Loveland Protestant Reformed Church
709 East 57th
Street; Loveland, CO 80538
Services: 9:30 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. June through
August)
Vol. 5, No. 23 Pastor: Rev. G. Van Baren Phone: (970)
667-9481
Homepage on Internet: http://www.prca.org
Contents:
In speaking of the church, the Bible does not always use the word in the same way. It never uses the word to refer to the building in which a congregation meets, but it does use the word to refer both to the local congregations (I Cor. 1:2, Rev. 2:1, 8, 12, etc.) and to the whole body of those who are chosen and saved (Eph. 1:21).
This distinction between the church as the body of Christ and the church as the local congregation is referred to differently. Sometimes the church as local congregation is called the church institute or the visible church, because it has a visible, institutional form in the world. Likewise, the body of the redeemed is sometimes called the church organism or the invisible church because it is alive in Christ (organism) and because that body is spiritual and invisible (we cannot mark its boundaries).
The distinction is also very important. The church as body includes only God's elect and redeemed people (I Pet. 2:9), while the local congregations always contain hypocrites (Rev. 2:14-15, 3:17-18). The church as body includes those who have already died and those who have not yet been born (they too are chosen). The church as congregation includes only those who are on earth at a particular time in history.
So, too, there are many congregations (Rev. 2 & 3), but there is every only ONE body of Christ (I Cor. 12:12). That body cannot be harmed or destroyed by its enemies (Matt. 16:18), but particular congregations can be and often are (I Cor. 1:11, Rev. 3:1, 16). A local congregation can even lose its place "among the candlesticks" as a church of Christ (Rev. 2:5). The distinction between the church in these two senses needs to be remembered, therefore, lest we become confused.
This distinction is important also in connection with church membership. While we have an obligation to join ourselves to the visible church, that is, to a local congregation (Heb. 10:25), it is God who joins us to the body of Christ by election and the blood of calvary (Col. 1:12-14).
Nevertheless, we must remember that while these two uses of the word church can be distinguished, they do overlap. It is a part of the body of Christ that is found in the local congregations, and only because a part of His body is there can the local congregation even be called the church.
What we are saying is that the CHURCH in the truest sense of the word is the company and body of those who are saved only, but that church is found in the world in the local congregations where not everyone is saved. Nevertheless those congregations are rightly called "church" in Scripture and in our own speech because the redeemed are there, just as the nation of Israel was called that because of the presence of the true Israel. (Rom. 2:28, 29, 9:6, Gal. 3:29).
Let us, then, learn Scripture's teaching concerning the church and we will also learn to love and honor the church both as the Body of Christ and in its institutional form.
Rev. Ronald Hanko
He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. Revelation 3:5
I am always appreciative of the thoughtful questions which are submitted by our readers. And I am doubly appreciative that at least some of our readers do not simply accept the answers which I propose to difficult texts. They study the answers and search the Scriptures to be sure that these answers agree with the Word of God. That can only be of benefit to the saints and to the church of Christ.
Such people remind me of the Bereans who "received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so" (Acts 17:11).
* * * *
One such reader sent in a follow-up question to something I had written on these pages.
The reader had originally asked about the text quoted above, and specifically about the question of whether one could be blotted out of the book of life, seeing that the book of life referred to the eternal decree of divine election.
I answered that question, apparently to the satisfaction of the reader, who wrote: "I am entirely agreed with the treatment of Rev. 3:5."
However, I made some statement to the effect that the Scriptures did not often speak of being blotted out of the book of life. I am not sure exactly what I did write, and I do not have the original article before me. But it was something to that effect.
And so the reader responded: "[Your response] leaves me with a problem: Why is it that you are not aware of texts which specifically speak of God blotting out their names? Rev. 22:19, (Cf. Deut. 28:15ff.), Ex. 32:33, Ps. 69:28?"
Let us take a brief look at each one of these texts.
* * * *
Rev. 22:19 reads: "And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book."
I probably should have explained myself a bit more because the AV surely speaks here of God taking away a man's part from the book of life.
The reason why I did not refer specifically to this passage is that the original Greek does not use the expression "book of life," but uses instead, "the wood of life." The Greek word for "book" is "biblios," from which we get our English word, "Bible." While the KJV translators translated this expression, "book of life," other translations translate the expression, "tree of life," a translation closer to the Greek. The same word is used, e.g., in Gal. 3:13, where the text reads: ". . . cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree."
* * * *
I can find no reference to the book of life in Deut. 28:15ff. Perhaps the reader can write again and be a bit more specific.
* * * *
Exodus 32:33 reads: "And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book."
The reader surely has a point here. While the expression "to blot out of book of life" is not used, the "book" referred to by God in speaking to Moses is surely "the book of life."
* * * *
The final verse quoted is Psalm 69:28: "Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous."
I did not include this verse because I interpreted the expression "the book of the living" to be a figurative reference to those who are living upon the earth, and not to the decree of election. I took the expression to mean that the wicked who are described in the Psalm shall be driven out of the world and, when they die, they will not be numbered among the righteous.
So this is my answer. The reader may write again. Prof. H. Hanko
What is Reformed Evangelism? (6)
In this last installment on Reformed evangelism there are several more things we wish to emphasize.
First, and In connection with our last article, we wish to point out that evangelism is the calling of the church and must be pursued vigorously, both within and outside the church. The fact that God does not desire the salvation of all men without exception and that the gospel throughout history is only preached when and where God wills, should not limit the church or cause her to neglect her work.
In the work of evangelism the church of Jesus Christ, in obedience to His command, for the glory of God, and for the salvation of God's elect, must seek and pray for the opportunity to preach the gospel (Col. 4:3-4, II Thess. 3:1), for men to preach it (Matt. 9:37-38), and for fruit on the work of preaching (Rom. 10:1). And, when God graciously gives the means, men, and opportunity, then she must use that opportunity to the utmost.
Indeed, the opportunity to preach the gospel (referred to in Scripture as an "open door" - Rev. 3:8) is seen as one of the blessings God in Christ gives to the church when she is faithful. What a disgrace if the church despises that blessing of God!
Second, we wish to clarify what we said in the previous article about evangelism as the work of the church. If it is the calling of the church to do evangelism and to engage in missions, then it is also her calling to support those who are sent to do that work. Missionaries and evangelists are preachers of the gospel and it is to the preachers of the gospel, wherever they labor, that Scripture refers in such passages as I Cor. 9:7-14. We abhor the practice, common in so many places, of sending the mission preachers out to raise their own support. So too if mission work is the work of the church, it the calling of the church to provide this support, not mission societies and mission boards.
Third, we need to emphasize the fact that because evangelism is the work of the church all believers have an important part in that work, though they themselves do not preach. They have the important calling to pray for the work, to support it in that way and with their gifts, and to be themselves witnesses of the truth in all their life. Without faithfulness on the part of God's people, no evangelism work can prosper.
May this important and necessary work be done faithfully, therefore, and may God add
His indispensable blessing to it. Rev. Ronald Hanko