Physical and Spiritual churches defined:*****church:In the early centuries of Christianity, “church” meant the community of all Christians. In 1054, a split occurred between Christians in Western Europe (RCC) and those in Eastern Europe and western Asia. The communities in Eastern Europe and western Asia became known as the Eastern Orthodox churches. ----- The early Christians had no church buildings. Because they feared persecution from the Roman rulers. They met secretly in private homes and in underground passages called catacombs.Taken from “The World Book Encyclopedia.”**********Church:a building set apart or consecrated for public worship especially one for Christian worship.the ecclesiastical government of a particular religious group.the profession of the clergy; clerical profession.having to do with organized Christian worship.Taken from Webster’s New World DictionaryThe physical, organized, religious Church ran by men:The above definitions define the physical, organized, religious Church run by men. The Physical Church is an organization located at a physical place. It is the building and furniture located in the building. There are usually rooms for offices with desks, phones, etc. There are people in these offices that are paid, or volunteer, to carry out the business of the physical organization. There is a leader (CEO) who is called by names such as Pastor, Bishop, Priest, and Pope. The leaders of the physical Church set up the doctrines of the Church for all the common people that go there. They are the leaders or rulers. The common people are there to support the physical church by their money, time, and voluntary service but they do not have a say as to the doctrines of the Church leaders.The Spiritual church:The Spiritual Church is not made with human hands It has no physical location. Nor does it have any physical business to perform. It is not of this world.The Spiritual Church is in the hearts of each and every child of God. The child of God has been born of the Holy Spirit and is no longer a physical part of this world. The person lives in a body of flesh but it is not his home. The following scriptures support my conclusions.John 15:1919 "If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.(NKJ)John 17:14-1614 "I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.15 "I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.16 "They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.(NKJ)1 Pet 2:4-54 As you come to him, the living Stone-- rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him--5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.(NIV)The true Church is a Spiritual house. The church has this in common with the Jewish Temple of the O.T. in that it is the spiritual dwelling place of God on earth. But it is contrasted with the Temple, built of physical, tangible, perishable materials. The church is a structure built of living stones by the Holy Spirit.John 18:3636 Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here."(NKJ)Col 2:2020 Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations--(NKJ)John 3:88 "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."(NKJ)There are many that will not be able to see what I am saying.1 Cor 2:13-1413 These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.(NKJ)The true Church is a spiritual one. It is not made with human hands or works.Acts 17:24-2524 "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.(NIV)Heb 9:1111 When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation.(NIV)I have often wondered why men want a physical Church and I think it is because they can control a physical Church. They don’t have to be honest with a physical organized Church. They can make it whatever they choose to make it. However, man cannot control a Spiritual church. It exists in the hearts of God's children and God sees into everyone’s heart.What’s in a name?I have looked up all of the places in the N.T. where the word “church” is used. Nowhere do I find that it is ever given any other name than “church” except that the scripture called it the church of God and church of Christ in some places referring to the total church. It should also be noticed that the word church is never capitalized in the scriptures and there is good reason for this.The church in (a city)The church gathered together.Etc.The point is that as long as you do not specifically give it a name, tying it to a “”specific”” place, it has no physical connection. It is left meaning groups of people called the children of God (Christians) and they can be anywhere and everywhere. That is why the word church is never capitalized. The word church is used as an improper noun (boy, city, day, Etc.).However, when you place a name on it, it becomes a physical Church with a physical body in a physical place. The Church of Rome, (RC Church), the Baptist Church, the Church of God, the Church of Christ, etc. The word church, when used to define a "specific" person, place, or thing, must be capitalized because it is a proper noun.Since the word church is never capitalized it would seem that the scriptures never intended the church to be anything other than a spiritual church made up of the children of God. It is a church that has not been built by human hands.This is how see it.Richard
