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struggles, but that she is duty bound to carry on an incessant warfare against the hostile world
in every form in which it reveals itself, whether in the Church or outside of it, and against all the
spiritual forces of darkness. The Church may not spend all her time in prayer and meditation,
however necessary and important these may be, nor may she rest on her oars in the peaceful
enjoyment of her spiritual heritage. She must be engaged with all her might in the battles of her
Lord, fighting in a war that is both offensive and defensive. If the Church on earth is the militant
Church, the Church in heaven is the triumphant Church. There the sword is exchanged for the
palm of victory, the battle-cries are turned into songs of triumph, and the cross is replaced by
the crown. The strife is over, the battle is won, and the saints reign with Christ forever and ever.
In these two stages of her existence the Church reflects the humiliation and exaltation of her
heavenly Lord. Roman Catholics speak, not only of a militant and triumphant, but also of a
suffering Church. This Church, according to them, includes all those believers who are no more
on earth, but have not yet entered the joys of heaven, and are now being purified in purgatory
of their remaining sins.
2. THAT BETWEEN A VISIBLE AND AN INVISIBLE CHURCH.
This means that the Church of God is
on the one hand visible, and on the other invisible. It is said that Luther was the first to make
this distinction, but the other Reformers recognized and also applied it to the Church. This
distinction has not always been properly understood. The opponents of the Reformers often
accused them of teaching that there are two separate Churches. Luther perhaps gave some
occasion for this charge by speaking of an invisible ecclesiola within the visible ecclesia. But
both he and Calvin stress the fact that, when they speak of a visible and an invisible Church,
they do not refer to two different Churches, but to two aspects of the one Church of Jesus
Christ. The term “invisible” has been variously interpreted as applying (a) to the triumphant
Church; (b) to the ideal and completed Church as it will be at the end of the ages; (c) to the
Church of all lands and all places, which man cannot possibly see; and (d) to the Church as it
goes in hiding in the days of persecution, and is deprived of the Word and the sacraments. Now
it is undoubtedly true that the triumphant Church is invisible to those who are on earth, and
that Calvin in his Institutes also conceives of this as included in the invisible Church, but the
distinction was undoubtedly primarily intended to apply to the militant Church. As a rule it is so
applied in Reformed theology. It stresses the fact that the Church as it exists on earth is both
visible and invisible. This Church is said to be invisible, because she is essentially spiritual and in
her spiritual essence cannot be discerned by the physical eye; and because it is impossible to
determine infallibly who do and who do not belong to her. The union of believers with Christ is
a mystical union; the Spirit that unites them constitutes an invisible tie; and the blessings of
salvation, such as regeneration, genuine conversion, true faith, and spiritual communion with
Christ, are all invisible to the natural eye; — and yet these things constitute the real forma
(ideal character) of the Church. That the term “invisible” should be understood in this sense, is