"6. The church of God was visible in New Testament times (1 Cor. 1:2).
"7. The church was the body of Christ (Eph. 1:22, 23; Col. 1:24).
"8. The Spirit placed every saved one in this one body (1 Cor. 12:13;
Rom. 12:4, 5).
"9. Hence, it must have contained all the Christians.
"10. And, therefore, the apostolic church of true believers--the
spiritual body of Christ; and the church-members--the collective body
of worshippers, were identical. When you saw one, you saw the other."
"That is as far as we have gone, Mary. But we are not through the New
Testament yet. I was just counting, and there are about one hundred
texts in which the word 'church' occurs. But, it seems to me we have
learned a great deal. I can see plainly enough that there was only
one church in the early era of Christianity. All the ministers were
welcome in every congregation. They all went by one name. There was
probably only one congregation in any one city. I do not know whether
they had a class-book or not, but they were united in Christ.
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