Featured The Myth Of The Universal Invisible Church EXPLODED

VIII
Usurps The Family and Kingdom Of God

"Many don't realize it, but the Universal theory usurps the Family of God, and the Kingdom of God as set forth in the Bible. There just isn't any place for the Family and Kingdom of God, if the Universal theory is true. But the Scriptures make a very clear distinction between the three. Let us get some exact distinctions, based thoroughly on the Scriptures.

"1 - WHAT IS THE FAMILY OF GOD?

"The Family of God includes all of the children of God in heaven and on earth.

"Proof: Ephesians 3:15, where Paul speaks of the "whole Family in heaven and on earth." The Family includes all believers, for we are told in Galatians 3 :26 - "Ye are all the children of God through faith in Jesus Christ."

"All believers are God's children regardless of time or age. Since the Old Testament saints were saved by faith in the Christ to come (Acts 10:43; Romans 4:16) they are all members of God's Family.

"And note that God's Family is much larger than the Kingdom or Church of God, for it now contains all of the saved from Abel to the last person saved today.

'God has only one Family. All believers are children and heirs of God.

"2 - WHAT IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD?

"The Kingdom of God includes all the saved on earth at any given time.

"In the parables in Matthew 13: the kingdom is used to include all professors.

"But in John 3:3-5; Matthew 16:19; 11:11; Luke 16:16; Romans 14:17; Colossians 1:13; John 18:36, the Kingdom is composed of all born again on the earth.

"What is often spoken of as "the spiritual kingdom" is composed only of the truly born again, and who have been "translated out of darkness into light and into the Kingdom of God's dear Son."

"In John 3 he plainly says that except one be born again, he cannot see - he cannot enter, the Kingdom of God.

"Recapitulating, the Family of God includes all of the saved of all ages, whether in heaven or on earth.

"The Kingdom of God includes that part of the Family of God who are on the earth NOW.

"3 - WHAT IS THE 'CHURCH OF GOD?

"The church of God is never used of any institution, except of an assembly or congregation of baptized believers in some given locality.

"For example, "The church of God at Corinth." (1 Corinthians 1:12).

"As H. Boyce Taylor once expressed it:

"The local individual church is the only kind of church that God has on this earth today.

"There is only the Family of God composed of all of the redeemed of all ages in heaven and on earth.

"There is only one Kingdom of God, composed of all the born again on the earth now.

"There are thousands of churches of God on earth. Every individual Baptist Church is a church of God.

"When a man is born again, he is born into God's Family, and he is a member of God's Family forever.

"The relationship does not change. Whether in heaven or in earth, he is in God's Family.

"When he is born again, he also enters God's kingdom. This relationship is for life.

"When he dies he passes out of God's kingdom on earth, and enters "his heavenly kingdom." (See 2 Timothy 4:18).

"After he is born again, he is NOT YET IN a CHURCH OF GOD, but is now a scriptural subject for admission into a church of God.

"Note Acts 2:47 - "The Lord added to the church daily the saved."

"Church membership is not something that one gets with salvation, but a subsequent blessing he gets after salvation by being added to the church.

"Baptism is not essential for entrance into either the Family of God or the Kingdom of God, but Baptism IS ESSENTIAL to admission into a church of God.

"Men are born anew into the Family of God and Kingdom of God, but they are baptized into a church of God (water baptism) I Corinthians 12:13.

"The one body referred to by Paul in I Corinthians 12:13 was the church of God at Corinth.

"The local church at Corinth was the body of Christ at that place.

"The members of the church at Corinth belonged to only "ONE BODY" of Christ.

"That body of Christ probably did not contain all of the saved at Corinth (I Corinthians 1:2) and none of the saved anywhere else except at Corinth.

"Since they belonged to only "one body" and that was the local church at Corinth, Christ has no other kind of church or body except a local church.

"If they had belonged to the local church at Corinth, which Paul said was a body of Christ, and then to the kind of church that some believe in, composed of all the saved everywhere, they would have belonged to two churches or bodies of Christ - one local and visible, the other universal and invisible.

"The New Testament knows nothing of any such confusion as this.

"The church which Paul called "the House of God" was a local church.

"The church which Paul said was "the pillar and ground of the truth" was a local church.

"The church to which Christ promised perpetuity (Matthew 16:18) was a local church, for He never spoke of any other kind.

