The men who made The Reformation were not men who started out with an ambition to be Reformers, nor even heretics.
Their sole ambition and one supreme aim was simply to be Christians: Christians according to the truth of God as in His Word and Spirit.
This became the life of each one of them. And this made them to be both heretics and Reformers: heretics first of all, and throughout all their days and afterward, in that age; but later and now Reformers.
The Roman church claims that the church is rightly defined to be:--
The society of the validly baptized faithful united together in one body by the profession of the same faith, by the participation of the same sacraments, and by obedience to the same authority, Christ, its invisible head in heaven, and the Roman Pontiff, the successor of St. Peter, Christ's visible representative and viceregent upon earth.--Christian Apologetics, Section 300.
The condition of tyranny and misery that had been forced upon the world by the Roman church, of which these men were members, caused these men who, above all things else, would be Christians according to the Word and Spirit of God, to inquire of God in His Word and by His Spirit--
What, in God's truth, is God's Church?
And in God's Word, and by His Spirit, they found the answer.
They found this answer so full and complete, and of such transcendent glory, that it carried them with calm and confident rejoicing through all the cruelty of persecution and flame that Rome and her spirit could kindle.
And what is this answer? What did they find The Church of God's truth to be?
Wicklif said [1]: "Holy Church is the congregation of just men for whom Christ shed His blood."
"All who shall be saved in the bliss of heaven are members of Holy Church, and no more."
"There is one only universal Church: consisting of the whole body of the predestinate."
Matthias of Janow said: "All Christians who possess the Spirit of Jesus the Crucified, and who are impelled by the same Spirit, and who alone have not departed from their God, are the one Church of Christ: His beautiful bride, His body."
"The Church is the body of Christ, the community of the elect."
"All who have been sanctified, have been sanctified by the anointing grace and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus. Hence it follows that every Christian is a saint, and every saint a Christian. So one cannot be a Christian and at the same time not a saint."
"Do not object to me the bad Christians, who have lost the first grace by reason of their misuse of it; for these are not Christians."
Huss said: "The Church is the community of the elect. Where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am in the midst of them.' There, then, would be a true particular church: and, accordingly, where three or four are assembled, and up to the whole number of the elect. In this sense, the term 'Church' is often used in the New Testament.
"And thus all the righteous who now, in the archbishopric of Prague, live under the reign of Christ, are the true Church of Prague. But the Catholic Church is the predestinate of all times."
"The true Church lies in nothing else than the totality of the elect."
Luther did not begin with this truth. But the fundamental truth of Justification by Faith only--the Righteousness of God which is by Faith--with which he did begin, inevitably led him presently to this. And in his discussion with Eck, before he had been excommunicated by Rome, Luther said:
"Certain of the tenets of John Huss and the Bohemians are perfectly orthodox. This much is certain. For instance, 'that there is only one universal Church'; and again, 'that it is not necessary to salvation to believe the Roman church superior to all others.' Whether Wicklif or Huss has said so, I care not. It is the truth."
Later he said:
"The Pope, the bishops, the monks, and the priests need not make a noise. We are the Church. There is no other Church than the assembly of those who have the Word of God and are purified by it."
And Zwingle said: "The Church universal is diffused over the whole world, wherever there is faith in Jesus Christ-- in the Indies as well as in Zurich.
"And as to particular churches, we have them--at Berne, at Schaffhausen, here also.
"But the Popes, their cardinals, and their councils are neither the Church universal, nor the church particular."
"In every nation whosoever believeth with the heart in the Lord Jesus Christ, is saved. This is The Church out of which no man can be saved."
Those men made not these statements in collusion. The last two of them were hundreds of miles apart, and had no communication with each other; and were both more than a hundred years after the first three.
Of the first three, while Matthias and Wicklif lived at the same time, they were apart the wide distance between Oxford and Prague, and they worked entirely independently. Huss was a student during the latter years of the life of Matthias, and arrived at the same truth by his own personal study.
Yet all of these found in the Bible the same identical view of the truth of The Church. That itself is strong evidence that such is the Scripture view of The Church.
But we have the Scriptures, and can test this for ourselves. Is that, then, the truth of the Word of God as to The Church? Let us see.
The plain statement of Inspiration as to what The Church is, is this: "The Church which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." Eph. 1:22, 23.
That is the Lord's own definition of His own expression "The Church." It is a double definition.
First, it defines The Church to be "His body."
Secondly, it defines the expression "His body," to be "the fulness of Him that filleth all in all."
Who is He who filleth all in all?--Plainly, God.
What, then, is the extent of "the fulness of Him?"-- Plainly, nothing less than infinity.
And The Church is that--"the fulness of Him who filleth all in all." Plainly then, The Church is nothing less than an infinite thing.
