Universal Church

I thought we come to the Father thru the Son, and the Spirit directs us to Jesus!

 

Who is we?

 

After reading through this thread, I thought this article might be helpful to some:

Church Membership: De Jure or De Facto?
https://contrast2.wordpress.com/2015/01/28/church-membership-de-jure-or-de-facto/

 

Thanks for sharing this useful link Brandon....welcome to BB.

The New Covenant is our union with Christ. If someone is not united to Christ, they are not part of the New Covenant, period. Therefore the New Covenant establishes the church, which is defined as those who are united to Christ. The visible church is not a separate entity from the invisible church with a different foundation and establishment. The visible church is just that: the visible manifestation of the church (which is singular). LBCF 26.5 says that Christ commands those who have been effectually called to walk together in particular societies/churches. Paragraph 6 says “the members of these churches are saints by calling…” Someone who has not been effectually called is not commanded to be a part of the visible church and they have no right to membership in the church. Their lack of faith nullifies any claim to membership in the church. The issue is simply our ability to know their heart. The New Covenant does not establish a right to membership in the visible church to those who are not united to Christ.

 

from the article;
11. Because we believe that faith is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8) and that all those who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved (Romans 10:13), we have scriptural reasons to presume that all professing believers are true children of God. But because a profession of faith is subjective, there will be false believers in our midst. What is their relation to Christ’s covenant? Objectively, there is none. They do not belong to Christ, supposing they never repent and believe.
However, they are held accountable for their treason. When a spy is discovered, a country should not release him to his own land under the false notion that they do not have authority over him. Quite to the contrary, the spy is accountable to the laws of the land in which he committed his crimes. So also, false believers are not released without action. They are accountable to the King, Jesus Christ, and they are to be removed from the body of Christ by excommunication. The warning passages of Scripture cause the sheep to flee to Christ and the goats to flee from Christ.

 

ibid;
Objection #5: If one maintains that only the converted are members of the church, one proposes that there is a pure church upon earth, which is contrary to the Bible and experience. [This is the poor objection every baptist hears from Presbyterians]

Answer: (1) True believers themselves are still subject to many impurities, and are far from being perfect.
(2) By maintaining that only true believers are members of the church, we do not claim that there are no unconverted in the congregation, but that they are not present as true members there. There neither has been nor will ever be a church upon earth in which there are no unconverted, that is, those who merely travel along; yes, the latter are generally in the majority. There is a significant difference between being in the church, and being of the church.

 

All in the Universal Church are aprt of the true Church of Christ, while only some in the local church are part of that, part of the New Covenant.