The literal Greek where it is translated "church" in English Bibles, is "ekklesia", which literally means " the called-out assembly". This reference is made by the Apostles (who spoke as they were moved by the Spirit) to the ancient Greek democratic form of government of city-states. Each city had its own government; So some historical scholars have said the Greeks at one period had the purest form of democracies known in history. Therefore, the word "ekklesia", or church, reduced to its simplest form means an "assembly" organized upon democratic principles.

This "church", or "ekklesia" identifies the local assembly of spiritual believers who have been spiritually baptized, first by the Invincible Holy Spirit of God (spiritual regeneration), and then by water (H₂O) administered by duly ordained spiritual ministers and preachers of the true Gospel as identified by Christ and His Apostles, and witnessed in their hearts by the Holy Spirit, and as an ordnance of Christ upon their spiritual confession of faith in Him as their consummate Savior. After satisfactory evidence of these actions have taken place, these manifest believers are then to be considered as candidates for members of a local assembly of true believers, where they assemble themselves together in the capacity to worship God in Christ - To sing, pray, praise and preach His Gospel as His Spirit gives them utterance and ability; and to love, support and encourage one another in the profession and maintenance of their common faith in their Savior.

Many have spoken of an "invisible" church. But how could the local "assembly" of saints, or the church, as it is always identified in the Scriptures both of the Old (Acts 7:38) and New Testaments, be "invisible"? Certainly, the "church" that is referred to in the Scriptures is the local assembly of baptized believers in Christ. "Invisible" things in the KJNT are mentioned four times, where once they refer to the whole creation from the beginning, and three times to God and Christ and their Invisible, Eternal Dominion; also to the Nature of Their essential invisibleness to creatures, except as revealed through the Spirit in Christ. Rom 1:20, Col 1:15-16, 1 Tim 1:17, Heb 11:27.

The Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, etc., which are synonymous terms, and which is the Kingdom that has been placed within every child of Grace that has been quickened or made spiritually alive by the operation and infusion of the Holy Spirit, are members of perhaps what has been called the "invisible" Kingdom. (not the "UNIVERSAL" KINGDOM, or the CHURCH) Still, I cannot see even how this Kingdom could be described as being truly invisible, because they who have thus been wrought upon, though they may never bodily enter the church or body of the local assembly, yet manifest to others of like spirit as having evidence of being the spiritual children of God - yet distinct from the church, or local assembly as the body of Christ upon the earth.

OAB