THE MYTH OF
THE UNIVERSAL INVISIBLE CHURCH THEORY EXPLODED
by Elder Roy Mason
(Now In Glory)
CONTENTS
Chapter 1. A THEORY WITHOUT A LEG
TO STAND ON
Chapter 2. WHY
AND WHEN THE THEORY STARTED
Chapter 3. WHAT'S
WRONG WITH THE THEORY
Chapter 4. SOME
CONTROVERTED PASSAGES
Chapter 5. FALSIFIES
THE DATE OF THE CHURCH'S BEGINNING
Chapter 6. WRONG
ON HOW THE CHURCH IS CONSTITUTED
Chapter 7. SOME
ADDITIONAL INDICTMENTS
Chapter 8. USURPS
THE FAMILY AND KINGDOM OF GOD
Chapter 9. WHICH
LOCAL CHURCH IS THE TRUE CHURCH?
Chapter 10. THE
TRUE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH IDENTIFIED
Chapter 11. THE
LINKED CHAIN BUGABOO
Chapter 12. WHO
WILL THE BRIDE BE?
A
Theory Without A Leg To Stand On
One of the most widespread theories of this day is the
theory that the church that Jesus founded was not a local, visible assembly,
but a Universal Invisible Church to which all believers belong, and of which
they were made a part through a mysterious, mystical Holy Spirit baptism. It
will be the purpose of the author to show the fallacy of this theory in this
book.
Most heresies have
plausible arguments to justify them. Scriptures are taken out of context and
made to bolster up error, or else ignoring the uniform teaching of the
Scriptures concerning a certain thing, certain verses are pressed into use to
make a false teaching seem reasonable. But the heresy of the Universal Church,
doesn't really have anything to back it up. It simply will not bear honest
investigation. Yet, the Universal theory is one of the most popular, and one of
the most commonly held of all teachings. Liberals and Conservatives alike make
use of this false doctrine. Indeed, it is a doctrine that is fundamental to
many of their other beliefs. Many otherwise orthodox writers assume the
Universal Church theory as a matter of course, and so popular is it that the
correctness of it is seldom even questioned. Only a wise and wily Satan could
have put over this doctrine so skillfully. But let us remember that Satan is
the great counterfeiter. He has a counterfeit for every true doctrine of the
Bible. I taught in a Bible school for young ministers for some years, and I
challenged my classes to name a single doctrine of the Christian faith that
Satan has not devised a counterfeit for. Every student pondered my challenge,
but none were ever able to mention any doctrine for which Satan has not devised
a counterfeit.
Why have so many
able preachers come to hold the doctrine of the Universal Church? Most of such
have just adopted it without careful examination. It is a part of the current
theological jargon of the times, and they have swallowed it down unthinkingly.
The writer is a Premillennialist - and without apology, but he has heard many a
Premillennial speaker ring the changes on the "CHOORCH" as they
pronounced it. Over and over again they spoke of the "Rapture of the
CHOORCH," yet the Scripture they referred to, says nothing about "The
rapture of the church," Look at I Thessalonians 4:15-16. What does it say?
"For the
Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the
archangel and the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then
we which are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the
clouds to meet the Lord in the air."
Note that there is
no mention of the CHURCH. It says "The dead in Christ," and
"We which are alive and remain." The word church is not used.
Reference is to believers. "Oh,' says someone, "but it means the
Church." That is pure assumption - that is part of a theory. All believers
are NOT members of the genuine church - the one that Jesus started. This I
shall prove as I go along.
I am writing as one
who was once addicted to the Universal theory, and the word "addict"
properly expresses it. That theory was a part of my theological thinking. Where
did I get it? I got it from two sources - the Scofield Bible notes, and the
Scofield Bible course. Let me pause to say that generally speaking, I consider
Dr. Scofield a great Bible scholar. A Bible scholar today is often thought of
as a man who is a critical researcher into such questions as "did John
write the Apocalypse, or is it a forgery;" "were there three Isaiahs
or one?" Their knowledge is not of the Scriptures, but of critical
theories that seek to discredit the Scriptures. Dr. Scofield was a student of
the Bible itself. He and his associates did a colossal work in preparing the
Scofield Bible. I like the arrangement of that Bible very much and would not
take $500. for my copy, if I could not buy another. Dr. Scofield had a Bible
correspondence course on the market for about twenty-five years. At his death,
the Moody Bible Institute took it over, and it is continued until this day. I
took this course, which was designed to cover a period of two years study, and
I had the distinction of completing the course in the shortest time of any
student who had taken it up to that date. So- what I am saying is that I had a
thorough dose of Scofieldism, most of which was helpful, but I became
thoroughly inoculated with the Universal Church theory. At a Baptist
associational meeting I heard a staunch Baptist preacher bring a sermon in
which he combated the Universal theory, and presented the view that Baptist
churches have had continuous history from the days of Christ, and are to be
identified with the church which He started in the days of His flesh. I went
away from the meeting very angry, and determined to write a booklet such as to
refute the views that I had listened to. But honest study along that line is
fatal to the holder of the Universal theory. I spent several months collecting
data concerning the history of Baptists and others, together with a study of
the Universal theory. The result was, I discovered to my chagrin that the
preacher who had so angered me was right. Out of my study developed my book,
"The Church That Jesus Built," which has gone through some ten
editions and has never been refuted. Incidentally, the preacher who had angered
me, liked my book very much and bought and circulated many copies.
I was a great
admirer of Dr. Scofield, as I have already indicated, but no man is infallible.
We should not follow any human teacher with such blind adulation that we fail
to search the Scriptures for ourselves. Dr. Scofield was as far from the truth
on the church question as it is possible to get. The Bible doesn't indicate
that Jesus is the author of but one kind of church, but Scofield has several
kinds of churches in his writings. He writes to the "church visible",
"the church local", "the true church" and so on. As I
examined the Scriptures, I had to take what God says rather than what Scofield
and others say. I wonder how many who read this book will be willing to take
the same step I took when I renounced my precious Universal theory? I wonder
how many will throw aside prejudice such as to face the fact that the Universal
theory is utterly without Scripture backing, and is the author of some of the
worst heresies that we know anything about.
Baptists didn't use
to fall for the Universal theory. The staunch old Baptist scholars and
historians of the past were believers in the perpetuity of Baptist churches
through the centuries, back to the days of Christ. But we are in a
liberalistic, ecumenical period, when Baptist teachers in our schools and
seminaries are loose in their views. They want to fit in with what is currently
popular, so many of these have espoused the Universal theory.