© 2007 The Flaming Torch, All rights reserved.
It is our contention that there exists but one scriptural and legitimate church the local church. We consider this position to be unassailable. We maintain that those who synonym-ize the church with the "family of God" do so at the expense of confusing and obliterating Bible terms.
Only Baptists, yet not all Baptists, embrace the local church position. Although, in times of looseness and liberalism, it has become a minority position due to the infiltration of interdenominational, non-denominational, Bible church, Brethren, and Scofield writings, yet, it still remains a position of strength (without apology).
Since opponents of the local church only position will grant nearly all the attributes and legitimacies of an extant local church, it is therefore unnecessary to argue for that existence. Still, the burden of proof of an invisible, mystical, universal church lies upon those who maintain its existence and not upon those who deny its existence.
For example, if there were folk who maintained that the Bible gives credibility to the existence of a Martian church, it would be their responsibility to prove such a thing. Innuendo, hints, and suggestions of the necessity of a superior, spiritual discernment to understand such a mystical doctrine simply will not do.
Bible doctrine must be read of the scriptures and not the scriptures.
Advocates of the invisible, universal church of all believers, for the most part, maintain that it is the Holy Spirit (since Pentecost) that places or baptizes believers into an invisible church.
The Holy Spirit never has claimed to have builded or founded any church. The Holy Spirit is not even the "Baptizer" of any church. Christ is the "Baptizer" and the Holy Spirit is the "Element" (Matt. 3:11).
Christ is the only Founder/Builder/Baptizer of the New Testament church in the Scriptures. (There is no record of a single Christian being baptized "by" "with" "in" the Spirit <196> only a of Christians!)
Without getting into the future tense, versus the future progressive tense, let it suffice us to say that Christ did not promise a future "founding" of the church here; He promised a future "building" of a church that already existed. He had already founded the church and the apostles "first" into the church (1 Cor. 12:28), choosing them (Matt. 10:2). Christ was in the midst of His local church, where He sang and declared His Name (Heb. 2:12; Matt. 26:30) before Pentecost.
If an invisible, universal church is meant (Matt. 16:18), it is the only place, out of 23 occurrences, that Christ ever used the word in such a way (Matt. 16:18; 18:17a,b; Rev. 1:4,11, 20a,b; 2:1, 7, 8, 11, 12, 17, 18, 23, 29; 3:1, 6, 7, 13, 14, 22; 22:16).
Christ called believers emblematic "sheep" and his "church" an emblematic "flock" (Luke 12:32). Sheep are not a flock unless they are together. An invisible, unassembled flock is a meaningless emblem and the wrong kind of flock.
"But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." (1 Timothy 3:15)
"Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual (not mystical) house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 2:5)
"And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; But Christ as a son over his own house; whose are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end." (Heb. 3:5-6; Matt. 23:38)
Paul called the visible church, like visible Israel, an emblematic "house" and believers emblematic, "lively stones." A stone pile does not constitute a house without any organization. [Even in the household, family relatives (brothers) do not necessarily constitute a house]. An invisible, disassembled house is the wrong kind of house.
Paul refers to the local church, before Pentecost, as an emblematic "building" and an emblematic "temple" composed of an apostle and prophet foundation with Christ as the emblematic, cornerstone (main foundation). The invisible church lacks a foundation! Again, a stone pile does not a building nor temple make without organized togetherness. An invisible, fragmentation is the wrong kind of temple/building.
"Now ye are of Christ (not part of the body), and members in particular. And God hath set some in the church , first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers . . ." (1 Cor. 12:27-28)
"And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church , Which is his , the fulness of him that filleth all in all." (Eph. 1:22-23) "For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church : and he is the saviour of the " (Eph. 5:23)
Paul defines the "church" as the "body" (1 Cor. 12:27-28; Col. 2:18; Eph. 1:22-23) and uses this emblematic "body" throughout his epistles. Invisible body/church advocates have kinds of bodies and kinds of churches the local church/body and the invisible church/body of all believers.
The scriptures teach body (Eph. 4:4; 1 Cor. 12:12) and teach that this one body is flesh with Christ as the husband and wife relationship (of two bodies) is one flesh (Eph. 5:31-32). This does not mean that there is only one (quantity) church or body anymore than it means there is only one husband/wife union (quantity).
Each church has a one flesh relationship with Christ as each couple has a one flesh relationship. A pile of arms, legs, and hands, and torsos do not a body nor one flesh make. All organisms must have organization and togetherness.
The invisible church/body does not have the required togetherness of Ephesians 4:16, 1 Corinthians 12:24, and Colossians 2:1. Besides, it does not have any ordinances (John 4:1-2; Matt. 26:26-28), any officers (Mark 3:14; Luke 6:13-16; 10:1-16; Acts 1:23-26; 1 Cor. 12:28; Eph. 4:11-12), any authority (Mark 13:34; 18:17-18; Acts 1:23; 2:41; 6:3,5; 9:26; 10:47; 11:29-30; 14:23,26,27; 15:2-4,22,25; 20:17,28; 1 Cor. 5:4, 11-13; 1 Cor. 12:28; 1 Cor. 16:3; 2 Cor. 8:19; 1 Tim. 3:1,10; Titus 3:10), any church roll (Acts 1:15), or any business meeting (Acts 1:23-26). The invisible church is unable to add baptized saints to itself (Acts 2:41). In fact, the invisible church does not have "members" at all. Membership in Christ's body, the church must be in the form of "bodies" and not souls nor spirits (1 Cor. 6:15)!!!
The local church membership must be cleansed (Eph. 5:25-26) unlike the so-called only true, pure, invisible, mystical, universal church of Christ.
The invisible church body cannot possibly function like the local body of 1 Corinthians, chapter twelve, for it cannot pass the contextual requirements. An unassembled body is not what Paul had in mind; it is the wrong kind of body.
Wrong Use Of Generic Passages There is a handful of general church passages that contain the word "church" and also a couple that refer to the church in glory and one passage that refers to the Jewish congregation in the wilderness. About one hundred passages, from their context, are indisputably local churches.
Invisible church folk have poor odds to start (with extreme generosity, about 100 to 15). Among the generic church passages, which these folk use as proof-texts, (Ephesians 1:22, 3:10,21; 5:23,24,25,29,32; Col. 1:18,24; 1 Cor. 10:32, and Matthew 16:18). Not one of these six locations can be legitimately contested as to their applicability to each visible local assembly.
The tactic is simple, surrender those passages that cannot be disputed because of their context and claim the ones whose context does not specifically demand a local church.
In other words, "You can't prove me wrong from the context; therefore, I am right." The best shot invisible churches have is in Ephesians, chapter five, but to pull it off, mystical churches must consent to a huge mystical, universal, invisible husband and wife (due to the context) to match the huge mystical, universal, invisible church of all believers that they find in the passage. We don't think they can pull it off! Whatever kind of Bible study goes into universal church theory, it cannot be said to be systematic, literal, orderly or etymological interpretation. It is an allegorical "notion" without rules, order, or system.
The only authority for this invisible contention that leads to both denominationalism and interdenominationalism is the fantasy and fancy of the scheme's perpetrators.
Bro. Evans welcomes input from anyone who thinks they can prove the universal invisible "church body" theory.
Several years ago an Assistant Pastor in the panhandle of Florida started such a discussion with Bro. Evans. He very quickly decided to back off as he could not find any scriptural evidence proving his unscriptural theory. Perhaps his pastor told him to drop it. Bro. Evans may have that correspondence.
We printed it without
revealing the Assistant Pastors name. However, our entire file of 36 years of
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© 2007 The Flaming Torch, All rights reserved.
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