A common teaching in most denominations is that we are living in the "Church Age," and one day God will remove the "church" from the earth at the rapture and complete his plan for Israel.
This theological and eschatological teaching has no biblical support.
The word church is a word replacement for the Greek word ekklesia.
The correct translation for the word ekklesia is assembly.
The biblical narrative regarding ekklesia is that Jesus would build his ekklesia...
...his assembly.
The ekklesia of Jesus is the spiritual temple of God explained by Paul in Ephesians 2:11-22.
The spiritual temple, which is a temple of grace unlike the physical temple of law once existing in Jerusalem, consists of believers in Jesus from all nations.
God dwells in the hearts of believers, and, therefore, his temple expands into all nations.
This is an eternal spiritual temple that has no end nor has an age limit.
Because most translations, though not all, replace the word ekklesia with church, the biblical narrative of the spiritual temple of God remains a mystery.
The irony is that Paul wrote Ephesians to explain the mystery of the spiritual temple of God not to explain the mystery of the church, as many teach.
However by replacing ekklesia with church, God's spiritual temple remains a mystery.
Replacing the Greek word ekklesia with "church" rather than translating it properly as assembly has led to an incorrect expectation throughout much of Christianity that the "church age" will one day come to an end when the church is raptured so that God can complete his plan for Israel.
The future plan for Israel would include a rebuilt temple, an Antichrist, and six million people in Israel perishing in the Great Tribulation.
None of this is biblical.
This non-biblical teaching originated because the Greek work ekklesia was replaced with "church" rather than translated as assembly.
There is no church age.
