by John H. Gerstner

This notion that members of some particular denomination are necessarily members of Christ's church or body I cannot grant. I will not deny that a person who sincerely and truly makes a sound profession of faith in Christ is a member of His true church, but how do I (or they) know that all who make such a profession sincerely believe it? How can they be sure that they are not receiving hypocrites as members? As long as officers cannot search the hearts of professing believers, they cannot know whether such professors are sincere, true believers or not. Nor can they prevent the admittance of some who are believers in name only.

Advocates of this view must assume the officers' ability to know the hearts of professors. But while they assume this, they do not claim it and cannot admit that they even assume it. Even the Roman Catholic church claims no such infallibility for individual priests or bishops who receive persons into their church. So there is a dilemma here: This view depends on the officers' ability to know hearts, but the officers do not even claim such ability. Yet if they do not have this ability, they cannot be certain that the person they admit are true members of the church of Jesus Christ.

Perhaps someone will say that I am overdoing the difficulty here. Can we not be reasonably certain that a person who says he believes in Christ, and who is not living in any open or gross sin, is a Christian? Yes, we can be reasonably sure--that is, we can be sure enough to allow his profession to be made a basis of admission to this fellowship. But it is unreasonable to say that such a person could not possibly be a hypocrite. After all, the Bible indicates that people may say and do many things that are Christian without themselves being Christian. The rich young ruler, for example, said that he kept the whole law from his youth up, but he really rejected Christ even while respecting and reverencing Him.

Christ said that many would come in the last day and say, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? And in Thy name have cast out devils? And in Thy name done many wonderful works?" (Matthew 7:22). Christ did not deny their ascription of Lordship to Him, nor their claim to have prophesied, cast out devils, and many mighty works in His name. But He rejected them nonetheless, saying, "I never knew you; depart from Me, ye that work iniquity" (Matthew 7:23).

The Apostle Paul wrote: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge; and though I have faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

So it is possible for a person to be a great philanthropist and a martyr without having love (read that, Christ) in his heart; and all he does will therefore profit him nothing. If it is possible for a person to call Christ "Lord," to cast out devils in His name and to die a martyr in His cause without having Christ in his heart, then certainly no man can infallibly judge the state of another man's soul.

It is not only that men may err in their judgments about others' professions, but they do err. Christ tells us that hypocrites are added to the professing members of His church. This is the teaching of the Parable of the Tares. An enemy plants the tares; that is, the devil puts hypocrites in the field (the church) of Christ. Moreover, the parable could be construed as a warning to faithful church officers of their inability to always remove these "tares," or hypocrites, even when they are able to detect them: "lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them" (Matthew 13:29).

The separation of true and false believers will not, according to this and other parables (such as that of the net and fishes in Matthew 13), take place in this world, but at the final judgment, and not by men, but by angels. Though Christ wants us to keep His church as pure as possible, He wants us to know that some inevitable impurity must be accepted and borne with until the "harvest."

Thus the foregoing definition of the church will not do. The church of Christ is not simply those who profess Christ, are subordinate to His officers, and associate with those of like profession. The devil's children are members of this company. The enemies of Christ profess to love Him. This is the church of the antichrist as well as of Christ.

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This is part twenty-six of John H. Gerstner's small book entitled Theology for Everyman, originally published in 1965 (Moody Press, Chicago). That book was subsequently republished in 1991. It has since fallen out of print and we thought it would be good to revisit this book here on the blog. Over the past weeks, we've been working our way through the book. Here is where we've been so far: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6 Chapter 7 and Chapter 8.