Accordingly, anything ever in the world that claims to be The Church, but is anything less than infinite, is a fraud and an imposture. It is a fraud in the claim, and an imposture upon those who accept the claim.
Of this "fulness of Him," it is written: "Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord? Jer. 23:24.
He fills heaven and earth. The Church is "the fulness of Him." Plainly then The Church fills heaven and earth.
Anything then claiming to be The Church that comes in any wise short of filling heaven and earth, comes just so far short of being The Church in truth.
Now the Roman church never filled even the earth, much less heaven and earth. When The Reformation arose, that church did fill Europe. But Europe is a very small part of the earth.
And when that church was the fulness of even Europe, it was such fulness only in overtopping wickedness. But the fulness which The Church is, is a fulness in righteousness, not in wickedness. It is the fulness of God, not of the Devil.
But there are others in the world claiming to be The Church. Is there any one of these that is the fulness of heaven and earth? It is the same again: none of them fills even the earth, much less heaven and earth. Not all of them together fill even the earth.
Therefore, not one of them is The Church. Not all of them together compose The Church. And each of them alone, and all of them together as one, comes as far short of being The Church as each and all come short of filling heaven and earth: that is infinitely far.
Even though all the denominations in the world were completely one, and that one completely Christian, yet even this would come far short of filling the earth, and infinitely far short of filling heaven and earth. And it would all come just that far short of being The Church, which is "the fulness of Him who filleth all in all."
That would be of the Church; but it would not be The Church. The Church is a larger thing than that would be.
Yet more: Even though all the people in the world were such Christians as John and Paul, and were all united in truest fellowship, that would not fill the earth: and still less would it fill heaven and earth. Thus even that would not be The Church.
It would be of The Church; but it would not be The Church. The Church is infinitely a larger and grander thing than even that would be.
The Church is the fulness of God. He fills heaven and earth. What is this fulness of Him? Read it: "Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance .... All nations before Him are as nothing; and they are counted to Him less than nothing, and vanity."
"Before Him"--as to Him, as to the fulness of Him--all the nations are as a drop of a bucket. Think of the largest bucket. Let it be filled to overflowing. Then take from it a drop. What proportion will be that drop to the fulness of the bucket?
Yet that illustrates what are all the nations in proportion to "the fulness of Him that filleth all in all."
Therefore, if all of all the nations were as perfectly Christian as John and Paul, and not a soul in the world otherwise, yet all of that would be as far short of being The Church, as a drop of a bucket is short of being the fulness of the bucket; or as the "small dust of the balance" is short of being the fulness of the dust of the earth.
The Word says that "to Him," not by Him, all the nations are counted as nothing, and even "less than nothing." As counted by Him, a man is more precious than gold and is more than a world. But as "counted to Him," in proportion to the fulness of Him, all the nations are "less than nothing."
And The Church is "the fulness of Him." Only that is The Church. Anything that is less than that cannot possibly be The Church.
What an infinite deception, then, is that with which Rome has filled the professed Christian world--that a little 7 x 9, or 2 x 4, structure, or a thing of the conception of the pinhead capacity, of finite-minded, sinful man, could be The Church of the infinite God!
No, no. The Church is the glorious conception of the infinite, the living God.
Its structure is the expression of "the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord."
It is perceived only by means of "the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him."
No eye ever saw, no ear ever heard, it never entered into the heart of man to conceive, what The Church is, nor what in The Church God hath prepared for them that love Him. 1 Cor. 2:9-12.
"But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit." Knowledge of The Church itself, knowledge of the structure of The Church, and knowledge of the things of The Church, is found only by finding the thought of God in His Word. And this is found only through the Spirit of revelation in the knowledge of Him. Eph. 1:16-23.
To receive this Spirit, to be taught by this Spirit, to be led by this Spirit, was the prayer that led to The Reformation, and that led in The Reformation. And that is the prayer that must lead now in this time when there is forced upon all the people the choice of The Reformation or Rome.
In this prayer let us proceed in the study of the Word, to know in Spirit and in Truth what is The Church.
The first Scripture that occurs is the beginning of a prayer. And the prayer is in view of this very feature, this transcendent feature, of the Mystery of God. The prayer begins with the words, "And for this cause."
And the "cause" of the prayer is this: "Unto me who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given that I might preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and make all see what is the fellowship of the Mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God who created all things by Jesus Christ."
And this preaching is "to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by The Church"--that is, by means of The Church, through The Church, unto these might be known--"the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord."
"And for this cause I bow my knees unto the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named." Eph. 3: 8-11, 14.
Note that it is not the families in heaven and earth, as if there were two or more. It is specifically singular-- "the whole family"--as of one in heaven and earth. That is, all the children of God, all creatures who are His, in heaven and earth, compose just one family--God's family. And that family is The Church--God's Church.
