What does “visible and invisible” refer to?
Question:
I thank you and your congregation for the wonderful explanations you provided. I also offer my heartfelt thanks to God for your ministry.
Please help me grow in my knowledge of God; your lessons are proving immensely useful to my congregation, to me, and in my preachers' classes.
Please explain whether the Church is visible or invisible, with biblical proof.
I thank God for you all once again.
Answer:
The phrase "visible or invisible" comes from one passage: "For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16). The phrase parallels "in the heavens and on earth." Thus, "visible" refers to things in the physical realm and "invisible" refers to things in the spiritual realm.
"By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible" (Hebrews 11:3).
"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation" (Colossians 1:15).
While these terms are not applied to the church in the Bible, one could refer to the Christians in local congregations as the visible church and the universal church as the invisible church since it is composed of all faithful Christians both presently and in the past. Since you cannot tell by looking whether someone calling himself a Christian is faithful, the universal church is a spiritual concept.
