Visible and Invisible Church
The Church you can see, and the Church only God can — and how far the two overlap
This is the distinction between the Church as an outward, visible institution and the Church as the true company of the elect known only to God. Rooted in Augustine and developed by the Reformers, it is emphasized in Protestant ecclesiology. Catholic and Orthodox traditions, by contrast, stress the identity of the true Church with the visible communion itself, so the traditions differ over how sharply the visible and invisible may be distinguished.
How it traveled
- City of GodHippo Regius · c. 430 CEexplains
- Book Fourth. of the Holy Catholic ChurchGeneva · c. 1564 CEexplains
- Prefatory MaterialGeneva · c. 1564 CEexplains
- Inquiry Concerning Qualification for CommunionNorthampton, Massachusetts · c. 1758 CEexplains
Key passages(20)
Each passage is tagged by what it does with the idea: explains it, applies it in practice, redefines it with a new meaning, or challenges it. Relevance shows how directly the passage is about this idea.
Book Fourth. of the Holy Catholic Church · John Calvin
2. When in the Creed we profess to believe the Church, reference is made not only to the visible Church of which we are now treating, but also to all the elect of God, including in the number even tho
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Inquiry Concerning Qualification for Communion · Jonathan Edwards
None ought to be admitted as members of the visible church of Christ but visible and professing saints. I begin with observing, I think it is both evident by the word of God, and also granted on all
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Inquiry Concerning Qualification for Communion · Jonathan Edwards
1. According to this hypothesis, the words saints, disciples, and Christians, are used four ways in the New Testament, as applies to four sorts of persons. (1.) To those that in truth and reality are
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66. God keeps us united in the fellowship of Christ by means of Ecclesiastical and Civil government. 67. In Ecclesiastical government Three things are considered. 1. What is the Church? 2. How is it
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Prefatory Material · John Calvin
The hinges on which the controversy turns are these: first, in their contending that the form of the Church is always visible and apparent; and, secondly, in their placing this form in the see of the
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Book Fourth. of the Holy Catholic Church · John Calvin
6. Moreover, as at this time there is a great dispute as to the efficacy of the ministry, some extravagantly overrating its dignity, and others erroneously maintaining, that what is peculiar to the Sp
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Book Fourth. of the Holy Catholic Church · John Calvin
8. Accordingly, inasmuch as it was of importance to us to recognise it, the Lord has distinguished it by certain marks, and as it were symbols. It is, indeed, the special prerogative of God to know th
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City of God · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 49.—Of the Indiscriminate Increase of the Church, Wherein Many Reprobate are in This World Mixed with the Elect. In this wicked world, in these evil days, when the Church measures her future
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City of God · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 35.—Of the Sons of the Church Who are Hidden Among the Wicked, and of False Christians Within the Church. Let these and similar answers (if any fuller and fitter answers can be found) be give
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On Christian Doctrine · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 32.—The Second Rule of Tichonius. 45. The second rule is about the twofold division of the body of the Lord; but this indeed is not a suitable name, for that is really no part of the body of
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Sinners in Zion Tenderly Warned · Jonathan Edwards
Showing who are sinners in Zion. There are two kinds of persons among God’s professing people; the one, those who are truly godly, spoken of in the verse following the text: 5th and 6th verses., ther
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Inquiry Concerning Qualification for Communion · Jonathan Edwards
There are not properly two sorts of saints spoken of in Scripture. Though the word saints may be said indeed to be used two ways in Scripture, or used so as to reach two sorts of persons; yet the word
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Inquiry Concerning Qualification for Communion · Jonathan Edwards
The Scripture calls the members of the visible church by the name of disciples, scholars, or learners: and that suggests to us this notion of the visible church, that it is the school of Christ, into
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Book Fourth. of the Holy Catholic Church · John Calvin
OF THE TRUE CHURCH. DUTY OF CULTIVATING UNITY WITH HER, AS THE MOTHER OF ALL THE GODLY. The three divisions of this chapter are,—I. The article of the Creed concerning the Holy Catholic Church and th
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Book Fourth. of the Holy Catholic Church · John Calvin
3. Moreover, this article of the Creed relates in some measure to the external Church, that every one of us must maintain brotherly concord with all the children of God, give due authority to the Chur
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On the Catechising of the Uninstructed · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 19.—Of the Co-Existence of Good and Evil in the Church, and Their Final Separation. 31. “Neither ought we to be moved by the consideration that many consent unto the devil, and few follow God
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Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist · Augustine of Hippo
104. Augustin answered: I also might say, You when you are infected put on Optatus the betrayer, the robber, the oppressor, the separater of husband and wife; but far be it from me that the desire of
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Inquiry Concerning Qualification for Communion · Jonathan Edwards
The venerable author of the Appeal to the Learned, says, page 10. “That this scripture has no particular reference to the Lord’s supper.” I answer, though I do not suppose it has merely a reference to
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Inquiry Concerning Qualification for Communion · Jonathan Edwards
The same is manifest by the parable of the ten virgins, Matt. xxv.. In the first verse it is said, “The kingdom of heaven (i.e. the church of Christ) is likened unto ten virgins.” The two sorts of vir
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Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John · Augustine of Hippo
12. I also will put questions; let us meanwhile lay aside the inquiry as to whom this was said, “My dove is one, the only one of her mother;”—as yet we are inquiring;—it was said either to me or to th
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