Visisble and Invisible Church Fallacy EXPOSED & REFUTED--Legitimizing the Illegitimate Church!

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TheLoveOfTheTruth

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Visisble and Invisible Church Fallacy EXPOSED & REFUTED


Legitimizing the Illegitimate Church!


The Professing Christian “Church” is a hollow imitation of Christ’s Ekklesia of ‘Called Out Ones.’ In their attempts to legitimize the blatantly illegitimate establishment church, the concept of the visible and invisible church was invented; the “visible” being the institutionalized body on earth that preaches the Gospel and administers the sacraments, and the “invisible” body of “ELECT” known only unto God.

This concept was first brought to light by Augustine in ancient Rome, (during which time the Empire had legalized Christianity and incorporated it into the pagan temples) taken from the Platonist theory of forms which states that all true reality is invisible and only reflects the visible partially and imperfectly (pagan nonsense). This carried into the Protestant Reformation in that the Reformers insisted on distinguishing between the “visible” Roman Catholic Church, which was thoroughly corrupted, and the “true believers”, paired off into their various denominations.

John Calvin loved this concept in that it blended perfectly into his erroneous system of election and reprobation. Since in his twisted mind God has ‘chosen’ from the foundation of the world those who would be ‘elect’ and those who would be condemned. This idea of a “church within the Church” spread throughout professing Christianity because it was the perfect method to legitimize the established System and excuse the obvious presence of the Tares among the Wheat.

Thus the argument that Christ qualified this concept in His Parable of the Wheat and Tares, given in Matthew 13:24-30, 37-43 (although the use of the specific words; visible and invisible cannot be found in reference to the Ekklesia). The Parable reads:

“[13:24] Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; [13:25] but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. [13:26] But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. [13:27] So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ [13:28] He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ [13:29] But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. [13:30] Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’””—Matthew NKJV

The first major discrepancy in the “invisible” concept is that the True Servants of the Lord IMMEDIATELY recognize the presence of the Tares among the Wheat. They did not acquiesce to ‘exist’ together with them. The reason the Lord directed them to refrain from gathering up the Tares at the moment is that the FIELD represented the WORLD, NOT the Church! Heed His very Words:

“[13:36] Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.” [13:37] He answered and said to them: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. [13:38] The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked [one]. [13:39] The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. [13:40] Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. [13:41] The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, [13:42] and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. [13:43] Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”—Matthew NKJV

This is much the same as the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:18-23). The SEED (Word of God) is sown into the World at large, along the wayside, among thorns, and stony places, and on good ground. The Sower gone out to sow is those among His ‘Called Out Ones’ (Ekklesia!), preaching the True Word to mankind. As Paul said in 1Corinthians 3:6-8:

“[3:6] I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. [3:7] So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. [3:8] Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.”—NKJV

Christ is NOT presenting an illustration of His true Church on earth. He is explaining the condition of the World in which exist ‘Wheat’ & ‘Tares’ together until the end of the age. His Church (Ekklesia) is NOT invisible, they are CLEARLY visible as lights in a dark place, holding forth the Word of Life to a crooked and perverse generation! (Philippians 2:15-16) Christ refers to the Ekklesia as a lighted city set on a hill visible to all.

“[5:14] You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. [5:15] Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all [who are] in the house. [5:16] Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”—Matthew 5:14-16 NKJV

Nothing in Scripture even remotely suggests that His Church is something invisible to the naked eye, known only to God. In fact it’s the VERY opposite! Everything points to a people actively involved in preaching the Word and contending for the Truth to keep it pure. They oppose everything false and pull down the strongholds of fallacy keeping people barred from the Kingdom. In Scripture a tree is KNOWN by the fruit it produces. It is said that a good tree cannot produce bad fruit and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit (Matthew 7:16-20; 12:33-37). This also is shown to separate the sheep from the goats in that everyone will give account in the Day of Judgment for the content of their heart and the works and words that came forth from it. False teachers are known by their fruit, shown as the bad trees baring only thorns and thistles (Hebrews 6:8), sowing the Word into the thorny hearts of sin (Jeremiah 4:3; Luke 8:14), promising people liberty while they remain slaves to their corruption. (2Peter 2:18-19) Nothing is hidden to the true Disciples of Christ (Matthew 10:24-27), it will be brought to light from the housetops (Luke 12:2-3), proclaimed to the World! (Acts 17:30-31)

The Ekklesia cannot coexist with darkness as even “a little leaven leavens the whole lump!” (Galatians 5:9) The Called Out Ones are to PURGE out the old leaven (sin) of wickedness from among them in favor of purity, sincerity and love! (1Timothy 1:5)

“[5:6] Your glorying [is] not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened [bread] of sincerity and truth.”—1Corinthians NKJV (See context, it’s clearly talking about removing sin and sinful people from the Body of Christ.)

