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The Church In God's Eternal Plan: A Study In Ephesians 1:1-14, Victor A. Bartling

Concordia Theological Monthly

The Church was in the world long before our days. It existed in Ephesus before Paul wrote his Letter to the Ephesians. Essentially the church, like Christ, never changes. Its foundation, its goals, its means and resources, its message to men always remain the same. But since the church is made up of men, it necessarily reflects, in its historical manifestations, the social and cultural aspects of its historical environments. Within these environments, however, it must function according to God's unchanging design. There is always the temptation that the church may so much lose itself in its own given historical …