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Deadline for the October/November 2018 letters page is 31 August.
The case for ‘church’
Insofar as ‘church’ is an English word, I suppose Clifford Hill is right that “there is no biblical justification for the word ‘church’ in Christianity” (HEART, June-July).
The Greek word ‘ekklesia’, translated ‘church’ in the New Testament (and used in the Latin and Greek versions of the Nicene Creed), meant an assembly of citizens for the conduct of public business. By itself, the word does not distinguish between an assembly for civil government and an assembly for divine worship.
However, the English word ‘church’ and its Germanic cognates are derived from the word ‘kuriakos’ (used twice in the New Testament), which means ‘belonging to the Lord’. Thus the word ‘church’ is eminently important because it displays the holy name of the Lord to the world.
Michael Petek
Brighton, East Sussex
Brexit is biblical
God has sovereignly allow- ed the unexpected EU referendum result, and we should pray that Brexit will succeed despite the powers that would have it fail.
The following points in a leaflet entitled ‘The Biblical Case for Brexit’ (by Pastor Peter Simpson of Penn Free Methodist Church) set out why I voted to leave the EU:
1. Membership of the EU is a secular nation’s substitute for trusting in God.
2. Membership of the EU makes impossible proper border controls, which are a biblical responsibility.
3. Membership of the EU means taking on the financial obligations of others, contrary to biblical
principles.
4. Britain’s membership of the EU is incompatible with its Christian and Bible-based constitution.
5. Membership of the EU provides no guarantee of peace between nations.
6. Membership of the EU is incompatible with the God-ordained institution of nationhood.
Nevertheless, Brexit is not a panacea for the nation’s ills. It must be accompanied by the preaching of the Gospel and a nationwide turning to the Lord Jesus Christ.
John Barton
Tonbridge, Kent