Nothing in Scripture could be more simplistic than the crystalline Truth that darkness and light cannot coexist! Paul says in 2Corinthians 6:14 not to be unequally yoked together with such people who are immoral and incredulous toward God. Do not fellowship with them, light and darkness cannot mix. John speaks of this light:

“[1:5] This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. [1:6] If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. [1:7] But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”—1John NKJV

Within the Ekklesia of Christ, every effort is to be put forth to expel the notion that people walking in the darkness of sin can have fellowship with God and true communion with the Saints. The entire purpose of the Gospel is to turn people “from darkness to light, and [from] the power of Satan to God”! (Acts 26:18 NKJV) The Saints are “sons of light and sons of day”, not “of night, nor of darkness” (1Thessalonians 5:5 KJ3), and cannot dwell in a system devoted to idolatry and sin.

Certainly false teachers will attempt to come in and corrupt the true Saints and even rise up from among the assembly (Acts 20:29-30), while others will come in by ‘stealth’ (Galatians 2:4) and try to bring them into bondage to their doctrines and traditions. Even Paul lamented the perils of “false brethren” (2Corinthians 11:26) who had crept in to discourage the Saints to stumble them from the faith. BUT none of this implies that the true Ekklesia is to sit by silently and endure vile activity in their midst, lest they fall prey to the error of the lawless. (2Peter 3:17) Sin MUST be exposed and rebuked sharply so others will fear falling into temptation that will disqualify them from the Kingdom (Titus 1:13).

The early Saints followed the Apostles directive in “handing them over to Satan” for the destruction of the flesh that their spirit may yet have a chance to be saved in repentance! (1Corinthians 5:5, 1Timothy 1:19-20); meaning they be expelled from fellowship for their refusal to repent and seek reconciliation so they would not cause others to suffer the same shipwreck, whereas tolerance in these serious matters of sinfulness breeds further complacency among true brethren.

The Establishment churches will NOT clarify sins of immediate disqualification (1Corinthians 6:9-10) among the congregations because of this false ‘invisible church’ concept that compels them to remain silent lest in their attempt to gather up the Tares they inadvertently ‘uproot’ the Wheat with them. This is nonsensical for two reasons:

-First, because the Establishment churches are the TARE Barns from the beginning.
-Second, because there is NO Wheat among them to begin with.

Remember the FIELD is the World, NOT the Ekklesia of Called Out Ones. The true Saints exist within the realm of humanity among the immoral and unclean (1Corinthians 5:10)—wheat & tares—BUT they are instructed as an Assembly (ekklesia) NOT to keep company with people (who may be named a brother!) who are involved in acts of immorality as enumerated in the Scriptures (1Corinthians 6:9-10, Galatians 5:19-21).

“[5:9] I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. [5:10] Yet certainly [did] not [mean] with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. [5:11] But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person. [5:12] For what [have] I [to do] with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? [5:13] But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.” [Paul quoting or alluding to the precept of THE LAW]”—1Corinthians NKJV

Do ANY of the establishment churches practice this? They wouldn’t dare expose these types of people and put them out of the church lest they vacate the ENTIRE flock! If they were to purge out the old leaven (1Corinthians 5:7) and purify the assembly everyone present would have to repent as directed in 2Corinthians 7:10-11. This is the very reason that a person brought to true repentance and purity of heart cannot continue to abide among the Roman’s Wretch, sin everyday crowd in the establishment churches. They would rather withdraw themselves entirely from such hypocrisy and dwell alone then sit among people who are obstinate toward God and refuse to obey His Word. There can be no true harmony of the Spirit where sin abounds and everyone walks according to the imaginations of their own hearts, thinking no evil will befall them because NO ONE is calling sin sin! (Jeremiah 23:17)

Nothing disrupts the peace and harmony among true Saints gathering to study God’s Word than contentions or someone living in obvious compromise. The Spirit of Unity is broken by unresolved issues and un-Christ-like behavior, especially if the person offending refuses to acknowledge their fault and correct it. When the Spirit is grieved the entire body (gathering) is in distress. Purity, sincerity and love is the common thread among true Saints of God. Duplicity can be the ruination of any assembly (ekklesia).

The gathering of genuine Christians (His ekklesia) tests the spirits to see whether or not they come from God. (1John 4:1) They search the Scriptures daily (Acts 17:11) for verification of Truth. In The Lord’s Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations (Didache, chapters 11-13 & 15), the Saints are instructed to discard anyone who came to them with contrary doctrine that was not in agreement with the Lord’s wholesome words and doctrine which is in accord to godliness (1Timothy 6:3, 2John 7-11). No teacher or traveling evangelists was permitted to linger from home to home mooching off the charity of the Saints. (Luke 10:7, 1Timothy 5:13) And if his teaching and behavior was not in line with the Scriptures he was considered false.

The great difficulty for those under the Establishment System is they wholly believe that the “Church” (as it exists in its fallen state) is still sanctioned by God, and they are among the true invisible members of the elect. But until a person can WAKE UP to recognize that the ENTIRE SYSTEM is an illegitimate reproduction of reality they will continue to worship the False Image of Christ of the Dragon (Revelation 13:11-14) and believe that they can enter His Kingdom in their filthy rag, desperately wicked, wretched condition instead of being cast into the furnace among the tares when the false system faces its final Judgment as Mystery Babylon the Great the Mother of Harlots and of the abominations of the earth! (Revelation 17-18).

