Randall Johnson

Metaphors of the Church: The Nature and Purpose of the Church

If we look at the metaphors used of the Church we learn something of the nature and

The Church is the people of God, not to the exclusion of Israel as God’s people,

Three metaphors emphasize that the Church is the bearer of Christ’s testimony and

How would you communicate both that the Church is totally dependent on Christ to

When God destroyed the earth with a flood, He destroyed all humanity except Noah’s

The patriarch Jacob, who had been a shepherd all his life, described God as his shepherd

Matthew 12:46 While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood

The Church is never directly called the Bride of Christ, but the metaphor is made

Yahweh brought the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt and led them to Mount Sinai

When Jacob was fleeing from his brother and had a dream of a stairway to heaven and

We love stories of people taking over another person’s body, for humorous or dramatic

May I suggest that it is impossible not to have “church membership” in the abstract,

When Yahweh called Abraham and gave him a promise, there were already identifiable

In my hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, there are over 2,000 churches. None of these

Wikipedia notes: The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church,