An earthly family might be not all at home, at the birthplace-- one there, another in Ohio, another in California, another in Florida. Yet they would be the one family of the father, and of the birth-place. And the father could speak truly of them as his whole family, at home, in Ohio, California, and Florida.
So the children of our heavenly Father are all the one family. Some of us are not at home: we are in a foreign land, amongst strangers, and even enemies. But bless the Lord, we are all members of the one family of the heavenly Father.
And, oh! joy, we are all going home one of these days. There is going to be a grand home-coming, an eternal reunion, when He comes to receive to Himself His own. And when He thus comes to take His children all home, it is then that He presents to Himself the "glorious Church, ... holy and without blemish." Eph. 5:27.
Again, it is written: "Ye are no more strangers and foreigners; but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God." Eph. 2: 19.
A household is an organized family, those who are at home in the same house. And though some of God's children are in a foreign country, and strangers here, we are not foreigners to the country of promise, we are not aliens from the commonwealth of the Princes of God, we are not strangers in "the house of God which is The Church of the living God." And they that be planted in the house of the Lord, shall flourish in the courts of our God."
The arms of the cross of Jesus the Crucified embrace heaven and earth. "For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell. And having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself. By Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven." Col. 1: 19, 20.
All in earth who are reconciled to God by the blood of the Cross, are of The Church. And all in heaven who are reconciled to God by the blood of the same Cross, are equally and as truly of the same Church. And all these in both heaven and earth compose The Church: one, only, true, and ever the same Church, "growing unto an holy temple in the Lord, for an habitation of God through the Spirit." Eph. 2: 22.
Not only does The Church itself as a whole embrace heaven and earth. The Church, even only as it relates to the earth, is found only in heaven and earth. For there are some who used to be of The Church as in the earth, who are now alive on the other side and are of The Church as in heaven.
Some of these, as Enoch and Elijah, went alive from here to there without any touch of death at all. Moses, the four and twenty elders, and the multitude of those who came out of the graves after Christ's resurrection, and formed the train in His triumphal ascension, went to the other side through a resurrection from the dead. Jude 9; Rev. 5:9; Matt. 27; 52, 53; Eph. 4: 8 with margin; Col. 2: 15.
All of these were members of The Church when they were on this side. And when they went through to the other side, it was not necessary in any sense for any one of them to change his church-membership, nor in any way to change his relation to The Church.
Each one of all that glorified number was just as much a member of The Church while he was here as he has been since he went over there. Elijah was a member of The Church while he was on this side, he was a member of The Church in the moment of his translation, he has been a member of The Church every moment since, and will be the same forevermore: and always the same member of the same Church. And so with all the others of that glorified company: for The Church is one and the same everywhere in the universe.
And now suppose that Elijah were to return to this side to live through the last days with those who shall be translated as was he from the wrath of "that woman "Jezebel." Rev. 2: 21. What "church" would he need to "join," of what denomination must he be a member, in order to be a member of the "true church?"
Plainly, just none of them at all: and for the simple and sufficient reason that he is already and forever a member of The One True and Only Church. Wherever he may go in the wide universe, he is still and ever a member of that One Church. And yet that is but The Church of which he was a member when he was here.
Thus by every evidence and every consideration of Scripture, it is certain that The Church is a higher, nobler, grander, thing--indeed that it is by far another thing--than is anything that has ever been thought of as The Church by churchmen of all this world.
And so it is written that Christ is "the Head of The Church, that"--so that, in order that--"in all things He might have the pre-eminence." Col. 1:18. That is to say that if Christ were Head of everything in the universe except The Church, He would not in all things have the preeminence. But just by the one thing of being the Head of The Church, this one thing alone gives Him "in all things the pre-eminence."
That one single expression of the Scripture reveals the truth that The Church is the biggest thing in the universe. It is the universe of intelligences, who live with God and in God.
That one thought alone reveals The Church as the fulness of the universe--"the fulness of Him who filleth all in all." Indeed, the very next word of the Scripture stands thus: "that in all things He might have the pre-eminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell."
Also, in another place, it is written that God has "made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He hath purposed in Himself." And this purpose is, "That in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him." Eph. 1: 9, 10.
That is to say: In and through Christ by the Holy Spirit God is unifying the universe.
And that unified universe is "The Church," "the Household," "the whole family" of the living God.
And that is the accomplishing of the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord before there was ever a creature or any creation.
And when this unification of the universe shall have been accomplished in Christ, "then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him." And all this in order "that God may be all in all. 1 Cor. 15: 28.
And this is The Church into which--to the fellowship and infinite and eternal benefits of which--all people are kindly called and graciously invited in tenderest tones of the compassionate pleadings of divine love.
