A Visible Church: How?

[clmowry]

If the Church is visible I should be able to walk into any church and have the true members of Christ’s body pointed out to me. Can you do that? Can you say this person is a member of Christ’s true body? I don’t think so because only God knows what a person truly believes and does. If you can’t point to anyone and say they are definitely a part of the true body, how can you say that the true Church is visible? Or do you say that Christ’s body has unbelievers or those of no faith in it?

 

[Teflon93]

Did Christ create invisible wine? Invisible loaves? Invisible fish?

Did he fashion an invisible whip to drive the moneylenders from the Temple?

Why do you think he would create an “invisible church”?

This is typical Protestant reasoning well after the fact.

The “invisible church” notion only exists because Protestants need to explain away the very visible Catholic Church in order to justify the actions of their founders.

At least the Jehovah’s Witnesses are willing to follow this line of reasoning all the way to the end.

 

[Pax]

If a family is a visible entity then the Church is also a visible entity.

Even if someone claimed to be a member of a family but was not, the family would still be visible. So it is with the Church and her members.

 

[fellowChristian]

This is a question founded in ignorance. Please help if you can:

Talking with a pastor/friend a certain point was brought up, which I thought to be rather good. He asked me how Christ could establish a visible Church if the Church is the community of believers (the “Communion of Saints,” in other terms) and we cannot truly know who is or is not a believer.

“Are the buildings a part of the Church …? How can the Church be visible if it’s a matter of the heart: an internal matter, in other words?”

I thought this was interesting. I think it goes without saying that the Church is an organization, an institution, as well as a family and a community. But where does the former come in?

First, ask him to prove from the Bible that the Bible is the only rule of faith (if he’s an Evangelical or Fundamentalist Protestant he holds to the Reformation theory of sola scriptura—the Bible alone).

Second, have him tell you how he knows which books belong in the Bible in the first place.

And third, require that he prove to you both that he has the authority to interpret the Bible for you (remember that his doctrines will almost always be drawn from interpretations of the sacred text rather than the words themselves) and that his interpretations will always be accurate.

For a more detailed example of how the conversation should go, click here—
catholic.com/library/What_Your_Authority.asp