The distortion of an “invisible” church within the Church (established system, buildings designated as places of worship) owes much of its appeal to the English translation of the Greek word ekklesia, into ‘church’, which over time has become cemented into the minds of people as the original language of Scripture. It is as though the Apostles instead of going from house to house to assemble the Saints erected a network of cathedrals to collect the wheat and tares for the Day of Judgment. Thus the idea of ‘church’ as it has existed in history is a perfect reflection of the Woman on the Scarlet Beast in Revelation 17:3-5.

As you can see the “Church” is NOT the Ekklesia as described in Scripture, it’s merely a hallow invitation representing a false image of Jesus to the world and preaching another gospel (then the one once delivered to the Saints; Jude 3). Like the woman on the Scarlet Beast presented in Revelation 17:2-6, this “church” symbolizes the present system rich and increased with goods in need of nothing, but in reality wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked, yet wholly unaware of their condition before God. They have yet to do their first works of repentance proven by deeds but instead are substituting obedience to Christ with an abundance of charitable deeds done in His Name. It’s the perfect “form of piety” (2Timothy 3:5) but VOID of any Divine Power to FREE people from the corrupting influence of sin. The “Church” has established friendship with the World and thereby made itself an enemy of God (James 4:4) whereas the Ekklesia remains in opposition to it.
 
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JimParker

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The Professing Christian “Church” is a hollow imitation of Christ’s Ekklesia of ‘Called Out Ones.’ In their attempts to legitimize the blatantly illegitimate establishment church, the concept of the visible and invisible church was invented; the “visible” being the institutionalized body on earth that preaches the Gospel and administers the sacraments, and the “invisible” body of “ELECT” known only unto God.

The "visible" church are those believers alive today.
The "invisible" chrch are those believers who have passed on to be with the Lord.

<< This concept was first brought to light by Augustine in ancient Rome, >>

Citation please.


<<(during which time the Empire had legalized Christianity and incorporated it into the pagan temples) >>

That never happened. Christianity was not "incorporated into the pagan temples." Quite the opposite happened, the pagans were brought into the church. When Christianity became the religion of the empire, new converts flooded the churches. This flood caused two effects.

First, prior to the flood of new converts, each city, town, or village would have one church which met at one place. The place could be a home or a church building depending upon the number of members.

Each church would be led by Presbyters (later called "priests") and the senior presbyter or "overseer". The first elders and overseers were appointed by the apostles. Later ones by the successors to the apostles, the overseers or bishops. (The Greek word for overseer is "Episcopos" which, in Modern English is rendered "Bishop.")

The flood of new converts required additional places of worship and more church buildings were built in the cities, towns, and villages as required. The priests would lead these new congregations in the place of the Bishop and were answerable to the bishop for their performance. As the church continued to grow, bishops would be appointed over territories (archbishops) and even countries. (Patriarchs aka: papas, or popes)

Second, while the new converts learned authentic Christianity through a process of catechisis, they brought with them the pagan understanding of clergy and laity. They still saw the priests and bishops according to the pagan notion as trained professionals who knew the rituals necessary to intercede for man before God. (It used to be "a god or a goddess") The idea of a priesthood of believers became subordinated to the offices of deacons, elders and overseers which created a separation of clergy from the laity and the mindset for the institution called "the church."

<< Christ is NOT presenting an illustration of His true Church on earth. He is explaining the condition of the World in which exist ‘Wheat’ & ‘Tares’ together until the end of the age. His Church (Ekklesia) is NOT invisible, they are CLEARLY visible as lights in a dark place, holding forth the Word of Life to a crooked and perverse generation! (Philippians 2:15-16) Christ refers to the Ekklesia as a lighted city set on a hill visible to all. >>

Amen.

<< Nothing in Scripture even remotely suggests that His Church is something invisible to the naked eye, known only to God.>>

That's true and that's not what is meant by the "invisible" church.

<< -First, because the Establishment churches are the TARE Barns from the beginning.>>

That is false.

It is God who "established" the church from the beginning. And He placed within the church a leadership structure. The church was first led by apostles. Their successors were the bishops whom they had appointed to insure the transmission of the true Gospel from generation to generation. As the church grew, so did the leadership organization grow.
<<-Second, because there is NO Wheat among them to begin with.>>

That is also false. It it were true, then, beginning with the churches which the apostles established, there was never a legitimate church.

<< Remember the FIELD is the World, NOT the Ekklesia of Called Out Ones. >>

The field in which the wheat was planted and the tares were introduced is the Kingdom of Heaven, (Mat 13:24) not the field in the parable of the sower which may be understood as "the world."

<< Do ANY of the establishment churches practice this? >>

Yes. There are some which do.
 
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