And see the wonderful associations and Associates that are found in this Church by all who come." Ye are come--unto
"Mount Zion; and unto
"the City of the living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem; and to
"an innumerable company of angels; to
"the general assembly and Church of the Firstborn which are written in heaven; and to
"God the Judge of all; and to
"the spirits of just men made perfect; and to
"Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant; and to
"the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel." Heb. 12:22, 23.
All these associations and Associates are heavenly, and nothing but heavenly. Whosoever is of The Church of the Bible is of this heavenly company; and all these heavenly associations are his, to help and cheer him on the way, and for him to enjoy as he goes.
"And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come, And let him that is athirst, come. And let him that heareth, say Come. And whosoever will, let him" come.
This is The Church which Christ loved, and for which He gave Himself, "that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church." Eph. 5:25-27.
This is The Church of which Christ speaks to God, when He says to Him, "In the midst of The Church will I sing praise unto thee." Heb. 2:12.
The Lord Jesus, the Son of God, the Head of The Church, has never yet had a chance to be in the midst of The Church.
In The Church as it was in heaven, the pride and selfexaltation of Lucifer wrought division and confusion.
As soon as He had started The Church in the earth, the same proud and self-exalted one insinuated the same confusion here.
In The Church as carried over the Flood, the mischievous one wrought to confusion again.
In "The Church in the wilderness" and in the land of Canaan, the same one still wrought division and confusion.
In The Church as brought back from Babylon, the same vicious schemer and ever antagonist of The Church wrought to the same end (Zech. 3), and so continued that when the Lord Jesus "came unto His own" He was rejected by His own professed Church, and was crucified out of the world.
In The Church as Christ renewed it in the earth, the same arch-enemy of The Church wrought more insidiously than ever: this time unto the great "falling away" and the revelation of "that man of Sin, the son of Perdition," "the mystery of Iniquity," opposing and exalting himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, even sitting in the temple of God and passing off himself for God. Gal. 2: 12, 13; Acts 21:18-24; Acts 20:17, 29, 30; Rev. 2:1, 4, 5; 3 John 9, 10;2 Thess. 2:3, 4.
And in The Church as renewed in The Reformation, the same original antagonist of The Church again so wrought that he at last persuaded even those who professed the name and principles of Protestant to renounce that very word: and this in order that they might not even seem to antagonize the Roman church--that most inveterate antagonist of The Protestant Reformation!
But thank the Lord, He again renews His Church in the earth: and this time, against all the wiles and all the power of the Devil, to stand true and pure unto the end. For it stands written: "In the days of the voice of the Seventh Angel when he is about to sound, The Mystery of God shall be finished." Rev. 10:7.
And now in this final effort of the arch-enemy against The Church, in this time of the finishing of the Mystery of God, she is to arise and shine with the glory of the Lord risen upon her unto the finishing of the Mystery in the blending of her glory with that of the King of glory at His glorious appearing in the glory of His father and His own glory and that of all the angels and glorified ones with Him. Isa. 59:19; 2 Thess. 2:9, 10; Isa. 60;1, 2; Matt. 16:27.
For then it is that He presents to Himself His glorious Church.
And then, with all the heavenly ones with Him, with all of His that are in their graves hearing His voice and coming forth, and all of His who are alive "caught up together with them to meet Him"--then it is that He is "in the midst of The Church." 1 Thess. 4: 16, 17.
And then in the infinite joy of "the travail of His soul" satisfied in God's eternal purpose in Him actually accomplished, His divine soul bursts forth in that longawaited song of praise to God.
None but He can sing that song, and so the words of it are nowhere given. None but He has the experience; none but He knows the awful cost; and none but He can know the joy. Heb. 12:2.
None but He can sing the song; but all the others can respond.
And then there peals forth the voice of the "great multitude of all them that fear Him, both small and great, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings,"
"Loud as from numbers without number,
Sweet as from blest voices uttering joy, The heavens of heavens ring with jubilee, And loud Hosannas fill the eternal regions."
"Alleluiah. Salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, unto the Lord our God.
"Alleluia. Alleluia. Alleluia.
"For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
"Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready." Rev. 19:1-7.
And over all and to all, the eternal God responds--with joy and singing. For He says:
"The Lord thy God . . . will rejoice over thee with joy;
"He will rest in His love;
"He will joy over thee with singing."
"The Household of God" is all assembled. "The whole Family in heaven and earth" is all at home. The Church is herself. The universe is singing.
"Christ is all and in all," and "God is all in all."
Note:
1. From here to the end of the book, all the quotations of the words of Wicklif and of the Bohemian Reformers are from Neander's "History of the Christian Religion and Church," Vol. . V; and of Luther and Zwingle, from D'Aubigne's "History of the Reformation."