By H. Boyce Taylor

Is the true church visible or invisible?

Many have the church and kingdom mixed - causing much error.

The Family of God

“Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named” — Ephesians 3:14-15

“The Lord ... who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son” (Col. 1:10-16).

“Paul ... unto the Church of God, which is at Corinth” (I Cor. 1:1-3).

“Ye (the Corinthian church) are the body of Christ” (I Cor. 12:27).

“The Lord added to the church daily the saved” (Acts 2:47).

“Men are born into the family of God by the new birth, but men are NOT born into the church” — H. B. Taylor in News and Truths.

Bro. Boyce Taylor made the above statement in his paper. A certain editor read it and asked this question:

“If that is the truth, if men get into the family of God by one process, and into the Church of God by another and a different one, it follows, certainly, that the family of God and the Church of God are two different institutions... We should feel an everlasting obligation to Bro. Taylor if he would tell us just what God must do to this person, or what the person himself, must do to become a member of God’s church, after he has been ‘born into the family of God,’ after he has remission of sins, after he has become a ‘new creature.’

“His declaration that ‘men are born into the family of God’ is entirely correct, but that the family of God is one thing and the church of God is another thing is entirely erroneous.”

become a member of God's church, after he has been 'born into the family of God,' after he has remission of sins, after he has become a 'new creature.'

"His declaration that men are born into the family of God is entirely correct, but that the family of God is one thing and the church of God is another thing is entirely erroneous..."

Bro. Taylor's Answer

We gladly answer the questions herein contained. In fact, while we are at it we will go a little further and distinguish between the family of God, the church of God and the kingdom of God as used in the New Testament.

The family of God includes all the children of God in Heaven and on earth. In Eph. 3:15 Paul speaks of the "whole family in heaven and on earth." This family includes all believers. "Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:26).

All believers are God's children. Since the Old Testament saints were saved by faith in Christ (Acts 10:43; Rom. 4:16) they are all members of God's family.

God's family is bigger than the kingdom of God or the church of God, for it now contains all the saved from Able to the last man who has believed whether in Heaven or on earth. God has only one family. All believers (saved, born again) are children and heirs of God.

The Kingdom

The kingdom of God includes all the saved on earth at any given time. In Matt. 13 the kingdom is used to include all professors. But the kingdom as used in John 3:3-5, Matt. 16:19, 11:11, Luke 16:16, Rom. 14:17, Col. 1:13, John 18:36, etc., is composed of all the born-again on the earth.

This is not the kingdom of Dan. 2:44, Luke 9:11-27, Acts 1:6, etc. These passages refer to the millennium. That kingdom is yet future.

What is sometimes called the spiritual kingdom is composed only of those who have been born again, who have been "translated out of darkness into the kingdom of his deal Son." In John 3:3-5 the Master said, except a man be born anew he can neither see nor enter the Kingdom of God. In Matt. 18:1-16 and Mark 10:13-15 the Master shows very clearly, that the kingdom is composed of only such as have received Him, whether children or adults. The family of God includes all the saved of all ages, whether in heaven or on earth; the kingdom of God includes that part of the family of God who are on the earth now.

The Church

The church of God is never used of any institution, except of an( assembly or congregation of baptized believers in some locality, e.g., the church of God at Corinth (I Cor. 1:2).

The local individual church is the only kind of church God has on this earth today.

There is only one family of God, composed of all the redeemed of all ages in heaven and on earth.

There is only one kingdom of God, composed of all the born again on the earth now.

There are thousands of churches (Baptist) of God on earth. Every individual Baptist Church is a church of God. No others are.

When a man is born again he is born into God's family. He is in the family of God forever. The relationship does not change. Whether in heaven or on earth he is in God's family.

When he, is born again he also enters God's Kingdom. This relationship is for life. When he dies he passes out of the kingdom of God on earth and enters "His heavenly kingdom" (II Tim. 4:18).

After he has been born again he is not yet in a church of God, but is now a scriptural subject for admission into a church of God. "The Lord added to the church daily the saved" (Acts 2:47). Church membership was NOT something a man got with salvation but a subsequent blessing he got after salvation by being added to the church.

Baptism is NOT essential to admission into either the family of God or the kingdom of God: but baptism is essential to admission into a church of God.

Men are born anew into the family of God and into the kingdom of God: but they are baptized into a church of God (1 Cor. 12:13). The "one body" referred to by Paul in 1 Cor. 12:13 was the church of God at Corinth. Note in 1 Cor. 12:27 he says, "Ye are a body of Christ and members in particular." The Holy Spirit did not baptize the church at Corinth neither was the Spirit the element in which they were baptized. In one Spirit they were baptized (in water) into the Church at Corinth.

One Body

That local church at Corinth was the body of Christ at Corinth. Jesus Christ has only one kind of church or body on this earth, and that is the local assembly — the organized body of baptized believers in any given community.

Visible or Invisible

Joseph Cross says: "We hear much of the invisible church as contradistinguished from the church visible. Of an invisible church in this world I know nothing, the word of God says nothing; nor can anything of the kind exist.

"The church is a body; but what sort of a body is that which can neither be seen nor identified? A body is an organism, occupying space and having a definite locality.

"A mere aggregation is NOT a body; there must be organization as well. A heap of heads, hands, feet and other members would not make a body; they must be united in a system, each in its proper place and all pervaded by a common life.

"So a collection of stones, brick and timbers would not be a house; the material must be built together, in an artistic order, adapted to utility.

"So a mass of roots, trunks and branches would not be a vine or a tree; the several parts must be developed according to the laws of nature from the same seed and nourished by the same vital sap."

Exactly so. - AMEN and AMEN.

The limbs of a body scattered on a battlefield are not a body. The material of a house in the woods or quarries is not a house. These members and this material must be put in place before you have either a body or a house. So the saved are not a church unless brought together and

organized or builded into a body or house of God.

There is not and cannot be such an institution as a universal invisible church on this earth, composed of all the saved, because the material has never been brought together and builded into a house or body.

When the Lord Jesus and Paul spoke of the baptized believers of a larger territory than a local church THEY ALWAYS SAID CHURCHES. There was no confusion in their speaking though there is much confusion in modern thinking upon this question.

Make The Distinction Clear

Once more we try to make the distinction clear. The family of God is composed of all the saved in heaven and on earth. Old Testament saints and babies who died in infancy are in God's family. They are not now, nor were they ever in the Kingdom or in any church of God.

All believers ON THE EARTH at any given time since the days of John the Baptist (Luke 16:16) compose the Kingdom of God. There are no infants in it.

All true believers, whether Catholic, Protestant, Baptist or non-church-members, on earth are in the kingdom; for if true believers they have been born anew.

Only SCR1PTURALLY baptized believers or Baptist are members of the Churches (Baptist) of Christ.

Are you in the family of God? If so you are in the Kingdom of God.

If you are not a member of a church (Baptist) of God why not be baptized into a local New Testament Baptist church now.