SemperFiDawg
Political Forum Arbiter of Truth (And Lies Too)
I know local churches have hypocrites in them, but you can’t separate Jesus from His church. He built the church. Leftists do the same thing with Jesus and Paul, as if the two had conflicting messages.
It is imperative that a distinction is made here. There are 2 different kinds of 'Church'. There is the spiritual 'Church' that consist of believers. It exists in the spiritual realm and is part of the Kingdom of Heaven. The membership of this Church is known only to Christ and the members thereof.
Then there is the physical 'church' that basically is in essence, 'meeting halls' where believers congregate. This encompasses everything from the vast empire of the Roman Catholic Church to the little country church at the fork in the road, and is what most people think of when 'church' is mentioned. The distinction must be made between the two, because as you and others have noted, being a member of one has absolutely no bearing on if you are a member of the other. God, religion, and church have a bad name because of the physical church, not the spiritual one, yet most people are ignorant of the distinction and it's bearing on the entire context of the conversation. There's not a reply in this thread that isn't impacted by this fact.