One of the most well-known metaphors used to refer to the church is the “body of Christ.” Jesus Christ states that He is the head, and that all believers form His body. He said: “I will build my church” ( Mt 16:18), but that does not mean that He will not also use others for the task. Jesus declared that building or edifying the church is something He would do personally. The nature of the local church and God’s commitment to it are the same as those of the universal church. The local church differs only in size from the universal, but not in essence. This is our immediate family in the faith. Until then, we rely on the local expression in order to experience communion. All that we have believed and loved, seeing only from a distance, will be a tangible reality. Then we who are still alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord” ( 1Th 4:16-17). The first meeting of the universal church will occur during the rapture: “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
This church consists of both Jews and Gentiles. The second sense, called “universal,” refers to the collection of believers in Jesus Christ from all times and places. For example, the church in Corinth or the church in Ephesus each one of these churches was comprised of the Christian residents of the same city. When talking about Corinth, Ephesus, Thessalonica, etc., the singular form is used and the name of the city identifies the church. For example, one would speak of “the churches of Galatia” in plural because Galatia was a region with many cities, and therefore, many local churches. The churches in the New Testament were identified by the name of a city, never by the name of a country or region. The first sense for which the word “church” is used, what we call “local,” is defined by its geographical setting.
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