Part
One: Our Mother: The Visible Church of Christ
FORSAKING OUR
MOTHER CHAP. 2
Is Our Mother
"Invisible" or “Visible” to Her Children?
Do You Go to
Church?
As we learned in the first chapter, there are some evangelicals today in our culture who have a low view and weak understanding of the Church as our “Mother”, and the institution, family, and school that the resurrected-ascended Christ has graciously given to His people. Now you may attend church on a regular basis, and even give to the work of many Christians, but you may at the same time be in need of a better understanding of what the Church is.
In this chapter, let me
begin by explaining why I am describing our “mother” as an institution, family
and school. I could use other imagery that was more organic, by speaking
of the Church as a body, specifically the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12;
Romans 12). What I desire to describe with the terms institution, family
and school is that the Church is a visible entity and has an organizational
structure.
In other words, it is not
merely that the Church is the people and not the building. It is also
that the Church is the building (if I may put it this way)- -a visible,
organized, institution, family and school made up of people and elders and
deacons (Eph. 4:11-16; cf. Matt. 18:15-18). I think this is important to
keep in mind as we continue together in our study. While all believing
Christians are indeed part of one body (Romans 12; 1 Cor. 12), we are also part
of a visible institution here on earth.
It is true that as the
people of God we do not merely “go to church” (that is to emphasize only the
institutional aspect of the Church), we are the Church as the People of
God. With that said however, we as the Church meet as an organized
institution, school and family. Christ’s people saved by grace are the
outward manifestation of God’s grace here in this sinful world. Yet we
are organized just like a real institution, family, and school. Like the
visible nation of
ESV Ephesians 4:9 ( In saying, "He ascended," what does it mean but that he
had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who
descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might
fill all things.) 11 And he gave the apostles, the
prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to
equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of
Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and
of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no
longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every
wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into
him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body,
joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each
part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in
love.
The Apostle Paul teaches
that there is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism, and therefore there is one
body of Christians (Eph. 4:5-6). Paul then goes on to explain that the
resurrected-ascended Christ, the Lord of the Church, has given apostles,
prophets, evangelists, and pastors and teachers to the Church. Notice in
this short yet very relevant passage of Scripture, that the Apostle Paul gives
us the three attributes of the visible Church as an institution, family, and
school. First let us remember that the Apostle writes to the
ESV Ephesians 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who
are in
Now it might be easy for
us to think that he was writing to some individual Christians who happened to
be in the
Now from
These passages teach us
that the
Additionally, Ephesians 4
teaches us that the visible
In light of this important
passage in Ephesians 4, Evangelical Christians should think of themselves as
individually members of the Body of Christ, and yet at the same time we should
seek to understand ourselves as particularly part of a visible institution,
family, and
As we discussed in the
first chapter, there are some Christians who because of abuses, or because they
desire an alternative to the visible
When I ask some Christians
why they do not hold to a very high view of the Church (after I have explained
I am not a closet “Catholic”), I usually find that because they believe in
God’s Word and know that the Church is taught in God’s word, that they defend
their low view of the Church as institution, family, and school by merely
appealing to the fact that they are part of the “invisible church” of
Christ. They continue their defense usually by telling me that they have
been saved by Jesus, so there is no essential and necessary need for the
Church, when they can study their Bibles in small groups, fellowships, and have
family worship. Why would anyone need anything other than to be a member
of the “invisible Church”? But this is where we need to think concerning
this designation of the “invisible Church”. As with all things we believe
as Christians, we must think through as to whether the designation “invisible”
is a Biblical teaching, or one we just assume to be a biblical teaching.
