Search for the True Church

In the first lesson, I Will Build My Church, we dealt briefly with the false idea that the true church is invisible. Now we take up this subject in more detail.

The Visible Church

1 The Invisible Head?

Let us begin with three things we all know...

So we know that the Head of the true church is in heaven and his church is a spiritual kingdom. In the minds of many people this makes Christ the invisible head of an invisible church. That is the main idea we are discussing in this lesson. We will talk about the "invisible church" in a moment, but since that idea rests on the point that Christ the Head is invisible, let us think first about that.

Although Peter said in the above reading, "You do not see him now" (1Pe 1:8), this is hardly a claim that Christ is invisible. The scriptures nowhere call Christ "invisible". On the contrary, Paul said in the above reading, "He is the image of the invisible God" (Col 2:15). By definition an image cannot be invisible. Paul himself could not believe that Christ is invisible, because he claimed, "Last of all he was seen of me..." (1Co 13:1-8). Paul saw Christ after Christ had ascended to heaven. We remember also that the heavens were opened up for Stephen who "gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God" (Acts 7:55).

When I put a sock on my foot, I cannot see my foot anymore, but that is hardly to say I have an invisible foot, is it? Indeed, if I notice a hole in my sock, I can see my foot through the hole, and know that I do not have an invisible foot. When my wife goes out the back door, I cannot see her. But that hardly means I have an invisible wife, does it? Indeed, if I go and look through the window, I can see her and prove that she is perfectly visible. In the same way, if we had a window into heaven, we would see that Jesus is not invisible. We cannot see Jesus because our eyes cannot see into heaven. That's hardly a surprise because our eyes cannot even see through a sock or a back door.

Now I know that I have done a bit of hair splitting, but that does not mean what I have said is wrong or silly. Normally I would not make such a fine point, but in this case we have an entire false concept of the church supported by nothing better than the loose assertion that the Head of the true church is "invisible".

2 The Invisible Church?

Once people begin to speak of the church's Head as "invisible" it is all too easy to speak of the church itself as "the invisible church". In fact, the church is never described in the Bible as "the invisible church" and it is simply not true that the church is invisible.

The Bible does speak of the church as "the kingdom of heaven... not of this world" (Mtt 16:18-19, Jhn 18:36). The church is certainly a spiritual body, and we tend to think of what is spiritual as invisible.

The Church is People

However, it is also true that the church is people, and people are not invisible.You might reasonably say that people's bodies are visible, but their spirits are not. However, if you mean that their spirits are in the church but their bodies are not, then that is a dangerous and unscriptural idea. Our whole being, body and soul, is dedicated to Christ, and all of our being, both visible and invisible, is in the church (Rom 12:1-2, 1Co 6:29-20). We are sanctified "wholly... spirit and soul and body..." (1Th 5:23)

The church is people who are the "living stones... built up as a spiritual house..." by Jesus Christ. If the church is people, and people are visible, then the church is visible, and it is incorrect and misleading to speak of an "invisible church".

There is One Church

In the minds of many people, a Christian belongs to two churches. On one hand the Christian belongs to the universal church established and headed by Christ. On the other hand, people think that Christians attach themselves to a local church of their choice that has been established and headed by men other than Christ. Thus they think of the first church as "the invisible church" and the second as the visible church. Of course not everyone who thinks this way things clearly about it, and not everyone has thought the matter through.

The opposite idea to this is that there is only one church, "...one body..." (Eph 4:4), and every local church in the world should be a manifestation of that one church established and headed by Christ, not a church established and headed by others. This is the idea held by undenominational churches of Christ and actually put into practice by them.

bullet This discussion is continued next lesson

Lesson Summary

In this lesson we see that it is incorrect to speak of "the invisible church". It is error to say that you cannot see, with your physical eyes, the true church of Christ and the saints who make up its membership.

We acknowledge of course, that since the true church of Christ is all around the world and reaches even into heaven, no mortal can see it all at once. But that does not make it invisible, for no visible object can be seen all at once by one person.

We also acknowledge that impostors can get into the churches just as worms can get into the apple. But the apple is still an apple, and it can easily be seen what is apple and what is worm. Likewise, impostors and true saints can easily be recognised. Neither are invisible.

Let us believe and be confident, that in the beginning, wherever the word of Christ produced saints in Christ, they were visible. When the word of Christ brought them together as local churches, they were visible. They were the true church of Christ in that place, not a different church established by man. Since the word of Christ has not changed, it can still do the same today in any place.And when it does, the true church is visible in that place.