The Last Reformation | Page 8

inevitable result of this inward life and love.
[Sidenote: Local church defined]
By the impartation of spiritual life to believers and by the agency of the
Holy Spirit operating in the apostles as special agents appointed to do
his work, Christ built his church on earth. There was a building of the
church, then, which pertained specifically to its local and visible
development among men. The expression "I will build" indicates the
transcendent element, the divine element, in church organization. This
being true, it follows that the local church was not merely an aggregate
of individuals accidently gathered together, but was the local, concrete
embodiment of the spiritual body of Christ; the unified company of
regenerated persons who, as a body, were dedicated to Christ,
acknowledged of Christ, and used by Christ through the Holy Spirit for
the accomplishment of his work. Jerusalem furnishes the first example,
dating from Pentecost (Acts 2).
[Sidenote: Particular example: Corinth]
That this is, generally speaking, the Scriptural definition of a local
church of God, is further shown by another particular example. Paul
addressed two of his epistles "to the church of God which is at Corinth"
(1 Cor. 1: 2; 2 Cor. 1: 1). As individuals they are called "saints" and
"brethren," but collectively as a church they are called "the church of
God" and referred to as "God's building" (1 Cor. 3: 9). And the apostle

says to them, "Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the
_Spirit of God dwelleth in you_?" (verse 16, R.V.). They had been
inducted by the Spirit into the "one body," and they were filled with the
gifts of the Spirit--wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles,
prophecy, discernment, and tongues (chap. 12). In fact, the apostle said,
"Ye come behind in no gift" (chap. 1: 7). And he said particularly,
"_Ye are the body of Christ_" (chap. 12: 27).
A true local church, then, was the concrete embodiment of the spiritual
body of Christ in a given place. It was the body of Christ because it was
made up of the people of God, manifested the power of God, was the
repository of the truth of God, was filled with the gifts of the Spirit of
God, and was actually used by the Spirit in performing the works of
God. Such characteristics made it "the church of God."
[Sidenote: Local membership]
Membership in the general body of Christ was conditioned solely on
the new birth, or salvation. Since the individual church was the local
embodiment of the general church, none but the saved could properly
become members thereof, and all who were truly saved (in the same
locality) belonged to it by divine right. At this point, however, the
human element in the constitution of the local church became manifest.
We have pointed out the divine element in the true church--the element
that particularly distinguished it as the church of God, but the bringing
together of many individuals in one assembly involved also a social
element and required the principle of recognition. There is, however,
no evidence that such recognition was given by a formal, official act of
the church in its corporate capacity. And since salvation is of the heart,
it was possible for human recognition to temporarily miss its true
purpose. Thus, in the church at Jerusalem we find recognized as a
constituent part of the assembly two false members--Ananias and
Sapphira. On the other hand, when the converted Saul "was come to
Jerusalem, he essayed to join himself to the disciples: but they were all
afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple" (Acts 9: 26). The
church at Corinth, already referred to, had some false members at the
time the Pauline epistles were written. The church at Samaria also

tolerated for a time one whose "heart was not right in the sight of God"
(Acts 8).
[Sidenote: A holy church]
Since the local church was designed to exhibit concretely the spiritual
body of Christ, none but saved persons could properly hold
membership therein; therefore the local church when in its normal
condition was free from sin and sinners. The physical body, which Paul
uses to illustrate the spiritual body, is normal only when every member
possesses the life of the body and functions properly. So also was the
body of Christ. It was not God's will that there should be (as recognized
members) "sinners in the congregation of the righteous" (Psa. 1: 5). It
was his will to purge Jerusalem "by the spirit of judgment and by the
spirit of burning" until "he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in
Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among
the living in Jerusalem" (Isa. 4:3,4).
[Sidenote: Discernment and judgement necessary]
The local