Confessing Our Most
Holy Faith
Before I begin this
section, let me remind you as to why I will be referring below to a historic
confession of faith from the Reformation, called the Westminster Confession of
Faith. The Westminster Confession of Faith was a faithful formulation of
what Scripture teaches, that was written by more than 120 pastors/elders in the
Even if you do not call
yourself “confessional”, you should be reminded that this is part of your
evangelical heritage and history, and therefore you should at least make
yourself knowledgeable of this confession of faith that has been written down;
I think it would be quite fruitful for all. Remember from the first
chapter that if you call yourself an Evangelical Christian you come
historically as well as confessionally from the Reformation of the Sixteenth
Century (Note: I realize that there are at least two types of Evangelical
Christians that are probably struggling with this: 1) Those who are
“restorationist” in their theology. These are Christians who believe they
are seeking to restore the Church to a pristine “New Testament Christianity”
because there was so much error in the last two thousand years of history and
not enough emphasis on the Holy Spirit and His ministry. Yet I would
briefly respond that you are still part of the Reformation if you hold to the
gospel, call yourself a “Protestant” because you are not a Roman
Catholic. Historically, you still trace your roots to the Reformation. 2)
Those who are Arminian in theology and do not hold to the doctrines of the
Reformation. If you are Arminian, I still want you to continue reading,
however, I want to remind you that Arminian theology was formulated and
articulated in the Protestant Churches of the Reformation over 75 years after
the start of the Reformation. So, even if you do not hold to “Reformed
Theology” and you call yourself an Arminian, you are still part of the
Reformation theologically and historically, if you believe in the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ that one is saved by grace alone and not by works (cf.
Ephesians 2:1-10).
In fact, it should be
remembered by all Christians that what we learn from faithful men and women in
church history is not inspired by the Holy Spirit, yet should be
understood as part of the Holy Spirit’s ministry of “leading the people of God
into all truth” from the Scriptures. Remember what Jesus told the
Apostles: “[The Spirit of Truth] will lead you into all truth.” This
promise concerned apostolic teaching found only in the Bible, but the Holy
Spirit is also active as we interpret Scripture together in the Church (1 Cor.
2:6-16; John 16:13; cf. John 14:17; 15:26).
One more word about being
confessional; we are all confessional people by nature. The Bible teaches
all of God’s people “to hold fast your confession” (Heb.
As a pastor, I appreciate
the writings of those who are smarter, holier, and more humble than
myself. In fact, I think it is important when I teach the Bible, to “check
myself” to make sure I do not err unintentionally in teaching something that
has been already discovered as an unbiblical teaching before I was born.
Additionally, I am aware of the Holy Spirit’s constant activity in watching
over and governing Christ’s Church to “lead us into truth” and I want to honor
the Spirit’s work in church history.
This is why the confession
I refer to the most is the Westminster Confession of Faith. This was not
written by merely one man, but over 120 pastors! It is not a new
confession, so it has had time to be exposed as unbiblical (if it were!).
I think it is a most helpful summary of the teachings of Scripture, and so I
will refer to it in this study. Why? Because again I believe that we are
to do theology, and learn of God “together with all the saints” both dead and
living (cf. Eph.
Are You Part of the
Visible or
Now with this said, what
we want to seek to find out is whether it is legitimate to speak or to focus
one’s Christian life merely on being part of the “invisible” Church, while
implicitly or explicitly rejecting, or deemphasizing the “visible” aspect of
the Church. For right now in our study, we will use the categories of
“invisible” and “visible” to speak of the Church as we explore whether this is
a biblical teaching.
When we speak of the
“invisible”
The Westminster Confession
of Faith from the post-Reformation period of the Seventeenth Century makes a
distinction between the “invisible church” and the “visible church” when it
teaches (Notice the language of “catholic” as we learned in the first chapter!
It means “universal” or from every tribe, language, people, and tongue (Rev.
13:7):
“The catholic or universal
Church, which is invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect, that
have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ the Head thereof;
and is the spouse, the body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.
(25.1)
As helpful as these
distinctions are between the “invisible” and “visible” it should be remembered
that the Bible was always written to the visible Church. When Peter, Paul
or John wrote their letters to address the local congregations of God’s people,
they were not vaguely addressed to a few believers wandering around the earth,
fellowshipping with one another individualistically. These God-inspired
letters were written to a visible Church, a visible Body of Believers, who
had visible elders and deacons, who learned a visible Word and partook in
the visible sacraments (we will discuss in part two the importance of elders
and deacons). Even when these congregations of the early church sometimes
met in homes (because of persecution, or lack of buildings such as synagogues),
they were still established as the visible Church because they had elders,
pastors and deacons shepherding them (1 Timothy 3; Titus 1; cf. Romans 16:1-5).
We should remember that
home churches and/or house churches in the New Testament (Rom. 16:5) were
unique places to gather because there were no buildings and Christians were
being persecuted, but these home churches always had ordained apostles
and elders watching over them (Read: Acts 20:17-32, Titus 1:5, 2 and 3 John).
