1 Corinthians 12:12-13

[JerryNumbers]

That's pretty arrogant. Good job sticking to your guns and rebuffing him. I'm always baffled by pastors who don't quite grasp the whole ecclesiastic separation thing.

 

I once worked with this boys father, he was just a young tot at the time, his father was a drunk, spent most of his money drinking & running around, leaving his wife to take care of their children.

 

When we had this conversation he had just moved back to our town being called to be the youth pastor at the local SCB he had attended some as a young boy.

 

I was very happy how he turned out yet disappointed at his lack of understanding. This local SBC has some very conservative members, yet it has many liberal members, & as the older members die off the liberal members are taking charge, its only a shadow of what it was 20 years ago. Of course our churches are having the same problems.

[JerryNumbers]

It is both a local assembly and the entire collection of believers. Paul's epistles were written to individual churches, including Ephesians which I referenced above to show that Christ is the head of every church. I don't think anyone tried to say that salvation and spiritual baptism were dependent on church membership. If church membership presumes one is already saved, which I argued above, then you're making a false argument.

 

Additionally you won't find anywhere in the Bible a mention of a church being a place. Rather what you find are references of a church being AT a place: "unto the church of God which is at Corinth" (1 Cor 1:2; 2 Cor 1:1), "unto the churches of Galatia" (Gal 1:2), "to the saints which are at Ephesus" (Eph 1:1), "to all the saints in Christ jesus which are at Philippi" (Phi 1:1), "to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Collosse" (Col 1:2), "unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Thess 1:1), "unto the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." (2 Thess 1:1). Paul's opening greetings are consistent and his interchanging use of "church" with "saints/brethren" makes clear that the church is equated with the group of believers. Even more telling is Paul's candid statement that a church meets somewhere rather than people meeting in a church somewhere (1 Cor 16:19).

 

My position in sum is that people are brought by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ (collectively speaking) the moment they are saved and that the local church is the representative body of Christ that carries out His work in a certain location.

 

Amen!

 

Seems we have many that wants to turn us Baptist into a church such as the RCC, make it one big universal church. Seems there's a war against the local church. The teaching of the RCC sure have its influence on many.

[swathdiver]

No, the "called out assembly" is the body born again believers in heaven and on earth. They make up the body of Christ with Christ as the head. This union comes through the spiritual baptism of the Holy Ghost upon salvation not when you decide to join a local church and be baptized or send out any transfer letters. A local church is just a meeting place of these believers that have been called out. Once you make the local church (any of them) the body of Christ you are opening the door to all kinds of heresies and "we are the one true church" teachings just like the RCC and every other cult teach including Baptist Briderism. A local church can contain unbelievers who are children of the devil, the body of Christ does NOT contain children of the devil. The thief on the cross did not have anytime to join his local church.

 

Thank you ASOD, what scripture verses helped you come to this conclusion?  Did you also study and make note of the verses used to support the other position by chance?  Do any on either side seem to contradict or support the other?