The Two Churches

[bigape]

It is important to realize, that when the Bible talks about “the Church”, it can be talking about two different things. There is the Local Church(the visible Church), and the Body of Christ(the invisible Church). There are a lot of people, who reject the very existence of the invisible Church, and some other people, who reject the validity of the local Church, but our Lord Jesus Christ, recognized them both. These two Churches, can be looked upon, as two kinds of bodies! The first(the local Church), is like a human being, because although it’s the Lord’s Church, each individual body of believers, can decide for themselves, to either run their local Church, according to what “they think is right”, or they can decide to run the Church the way the Lord instructs us to, in His word(just like any individual person can decide how to run their own life). The other definition of the word Church, is “the Body of Christ”, that is made up of every individual born again believer on the planet(from many different denominations), and this body is like the Lord(absolutely pure), because every member of this Church, is truly born again, and so therefore, it is being made into the image of Christ! Earlier I stated, that Jesus recognized both of these definitions. The way that we know this, is because He described both of them. When our Lord taught about “The Kingdom of God” and “The Kingdom of Heaven”, this is what He was describing. For years, I wondered what the Lord was talking about, when He would use these terms, and what the difference was between them. Then one day, as I was studying a printout, of every verse that contained these two terms, the Lord answered my question. “The Kingdom of God” and “The Kingdom of Heaven”, are both talking about “the Church”: They are just talking about the two kinds of Church. The Kingdom of God, is talking about the Body of Christ, while the Kingdom of Heaven, is talking about the Local Church. The way we can see this, is by noticing that every time the Kingdom of Heaven is described(only found in Matthew), that it is talking about an impure group. Some good and some bad; Some saved and some unsaved. The fact is, that “every local Church”, is make up of some unsaved people. Because there is no way, to know if a prospective member of your Church, is really saved. Therefore, within the Kingdom of Heaven(the local Church), there are some people, that are also members of the Kingdom of God(those that are really saved). When we understand this, it will really open up our understanding of God’s Word.

 

[tim_from_pa]

Then again, it's important for the readers to understand that "Kingdom of heaven " was only used in Matthew. Since Matthew was targeted to the Jewish audience, they already knew about the Kingdom of God and a Davidic Messiah for earth. The term "Kingdom of heaven" shows the spiritual and heavenly nature of that coming Kingdom. Otherwise, they are used interchangeably.Also keep in mind is there was no church as we know it as Jesus was speaking to a national people, and Israel was the church then. The idea of non-Israelite Gentiles (as opposed to Israelite Gentiles scattered abroad and the Jews) being included was later revealed to Paul. As a matter of fact, most in the church today are Israelites, but they just do not know that their genealogy goes back to Abraham.

 

[Learning]

Good points on both accounts.