These home churches and/or house churches were not merely families meeting
together and worshipping God without organization and the oversight of ordained
elders, pastors and teachers. This teaches that in order to be a legitimate
Church, you need faithful men duly called and ordained (1 Tim
ESV Titus 1:5 This
is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and
appoint elders in every town as I directed you-
I will seek by God’s grace
to address the home church/house church movement more in detail later in part
two when I teach concerning the ordained office of pastor/elder, but for now
let me say briefly at this point that if people who home or house church today
would have been doing it in the same way as they do now in the New Testament
era, then they would never have heard the Word of God read to the
congregations. The word of God before the Bible was finally compiled and
completed was sent to the elders and officers of the visible Church in order to
be read and preached to the people. If there had been groups merely
fellowshipping, they would never have heard God's Word.
Christians have always been part of a visible
organization as much as any other visible organization on the earth (and the
Church in the Old Testament was a visible nation as well; cf. 1 Peter
1:2:5-12).
Visible
or Invisible? Now You See Her, Now You Don’t!
Now that we have looked at
the “invisible” aspect of the
“The visible Church, which
is also catholic or universal under the Gospel (not confined to one nation, as
before under the law), consists of all those throughout the world that profess
the true religion; and of their children: and is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary
possibility of salvation.” (25.2)
The Westminster Confession
of Faith teaches us that the visible church, which is also catholic or universal,
in that the gospel goes to all the nations, consists of an organization of
people who confess the true biblical religion. As a pastor when new
members come to join, I remind the other elders (or am reminded by them!) that
we cannot read the hearts of those confessing, but that they must simply give a
credible and biblical profession of faith in order to be formally a member of
the visible Church (more on the reason for joining formally a local
congregation in a later chapter). The visible Church as an institution,
family, and school is similar to the nation of
Yet the Westminster
Confession of Faith goes on to say that outside this “house and family of God”,
there is no ordinary possibility of salvation. What does this mean?
It is similar to Cyprian’s and Calvin’s statements earlier in our study when we
discussed the historical understanding of the church as our mother. What
is being communicated here is that the church is Christ’s gift to his people to
make them holy, to preserve the pure gospel of the Bible, to teach and disciple
Christians, nurturing and admonishing them in the faith, and outside of the
visible Church and her confession, and her call to fight the good fight and to
preserve the gospel of the Lord Jesus by His grace, there is no ordinary
possibility of salvation. Ordinarily, men are called through the gospel
preaching in the visible Church (cf. 1 Corinthians
I charge you in the
presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead,
and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in
season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience
and teaching. 3 For the time is coming when people will not endure
sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves
teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and will turn away from
listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5 As for you,
always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill
your ministry. 6 For I am already being poured out as a drink
offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the
good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth
there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who
have loved his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:1-8).
There is nowhere in
Scripture where the Church is merely thought of as individuals. Rather,
the Church is considered in the Scriptures to always be visible, to be an
institution, family, and school of Christ for the building up of His kingdom,
and the edifying of his people (Eph. 4:11-16). One of my former
professors and friends used to say that all you need is one clear scriptural
teaching to establish a doctrine. Let me challenge you to consider
this. Find one clear place in Scripture where the Church is considered to
be “invisible” and made up merely of “individuals”. Find one clear
passage that would deny that the Church is a visible institution, family and
school here on this earth. Now don’t misunderstand me, I am not
disagreeing with the helpful categories or distinctions made in the Westminster
Confession of Faith with regard to the visible-ness or invisible-ness of the
Church. I think they are helpful categories. My concern is that
some well-meaning Christians might use the “invisible-ness” of the Church to
somehow (perhaps unintentionally or ignorantly) undermine the visible aspect of
the Church that the Bible emphasizes.
Founding Professor of
Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary John Murray wrote concerning the
Biblical emphasis on the visibility of Christ's Church on earth. In this
quotation, Professor Murray summarizes my concern with falling into the trap of
speaking of ourselves as Christians as merely part of the “invisible” church,
rather than always understanding the Church to be visible because the Bible is
clear on this:
"A rapid survey of
New Testament usage will show how frequently the term 'church' designates what
is visible. The church is the assembly or fellowship of the people of God,
constituted by the call of God, a people formed for himself to show forth his
praise and to bear witness to him in the performance of prescribed functions. The
two instances in which our Lord used the term 'Church' (Matt.
