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evident from the historical origin of the distinction between the visible and the invisible Church
in the days of the Reformation. The Bible ascribes certain glorious attributes to the Church and
represents her as a medium of saving and eternal blessings. Rome applied this to the Church as
an external institution, more particularly to the ecclesia representativa or the hierarchy as the
distributor of the blessings of salvation, and thus ignored and virtually denied the immediate
and direct communion of God with His children, by placing a human mediatorial priesthood
between them. This is the error which the Reformers sought to eradicate by stressing the fact
that the Church of which the Bible says such glorious things is not the Church as an external
institution, but the Church as the spiritual body of Jesus Christ, which is essentially invisible at
present, though it has a relative and imperfect embodiment in the visible Church and is
destined to have a perfect visible embodiment at the end of the ages.
The invisible Church naturally assumes a visible form. Just as the human soul is adapted to a
body and expresses itself through the body, so the invisible Church, consisting, not of mere
souls but of human beings having souls and bodies, necessarily assumes a visible form in an
external organization through which it expresses itself. The Church becomes visible in Christian
profession and conduct, in the ministry of the Word and of the sacraments, and in external
organization and government. By making this distinction between the invisible and the visible
Church, McPherson says, “Protestantism sought to find the proper mean between the magical
and supernatural externalism of the Romish idea and the extravagant depreciation of all
outward rites, characteristic of fanatical and sectarian spiritualism.”[Chr. Dogmatics, p. 417.] It
is very important to bear in mind that, though both the invisible and the visible Church can be
considered as universal, the two are not in every respect commensurate. It is possible that
some who belong to the invisible Church never become members of the visible organization, as
missionary subjects who are converted on their deathbeds, and that others are temporarily
excluded from it, as erring believers who are for a time shut out from the communion of the
visible Church. On the other hand there may be unregenerated children and adults who, while
professing Christ, have no true faith in Him, in the Church as an external institution; and these,
as long as they are in that condition, do not belong to the invisible Church. Good definitions of
the visible and invisible Church may be found in the Westminster Confession.
3. THAT BETWEEN THE CHURCH AS AN ORGANISM AND THE CHURCH AS AN INSTITUTION.
This distinction should not be identified with the preceding one, as is sometimes done. It is a
distinction that applies to the visible Church and that directs attention to two different aspects
of the Church considered as a visible body.[Cf. Kuyper, Enc. III, p. 204; Bavinck, Geref. Dogm.
IV., p. 331; Ten Hoor, Afscheiding of Doleantie, pp. 88 f.; Doekes, De Moeder der Geloovigen,
pp. 10 f.; Steen, De Kerk, pp. 51 ff.] It is a mistake to think that the Church becomes visible only
in the offices, in the administration of the Word and the sacraments, and in a certain form of