Idea of the Church

I have been reading the book by McCrie and The Doctrine of the Church in Scottish Theology, and I've been having some trouble with some of the constructs of ecclesiology in history, vis-a-vis the Independents and Romish churches. I thought about posting this in Church Order, but since this has more to do with the theology of the church in history I thought it was more prudent to post it here. So my question has more to do with the difference with the visibility and invisibility of the church.

Here are some of Augustine's ideas in the book by McCrie,
In the first place, I know this (1) is the classical view of the protestants throughout Europe during the reformation. But for those who don't understand what I am saying here--in effect what the church has said throughout the centuries--I will explain and outline.

1. Presbyterian/Reformed view,
2. Separatist/Independence view (Baptist),
3. Papist externalism or formalism.

My problem is trying to make sense of (2) and (1). Some have stated that the church is not locally visible but merely invisible, much like the Separatist. My problem has a lot to do with the compulsory responsibility of "churchless" Christians to become members of a church (visible). It is my belief that one cannot be a true member of the church (invisible) without belonging to the visible church (WCF 25.2). (I would like the add that I am not making the similar mistakes that the Popish church makes when they say that joining the visible church is joining the invisible church, for the eternal Word is what gives birth. The reason I think that is because I, as a Presbyterian protestant, hold to the two-fold distinction of the church, as did St. Augustine. In fact, throughout the history of the church I do not believe that Roman Catholics ever held to this two-fold distinction, as noted by McCrie.)

Attached Files

A Blog about Ecclesiology in History.doc (68.0 KB, 5 views)