Visibility in Our
Confession Before the World
When (If?!) we confess the
'Apostle's Creed' or the 'Nicene Creed' today in our congregations (and I
really think we should), we confess that we believe one holy catholic
(universal) and apostolic Church as we looked at briefly in the previous
chapter. What do we mean as the people of God by this confession? The
unity of the Church is confessed (John 17:17ff), the holiness of the Church is
confessed (Eph.
Yet what is implied in
these very foundational early creeds of the visible Church is that the Church
is visible! We can see the unity in doctrine and life -- visibly! We can
see the holiness of the Church in doctrine and life (albeit imperfect this side
of heaven)- - visibly! We can see the catholicity or universality of the Church
from every tribe, people, language and tongue (although not complete this side
of heaven)- -visibly! We can see the apostolicity of the Church in doctrine and
life as we believe and confess what the Scripture teaches together with
all the saints for the last 2000 years (albeit imperfect this side of
heaven)- - visibly!
Professor John Murray
wrote in his conclusion on the visibility of the Church of Christ on earth
(where he corrects me for even using the category of "visible" but I
hope the readers will appreciate I am doing this to establish a contrast and
address an issue that places the invisible and visible church in a sort of
antithetical relationship):
"Strictly
speaking, it is not proper to speak of the 'visible church'. According to
Scripture we should speak of 'the church' and conceive of it as that visible
entity that exists and functions in accord with the institution of Christ as
its Head, the church that is the body of Christ indwelt and directed by the
Holy Spirit, consisting of those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be saints,
manifested in the congregations of the faithful, and finally the church
glorious, holy and without blemish.”[2]
Have the gates of hell
prevailed upon Christ's Church? God forbid! Rather, Christ's Church has been
founded visibly on the Apostles and Prophets, and providentially preserved and
propagated throughout the earth by the glorious work of the Holy Spirit!
For those who claim merely
to be part of the “invisible church”, can you imagine these same folks saying
that they do not want to be part of a formal, visible, and institutional family
structure in their homes, because they are part of the “invisible family” of
all in Adam and human race (Acts 17:26ff)? No one would claim a mere
“spiritual, invisible family”, why would they claim for themselves merely a
“spiritual, invisible Church” of which they confess to be a part?
Let us now think of
Christ’s gift to us in the visible Church in light of a modern day trend.
I hope that through this analogy we can better appreciate Christ’s gift of the
Church as a visible institution, family, and
Home Schoolers in our
Christian culture today want the home school to be a safe place from the
worldly culture, while the children intellectually and socially develop.
The desire is to have a place where only the truths of God’s scripture are
taught and the application of God’s truth in the world. Additionally, the home
school is to protect and shelter (in a positive sense) the young people from
false and unloving teachers who might teach something contrary to God’s Word.
In many ways, this is the
way we should understood our “Mother” the visible Church. The Church
should be for us the very “Home School of Christ.” For as I listed the
points above, the Church is the place Jesus has given to us for seeking growth,
maturity, sanctification in Him through education in the truth.
In the Church as in the
home school, you have a loving mother, who teaches the apostolic truth while
being shepherded by pastor-elders (Acts 2:41-44; 20:20-28; Eph. 4:11-16; Titus
1:5; Heb. 13:7, 17; 1 Peter 5:1-6). The same mother who teaches you truth
from God’s Word while being shepherded by pastor-elders is also the one who
lovingly feeds you. The same mother who teaches you the truth and
lovingly feeds you, is the same mother who disciplines you while being
shepherded by pastor-elders. As in the home school, the place for
Christians as a family “together with all the saints” to learn God’s Word and
hear him speak, to be fed by the Lord’s Supper, and to be disciplined in order
to grow in holiness and Christ-likeness is only found in the Church, the
institutional and visible “Home School of Christ” that he has established.
It would seem that the
The
We will look at the
implications of better appreciating our “Mother”, the Church, as the very “Home
School of Christ” in the next chapter. We will ask and try to answer the
questions such as why we formally should join in membership a local
congregation, why we serve one another in a specific congregation where God has
called us, and why we need to appreciate the ordained office of pastor-elder
that Christ has given as a gift to His people in order to teach, disciple, and
protect them from error (Eph. 4:11-16).
Next Chapter:
Chap. 3: Separation from Our
Dear Mother: Individualism and Sectarianism
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