Gospel Reading 2024-11-18

 The Gospel reading is:

Luke 17:20-25 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it. And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them. For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day. But first must he suffer many things and be rejected of this generation.

Errors of the Dispensationalists

This passage is read by Dispensationalists as:

the "Church" is an invisible and heavenly "SPIRITUAL ORGANISM"

But is this passage actually teaching an invisible church?

Take note that the Dispensationalists differentiate between the "Kingdom of God" and the "Kingdom of Heaven". From Time Periods in the Bible: Questioning Classical Dispensationalism – Kingdom of God and Kingdom of Heaven

As we saw in the introductory article in this series, classical dispensationalism believes that the kingdom of God refers to God’s rule throughout time. The kingdom of heaven, on the other hand, refers to the political kingdom to be set up by the Messiah after his return.

This distinction can be easily dispensed of from parallel passages in the Gospels where the "Kingdom of God" and the "Kingdom of Heaven" are used interchangeably.

Luther's "Spiritual Church"

Luther taught that the church is “a spiritual kingdom” that cannot be seen with the naked eye or comprehended by one’s own reason. In other words, the church is an article of faith: “I believe in one holy catholic church.” 

“Nor indeed are we dreaming about some platonic republic, as some have slanderously alleged. Instead, we teach that this church truly exists, consisting of true believing and righteous people scattered through the entire world. And we add its marks: the pure teaching of the gospel and the sacraments” (Ap VII:20).

 The Doctrine of the Church in the Confessions

 For a deeper dive on the sense of this passage see these BLOG posts:

Is Kingdom of Heaven/Kingdom of God the Church?

Parables about the Church