If you belong to Christ, you are part of the Universal Church. That title doesn’t apply to any one church alone.
“The universal church is often termed invisible, yet the New Testament never speaks of the invisible church. Even as members of a local church are concrete people, so are members of the universal church. It is true that the New Testament uses the term ekklesia for the spiritual reality of the body of Christ and also for the assembly, in which the genuineness of the spiritual reality of every individual professing member cannot be known. To this extent the exact membership in any individual church and the universal church at large cannot be known and is thereby invisible. But even this. invisible membership is very
visible in the reality of life. As for membership in an invisible church without fellowship with any local assembly, this concept is never contemplated in the New Testament. The universal church was the universal fellowship of believers who met visibly
in local assemblies.”
- Earl D. Radmacher, “The Nature of the Church” (Doctor’s diss., Dallas
Theological Seminary, 1962), p. 190. Radmacher notes that out of thirteen occurrences of ekklesia in the books of Ephesians and Colossians, all but two (Col 4:15-16) have this universal reference to spiritual
unity. - Hort, f.’ 169; Schmidt, p. 534, considers the distinction between the
invisib e and visible church as a fonn of unrealistic Platonism.
The Church in God’s Program © 1972 by
THE MOODY BIBLE INSTITUTE
OF CHICAGO
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