"The meaning of ecclesia permits of no other kind."

"The statements just made will bear any sort of investigation, and the more investigation is made, the deeper will be come the conviction that Satan has palmed off a tremendous hoax with his Universal Invisible theory.

"Why do the Scriptures speak of the Kingdom of God and the Family of God, if there is no distinction to be made between these and the church of God?

"The Universal theory certainly engulfs the Family and Kingdom, and along with this likewise swallows up a lot of truth."

 

Is there any scripture you have for this idea?

What is "the spiritual Body of Christ"?

It is not just that the "Universal Church" is never mentioned, it is that nothing in the Bible 'teaches' anything at all about anything like it.

I guess you realize that this invisible thing you are proposing is invisible.

And, I don't know if you saw any of the contents of the O.P. book referenced; The Myth Of The Universal Invisible Church EXPLODED (Section1) by Roy Mason The Myth Of The Universal Invisible Church EXPLODED

It explains the reality of the myth.

Great.

To you, in your mind, maybe, yes.

I feel for you about your mother, however, "part of the church", is making the concept of a "church", as something that doesn't exist. A church by the Bible definition is a local assembly every time it is used.

"but I sure believe she’s still part of the church." As a saved soul, she is a part of God's Family, which consists of all saved souls at all times, from the Old Testament and The New Testament.

Maybe, as the Bible defines The Kingdom of God, which is what all saved souls are a part of; and that "is a natural result of a biblical understanding of the doctrine of salvation."

The Bible teaches that there is "one body", i.e., one kind of body = a local body of assembled believers. The Bible does not teach that there are two kinds of churches. The word translated "church" doesn't allow for anything else.

Oh my, how this grieves the Lord God, His Holy Spirit, and the Lord Jesus, Who died for His kind of church and the only kind that has ever existed.

"The invisible church is the true church". As I mentioned before, this is very rough stuff to be asserting, before God, especially given that there is no scripture to support the first thread of such a thing.

The Family of God is "born-again believers, past, present, and future," in the Bible.

2 Timothy 4:10; "For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia."

"Demas was part of the visible church for a while"?

1 John 2:19; "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us."

"but he was never part of the invisible church, and he eventually showed his true colors"?

You made a jump from 2 Timothy to I John to get that and say he was lost?

A little from Gill; "Of this person (Demas); see Gill on Colossians 4:14.

"It does not appear by what is said in this clause, and in the following, that he entirely apostatized; he might forsake the apostle, and yet not forsake Christ and his interest, or make shipwreck of faith and a good conscience:

"his faith might be right, though low, and his love sincere, though not fervent; and through a fear of persecution, and loss of life, he might be tempted to leave the apostle, and withdraw from Rome, for his own safety;

"which though it was far from being commendable in him, yet may be accounted for in this state of frailty and imperfection, consistent with the grace of God; and it should seem that he afterward was delivered from this temptation, and returned to the apostle, Colossians 4:14."

This verse references the Kingdom of God, as you may know.

36 "Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world:
if my kingdom were of this world,
then would my servants fight,
that I should not be delivered to the Jews:
but now is my kingdom not from hence."

So, of all the learned men that have searched high and low for anything indicating a concept like "a Universal Invisible Church", in the Bible, do you think you have found it here?

Why is there no mention of anything similar?

21 "Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.

22 "Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.

23 "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

24 "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."

con't

 

"To do that, we must be part of the invisible church". This is quite a thought you are having, but I don't believe you will find any support for it.

Except by simply assuming it.

Where is "the Invisible Church", in this passage?

5 "Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved

6 "And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:"

Gill; "and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

"Christ is entered into heaven as the forerunner, to take possession of it for his people, in their name; and to prepare mansions of glory for them, and in these they sit;

"which imports honour, pleasure, rest from labour and weariness, and safety and security: and what adds to the happiness of this is, that it is together with all the saints, and with Christ himself; and in these they are made to sit already;

"which is so said, because of the certainty of it, for the same glory Christ has, they shall have;

"and because of their right to such a blessing;

"and chiefly because Christ their head is set down therein, who sustains their persons, bears their names on his heart, and represents them."

"The Universal Invisible Church is not a myth...", except it doesn't exist in the Bible or anywhere else except the imaginations of men(?)

