

To summarize Otis Q. Sellers’s teaching on ekklēsia presented so far in this series, “by the rule of usage in the New Testament,” καλέω (kaleō) means “to position, to appoint, to place, to name, or to designate.”

These terms are synonymous, “agreeing in the sense of declaring a person as being one’s choice for an office or position. It was also shown that to call, summon, invite, and bid are secondary meanings.”

Furthermore, ἐκκλησία (ekklēsia) “was formed by the addition of [ἐκ] ek (out) to the verbal adjective [κλητός] kletos, and that this combination means ‘out-positioned,’ also, that this word can be applied to any individual, company, or nation that has a position out of another.”[1]

This word is a participle; that is, a word that combines the characteristics of a verb with an adjective. It can correctly be parsed as a verbal adjective, and in Scripture is used as a noun.

Sellers then considers those he calls “ekklēsia men,” Melchizedek, Abraham, Moses, and Aaron.

The mysterious man Melchizedek . . . was a priest of the most high God (Hebrews 7:1), and he was the king of Salem. His position, both as king and priest of that city-state, was out of God. Therefore, we can truly say that he was an out-positioned or ekklēsia man. See Genesis 14:18-20.

Continue reading “Otis Q. Sellers on ἐκκλησία, Part 3: to have a position out of Christ is the status of individuals first, then of their societies.”

Otis Q. Sellers on ἐκκλησία, Part 2: the Kingdom dimension

Otis Q. Sellers (1901-1992) in his library/recording studio (late ’70s/early ’80s)

We continue to arrange Sellers’s teachings on ἐκκλησία (ekklēsia).

The word “does not mean ‘church,’” Sellers insists, “no matter what definition is given to this term.” The facts adduced in the preceding post “are generally known, but they have been misconstrued by many, and probably will continue to be until His lightnings enlighten the world (Psalm 97:4),” that is, until the Kingdom comes.

The exalted meaning of “out-called” is degraded and stultified so that it can be used to signify something that we are today. They say that since the followers of Christ have been called out of the world, this makes us the out-called ones. All this is in spite of the fact that Jesus Christ said of His own:

I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. John 17:15

They illustrate this by saying that Israel is called “the ekklēsia in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38), declaring that this was because they had been called out of Egypt. These are not the facts in the case of Stephen’s declaration, as will be shown later.[1]

Sellers had nothing but disdain for what churchmen have made of this term:

I suppose that the most prevalent error in Christendom today is the idea that when the Lord Jesus said: “Upon this rock I will build My ekklēsia” (Matthew 16:18), that He was speaking of the great mixture of organized religion that travels under the canopy which today is called “the church.” . . .

In spite of the attempts to prove otherwise, the word “church” comes from the Latin word for “circle,” and it is from this that we get our English word “circus.” So today when we see the pretentious parades and the religious extravaganzas that are put on display for all to see, we are convinced that the word “circus” fits it to quite a degree of exactitude. If I were any part of this great three-ring American religious circus, I would hang my head in shame. But, thank God, from all this I have been delivered and separated. I consider all of this highly successful religious activity to be little more than men putting on the “form of Godliness, but denying the power thereof,” as Paul said would characterize men in the concluding days of this Dispensation of Grace (2 Timothy 3:5).

In other words, the last thing Sellers was going to do was to read the manmade societies of today, especially any to which he may have belonged or in which he was raised, back into the Acts period.

So, what does ekklēsia mean? Continue reading “Otis Q. Sellers on ἐκκλησία, Part 2: the Kingdom dimension”

Otis Q. Sellers on ἐκκλησία, Part 1: The primacy of sound exegesis over confessional commitment

Otis Q. Sellers (1901-1992) preparing a Bible study while vacationing in Hawaii (late ’70s/early ’80s).

The presupposition of this series is that not only the status of Scripture as God-breathed (θεόπνευστος, theopneustos), but also its sound exegesis (including 2 Timothy 3:15), is what matters, not the social interest of an organization, including whether it has Scriptural warrant for identifying itself as ἐκκλησία (ekklesia). 

By “social” I mean “pertaining to societies called ‘churches’ and the claims of spiritual authority they may assert.” Readers who regard Sellers’s negative conclusion as too outrageous to be entertained and rule out textual evidence to that effect are implicitly justifying eisegesis, that is, reading into the text of Scripture. Such readers may save their time by not reading any further.

* * *

In “What Does Kaleo Mean?,” Sellers did not lead readers down a garden path to a conclusion that confirmed their presuppositions. His criterion of truth was the coherence of Scripture, not what the ecclesiology of his contemporaries required.

