Chapter VIII
Usurps
The Family and Kingdom Of God
Many don't realize it, but the Universal theory usurps the
Family of God, and the Kingdom of God as set forth in the Bible. There just isn't
any place for the Family and Kingdom of God, if the Universal theory is true.
But the Scriptures make a very clear distinction between the three. Let us get
some exact distinctions, based thoroughly on the Scriptures.
1 - WHAT IS THE
FAMILY OF GOD? The Family of God includes all of the children of God in
heaven and on earth.
Proof: Ephesians
3:15, where Paul speaks of the "whole Family in heaven and on
earth." The Family includes all believers, for we are told in
Galatians 3 :26 - "Ye are all the children of God through faith in
Jesus Christ." All believers are God's children regardless of time or
age. Since the Old Testament saints were saved by faith in the Christ to come
(Acts 10:43; Romans 4:16) they are all members of God's Family. And note that
God's Family is much larger than the Kingdom or Church of God, for it now
contains all of the saved from Abel to the last person saved today. 'God has
only one Family. All believers are children and heirs of God.
2 - WHAT IS THE
KINGDOM OF GOD? The Kingdom of God includes all the saved on earth at any
given time. In the parables in Matthew 13: the kingdom is used to
include all professors. But inJohn 3:3-5; Matthew 16:19; 11:11; Luke 16:16;
Romans 14:17; Colossians 1:13; John 18:36, the Kingdom is composed of all born
again on the earth. This is not the kingdom of Daniel 2:44; Acts 1:6 and
kindred passages. Those relate to the Millennial Kingdom yet future. What is
often spoken of as "the spiritual kingdom" is composed only of the
truly born again, and who have been "translated out of darkness into light
and into the Kingdom of God's dear Son." In John 3 he plainly says that
except one be born again, he cannot see - he cannot enter, the Kingdom of God.
Recapitulating, the
Family of God includes all of the saved of all ages, whether in heaven or on
earth. The Kingdom of God includes that part of the Family of God
who are on the earth NOW.
3 - WHAT IS THE
'CHURCH OF GOD? The church of God is never used of any institution, except of
an assembly or congregation of baptized believers in some given locality. For
example, "The church of God at Corinth." (1 Corinthians 1:12).
As H. Boyce Taylor
once expressed it:
"The local individual church is the only kind of
church that God has on this earth today. There is only the Family of God
composed of all of the redeemed of all ages in heaven and on earth. There is
only one Kingdom of God, composed of all the born again on the earth now. There
are thousands of churches of God on earth. Every individual Baptist Church is a
church of God. When a man is born again, he is born into God's Family, and he
is a member of G'od's Family forever. The relationship does not change. Whether
in heaven or in earth, he is in God's Family. When he is born again, he also
enters God's kingdom. This relationship is for life. When he dies he passes out
of God's kingdom on earth, and enters "his heavenly kingdom." (See 2
Timothy 4:18). After he is born again, he is NOT YET IN THE CHURCH OF GOD, but
is now a scriptural subject for admission into a church of God. Note Acts 2:47
- "The Lord added to the church daily the saved." Church
membership is not something that one gets with salvation, but a subsequent
blessing he gets after salvation by being added to the church. Baptism is not
essential for entrance into either the Family of God or the Kingdom of God, but
Baptism IS ESSENTIAL to admission into a church of God. Men are born anew into
the Family of God and Kingdom of God, but they are baptized into a church of
God (water baptism) I Corinthians 12:13. The one body referred to by Paul in I
Corinthians 12:13 was the church of God at Corinth. The local church at Corinth
was the body of Christ at that place. The members of the church at Corinth
belonged to only "ONE BODY" of Christ. That body of Christ probably
did not contain all of the saved at Corinth (I Corinthians 1:2) and none of the
saved anywhere else except at Corinth. Since they belonged to only "one
body" and that was the local church at Corinth, Christ has no other kind of
church or body except a local church. If they had belonged to the local church
at Corinth, which Paul said was a body of Christ, and then to the kind of
church that some believe in, composed of all the saved everywhere, they would
have belonged to two churches or bodies of Christ - one local and visible, the
other universal and invisible. The New Testament knows nothing of any such
confusion as this. The church which Paul called "the House of
God" was a local church. The church which Paul said was "the
pillar and ground of the truth" was a local church. The church to
which Christ promised perpetuity (Matthew 16:18) was a local church, for He
never spoke of any other kind. The meaning of ecclesia permits of no other
kind."
The statements just made will bear any sort of
investigation, and the more investigation is made, the deeper will be come the
conviction that Satan has palmed off a tremendous hoax with his Universal
Invisible theory.
Why do the
Scriptures speak of the Kingdom of God and the Family of God, if there is no
distinction to be made between these and the church of God? The Universal
theory certainly engulfs the Family and Kingdom, and along with this likewise
swallows up a lot of truth.