Church Identity and Perpetuity Part 4

Part 3 Here

Primitive Baptists are always astonished when we hear other people say that we believe our sect are the only people going to heaven, yet it happens from time to time. I think this could be caused by a confusion between different senses of the word Church. We believe that ultimately in heaven shall be assembled a church of people that were redeemed out of every kindred, tongue, and people, and nation (Rev 5:9; 7:9), which are more than those which give an outward profession of faith or enter a visible church in this life. So, let’s consider how our definition of church applies to a universal church.

As we said in part 3, church is translated from a word (ecclesia) that means an assembly or congregation. There are verses (18 by Hassell’s count) where church refers to the assembly in heaven (Eph 5:25; Eph 3:10,21; Col 1:18, 24; Heb 12:23). This is the legitimate universal church since it includes everyone who, after the resurrection and general judgement, will be gathered into a congregation. This is also called the triumphant church. We may also call it an invisible church since we can’t see it yet. Every other use of church refers to a local congregation. The Bible never refers to the visible church on earth as a universal entity. If it refers to the church generically—not specificying which congregation—it teaches principles that apply to all churches. However, it doesn’t mean a universal (or national or denominational) church, because a congregation (ecclesia) wouldn’t describe people that are not meeting together.

I don’t want to present a view of the church as several unrelated independent societies. There is a unity that we have between churches in which we share the Lord’s supper and accept baptism of other churches. This unity allows fellowship based on inter-church relationships with mutual obedience to Christ. We reject the unscriptural organizations that rule over local churches in every “universal” church (Mar 10:42-45, 1Pe 5:2,3).

The visible church is always a subset of the triumphant church. I don’t mean that someone couldn’t fake repentance and love for the church; in that case they would be like a virus and not a member of the spiritual body. What I mean is that most of God’s children (triumphant church) never enter the visible church on earth. Matt 7:14 teaches that few find the life that is enjoyed in the church because it is a strait and narrow way. This cannot mean that few will be in heaven, because we’ve already mentioned that a multitude will be in heaven at the end of time (Gen 15:5; Rev 7:9). It means that church (visible, local) membership is difficult and unpopular, yet our eternal destiny is not dependent on our finding the way, since that destiny has been predestined by God (Eph 1:3-6). Put another way, we believe the church on earth is a smaller number compared to other denominations, but that the church in heaven will be a  larger number than envisioned by other denominations.