He started by citing a common definition of καλέω (kaleō) and then showing that it could not apply in two thirds of its occurrences in the New Testament. “It is my conviction,” he concluded, “that kaleō has never been accurately defined and that its full meaning has been deliberately stultified in order to maintain a certain traditional meaning of ekklesia.”

In most lexicons kaleō is said to mean “to call,” that is, “to invite or to summon.” One lexicon . . . gives as a complete definition of this word: “Call those within range of the voice for immediate action, invite those at a distance for a future occasion.” Another lexicon says it means:  “To call, summon; to call to one’s house, to invite; to call, name, call by name.”[1]

But “while it is true that kaleō does mean in some occurrences ‘to call’ in the sense of inviting, summoning, or bidding, it is also true that in at least ninety-five occurrences of this word in the New Testament, it simply cannot have this meaning.”[2] Continue reading “Otis Q. Sellers on ἐκκλησία, Part 1: The primacy of sound exegesis over confessional commitment”

Otis Q. Sellers on ἐκκλησία: his most distinctive theological distinctive? Introduction to a series.

When people first encounter Otis Q. Sellers’s writings, they learn he was virtually alone in holding that God’s global reign, the Kingdom for the coming of which He taught His disciples to pray, will be both future and premillennial.

That is, Christ’s “second coming,” His return to tabernacle among us again, to be present (παρουσία, parousia) because of who He is and what He is for a thousand years (the Millennium), is not His next move.[1] He will return before that Millennium but after that Kingdom has been operation.

His next move is the inauguration of His Kingdom (βασιλεία, basileia) on the Day of Christ (Χριστοῦ, Christou) (Philippians 1:6, 10), characterized by the Second, post-Pentecost Coming of the Holy Spirit.

After centuries of divine government, the Holy Spirit will lift His restraints to test all who have been living under it. He will permit a revolt (ἀποστασία, apostasia) (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3), which will initiate a time of pressure, testing, or “tribulation” (θλῖψις, thlipsis) for subjects of Israel’s restored Kingdom.

At His coming, Christ will crush that rebellion, marking the great and notable Day of the Lord (Κυρίου, Kyriou) (1 Thessalonians 5:2-5; Acts 2:20), the end of Israel’s 70 weeks (Daniel 9:27).

But that’s future. In the present, Christians work out their salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12), not only before Christ’s Parousia, but also before the coming of His Kingdom (no matter how soon it may come).

Almost without exception, Christians do this as members of societies called “churches.” Continue reading “Otis Q. Sellers on ἐκκλησία: his most distinctive theological distinctive? Introduction to a series.”

Commercial Break: the first review of “Philosophy after Christ: Thinking God’s Thoughts after Him”

Gerard Casey

Gerard Casey, MA, LLM, PhD, DLitt., Professor Emeritus, University College Dublin, Associated Scholar, The Mises Institute, Auburn, Alabama, and Fellow, Mises UK kindly gave Philosophy after Christ: Thinking God’s Thoughts after Him its first public review.

His name first came to my attention when, perusing online a Google Books snippet of a multi-volume biography of Friedrich Hayek, I caught a citation of Casey’s Murray Rothbard. In the reference notes, I found mention of two short essays of mine on Rothbard, residue of my ill-fated attempt (despite Joann Rothbard and Lew Rockwell’s blessings) to research Murray’s life and thought for publication.[1] 

With that as my entrée, I reached out to Casey on the 24th anniversary of Murray’s passing in 2019. After a few months’ correspondence, I asked if he would read the manuscript of, and perhaps write a foreword for, Christ, Capital & Liberty: A Polemic. He graciously agreed, and the book appeared that July with his generous commendation.

Here’s the aforementioned review, which appeared on Amazon’s UK site on August 3rd.

I certainly couldn’t hoped for a better review!

Please consider writing one or alerting your philosopher friends to Philosophy after Christ: Thinking God’s Thoughts after Him.

Thank you for considering doing either of those things.

And thank you, Professor Casey!

 

Note

[1] Hayek: A Collaborative Biography: Part IV, England, the Ordinal Revolution and the Road to Serfdom, 1931-50, edited by Robert Leeson, Palgrave Macmillan 2015, 48, 60; Gerard Casey, Murray Rothbard, Continuum International Publishing, 2010, 153. The citations are of Murray Newton Rothbard: Notes toward a Biography and Murray Newton Rothbard: An Introduction to His Thought. Links will take you to their text on my old site.