"But you have to die first!" To go to heaven? That is where the "Invisible Church" is?

Are you guys grabbing at straws or what?

...

excerpts from:

The Origin and Nature of the Church
By Davis W. Huckabee

Preface

"This study began as a conviction that the local church, "the pillar and ground of the truth," was not being given the regard due to it as set forth in the New Testament.

"In the modern religious world, humanistic theology and humanistic programs and organizations are exalted out of all due proportions to the disparagement of Divine truth and order.

"The author is convinced that one of the most outstanding examples of this is the great regard that is paid to the "Universal Church."

"Yet only a moment's reflection will manifest that, in the words of Dr. S.E. Anderson (The First Church, pp. 96-97), this supposed universal church has -

No address, locale, or building.
No body, tangibility, or definable framework.
No meetings, assemblies, or meeting places.
No discipline.
No baptism.
No Lord's Supper.
No deacons or deaconesses.
No pastors or assistant pastors.
No choir, organist or pianist.
No treasury, collection, or budget.
No missionary collection or fellowship fund.
No moderator, chairman, or president.
No clerk, records, or membership roll.
No prayer meetings.
No business meetings.
No evangelistic meetings.
No ordination of pastors or election of trustees.
No messengers or delegates.
No identity.
No commission.
No responsibility.
No organization.
No association with sister churches.
No missionaries.
No constitution.
No by-laws or rules of order.
No name.

" - that, in a word, it is a non-entity;
little wonder that such a theory is so popular,
for it demands nothing of anyone,
antagonizes no one,
and accomplishes nothing,
but must depend upon the members of the local church for its whole existence;

"yet it gets all the honor and glory, while the local church, which has done all the work, gets only scorn and disrespect...

"The conviction still abides that when the Apostle to the Gentiles said "To Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end," (Ephesians 3:21).

"He had reference to the local body. There is but "one body" (Ephesians 4:4), it is true, and this one body is the church, (Ephesians 1:23);

"yet it is equally evident that the church is not numerically "one" else the word would never appear in the plural form, which it does over thirty-five times in the New Testament;

"clearly then, this body must be "one" generically - "one" so far as kind is concerned - and that one kind a local body.

"Proof of this is to be seen in that more than nine out of every ten usages of this word in the New Testament refer to some specific local congregation of saints, and the dozen or so other usages do not conflict with this idea, but are simply abstract, generic or institutional usages of the word, none of which necessitate the existence of a "universal church" to fulfill the meaning of the word or its usage.


"Therefore, the sooner God's people get rid of the hopes of an easy Christianity, manifested in some sort of Universal Church which requires no labor or loyalty, sanctity or soundness, devotedness or discrimination, the sooner they will be prepared to studiously inquire of the local church what its requirements are for membership, what its reasons for existence are, how its members may fulfill their duties, what its history has been, etc.

"It is with the hope that those who have previously held the Universal Church theory will be led to a prayerful re-examination of this theory in the light of the New Testament and that those who have already recognized that the church of the New Testament is always and ever a local congregation will be strengthened in this knowledge, that the author sends this booklet forth.



"It is his prayer that the great Head of the Church will be pleased to use this humble effort to get "glory in the church" until His glorious and triumphant return. "Even so, come, Lord Jesus," (Revelation 22:20).
Davis W. Huckabee - April 15, 1970

 

You know I was quoting MrW, here, right?
↑
"To do that, we must be part of the invisible church, “made . . . alive with Christ . . . and seated . . . with him in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 2:5–6)."

Anyway, 8 "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord."

And the question is, "How do believers who go on to be with our Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8) remain visible?"

And I don't understand the question.

There must be some definition of something you are going by to ask about remaining visible.

Maybe you think all saved people are in the one big "church"(?) and you're asking how can "the church" be only a visible local body of baptized believers? and have members of the visible church die and go to Heaven(?) and still remain visible?

That's as close as I can get to trying to figure out what you are asking.

Believers who go on to be with the Lord remain visible in the Spirit realm, with God, of course.

We've had people on their deathbed talking to departed loved ones they could see and told them, "hold on, I'll be right there", then turn to us and say "I'm going on, now..." And pass away.

But that doesn't help you.

Departed saints are certainly not visible to us on Earth.

How do they remain visible?

See, I don't know what you're asking.

They are visible to the Lord.

What else?