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John Martignoni talks about the concept of the invisible church often taught in Protestantism. For this recording in its entirety or other great recordings, please visit www.biblechristiansociety.com

It should be obvious to anyone who has read even a cursory of the New Testament that Jesus established a church while on Earth. So how could anyone possibly claim to be a part of the church that Jesus established if their particular church has its beginnings in the past few hundred years? For the longest time this was something I could not understand. If you were in the true church of Christ, shouldn’t it at least be 2,000 years old? Over the years of talking to people I have found that the most common way that non-Catholics explain this is to say that the church that Jesus started is an invisible, spiritual church that consists of all believers of Christ. Any Christian, regardless of denomination, belongs to this church. Well, let us investigate this claim a little further. Did Jesus establish an invisible church that consists of all believers in him? All believers of Christ are a member of this church no matter what religion they belong to or where they worship on Sunday, and Jesus does not care what denomination you belong to. Well, for this to be the case, one of two possible scenarios would have to be true. Because there are currently thousands of Christian denominations who all believe something different from each other, either doctrine does not matter or it is acceptable to have conflicting doctrine within the body of Christ.

Well, let us answer the first of these possibilities. Does doctrine matter? We see in 1 Timothy 1:3 that Paul says “Stay in Ephesus to instruct certain people not to teach false doctrines.” Doctrine sounds pretty important here. What about 1 Timothy 4:1 where it says “Now the Spirit explicitly says that in the last times some will turn away from the faith by paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.” So you can depart from the faith by listening to false doctrine. In Titus 1:9 it says “Holding fast to the true message as taught so that he will be able both to exhort with sound doctrine and to refute opponents.” It should be clear that doctrine is important. These are truths passed on to us by Jesus Christ.

If doctrine is important, which is what I am sure most Christians would agree with, then for the body of Christ to be an invisible, spiritual church of believers, it must be true that you can have conflicting doctrine in the body of Christ. A Protestant might say that even though we disagree on some non-essential doctrines, we pretty much agree on all the essential doctrines. If anyone ever tells you this, ask them to show you in their Bible the page that says which doctrines are essential and which are not. Or better yet, ask them to show you where Jesus said his followers only had to agree on the basics. We should know that Jesus never said such a thing. In Matthew 4:4 Jesus says “It is written: One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.” It does not say only some words from God or only the essential words from God, but every word. In Matthew 5:18 Jesus says “Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus is concerned with the smallest letter of doctrine here, and does not want people to break even the least commandment. In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus says “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Jesus does not say to teach them only some of what I have commanded you or only the basics of what I have commanded you, but all of what I have commanded you.

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