What Church is This?

  In Acts 7:38 we read about "the church in the wilderness." This was a reference made by Stephen as he was recounting the history of Israel and particularly when they were around Sinai. The word "church" simply refers to a congregation of people and here it referred to Israel as they made their way toward Canaan. It was not a reference to the church established by Christ, of course, because that did not come into existence until the first Pentecost after His ascension into heaven

  The only reason for mentioning this is because some mistakenly contend that the Lord established His church back in the records of the Old Testament. The Old Testament referred to the coming of the church, the kingdom, quite often but never in the sense of existing back then. What church is this in Acts 7:38? The church of Israel and Moses was a member of it.