• Hebrews 10:25 “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
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There are certain who believe that going to church is not essential to Christians. They believe you can worship God at home by yourself or simply with your family, while hunting in the field, or in the movie theater watching a film. To them, church is a man-made construct not endorsed by God. This is not what God commands in His Word, however. There are many ways Scripture proves this, although we are only looking at the word “assembling” in this article.

Notice the word “assembling” in our text, Heb. 10:25. The word for “assembling” (episunagoge) in Heb. 10:25 is used 3 times in the New Testament. Interestingly, 2 of those times is in the same verse, Heb. 10:25, emphasizing not only “assembling” but also “ourselves together.” The word for assembling here in Heb. 10:25 (episunagoge) is defined by Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance meaning “a complete collection; especially a Christian meeting.” Church is not a solo act. Believers are required by God to physically congregate together. Another form of episunagoge is episunago which is used 9 times in 6 verses and further strengthens the idea of bodily assembling. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance defines episunago as “to collect upon the same place.” Christians are obligated by God to gather/”collect” together “upon the same place.”

If we further break down episunagoge, you notice the Greek word sunagoge. Does it look familiar to you? Sunagoge is the English word “synagogue.” The New Testament church is simply the continuation of the Old Testament synagogue. Sunagoge is defined by Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance as “an assemblage of persons” and gives the example of “a Jewish synagogue” and “a Christian church.”

There is still so much that we could study concerning the word “assembly” in the Bible. Sunago is often used as the phrase “gathered together.” This phrase and its importance is seen, for example, in Mt. 18:20. Christ is present when there are two or three gathered together specifically in His name. The Greek word paneguris meaning “mass-meeting” is also translated as “assembly.” “Assembly” is also used for the very important word “ekklesia” which you should read about in the article “Ekklesia”.

There is no way around the truth of God’s Word. God makes clear that church requires the bodily gathering of Christ’s believers in one place. As the church is being attacked by Satan and his pawns, the deceiver is becoming ever more skillful at deceiving Christ’s church into not actually having “church” in its truest, biblical, literal sense of a collective, physical gathering in one place. Be vigilant, dear reader.