The Invisible Kingdom and the One True Church —

The kingdom of heaven is fragmented here on earth. To call the body of Christ broken or divided is a very controversial statement. Many regard it as blasphemous or schismatic and others see it as normative, inevitable, or even Biblical. In Catholicism and Orthodoxy, the Spirit works solely through one tradition and institution as the true Church of Christ, which as His body is not and cannot be broken, so there is no salvation outside of Christ’s Church. They just vehemently disagree with each other on which Church is truly Christ’s. In Protestantism and Reformed traditions, there is a different approach altogether. There is the visible church and invisible church, where the visible church, the community, doctrine, and practices of all believers on earth, is divided (into denominations and sects) and the invisible church, the true church of born-again believers only God can see, is united in the Spirit. The difference is substantial. A Protestant denomination typically does not believe their denomination is the one true Church, instead they belong to it, so that salvation is possible outside of any denomination or sect. While the notion of a normative broken visible church is fallacious in my view, the principle of the invisible church appointed to salvation appears pretty rock solid throughout Scripture. But what is often overlooked is that part of the invisible church is disunited in Spirit and appointed to condemnation, judged by what is visibly manifest. The kingdom of heaven is visibly united in name alone.

The Parable of the Ten Virgins

This is, perhaps, best articulated in three of Christ’s prophetic parables in Matthew 25, starting with his illustrious Parable of the Ten Virgins:

Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
– Matthew 25:1-13

The ten virgins represent the kingdom of heaven here on earth, Christ’s Holy Church. Five virgins were wise and faithful, five virgins were foolish and nominal. Even so, “they all became drowsy and slept”, the faithful included. While the faithful at least kept their lamps lit, however dim, the nominal had little to no oil to keep their lamps lit at all, so the fire burned out when Christ came. Even so, flame or no flame, they were still considered virgins. They were still considered virgins until the appointed time of God’s judgment (v.12). These nominal believers were also not counted among the heathen or heretics, they were not carnal but entrenched in the life of the Church as virgins (cf. Matthew 7:21-23, 18:17). The Church Kingdom is nominally united, but spiritually distant from both God and their fellow virgins. Since they became “drowsy and slept”, the five faithful servants did not have enough oil to sustain their own flame let alone support the other five (v.9). The Church Kingdom is visibly weak because its flame, the Spirit, is either dim or out. Christ alludes to this principle of the invisible sustaining visible perseverance elsewhere: “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14-16)

The Parable of the Talents

Now consider; what is the ultimate difference between hiding the light of your lamp and not lighting your lamp at all? Is it not akin to the wicked, worthless servant who received one talent and then hid his Master’s money in the ground? (Matthew 25:18) Christ elaborates on this cowardly, inward-focused way of believing in His prophetic Parable of the Talents:

He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
– Matthew 25:24-30 (vv.14-30)

The three servants represent the kingdom of heaven here on earth. Each servant was held personally responsible to earn a spiritual profit while the Master was away, but the slothful servant does nothing of the sort. He buried his faith in the ground so that no one can see his good works and give glory to his Master in heaven. He was not of the good soil, he was of the path, rocky ground, or thorns, his belief had no roots and it proved fruitless (Matthew 13:19-22). The earnest servants were of good soil, they heard the word and understood it; they bore fruit and yielded, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty (Matthew 13:23). A belief is invisible, but a belief becomes visible in behaviour–––you can see it (cf. Matthew 13:13). The earnest servants were invisibly and, therefore, visibly profitable on earth as it is in heaven, but the wicked and slothful servant was invisibly and, therefore, visibly disingenuous (vv.24-25). Even so, the slothful servant who buried his only talent was still mingled among the “good and faithful” servants while he was waiting for the Master to return (vv.21,23). He was still considered a servant until the appointed time of God’s judgment. The Church Kingdom is nominally united, but invisibly and visibly divided from both God and his fellow servants. The servants were individually tasked and obliged apart from each other, but each bore the same responsibility and mission to be profitable. Each servant stood in judgment and the Master, not the servants, judged each servant accordingly.

The Final Judgment

It is important, then, when we consider the fragmented Church that we also recognize Christ’s first two parables in Matthew 25 emphasize His prolonged delay, “As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept” (v.5), And again, “Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them” (v.18). He emphasizes this for good reason. After two prophetic parables about the lengthy Church age and the drowsy, slothful believers who will inevitably come about, He returns as the final judge of all believers, faithful and nominal alike, to conclude the chapter (Matthew 25:31-46). Then and only then, at the end of the age does He separate “the sheep from the goats” (v.32). The point remains consistent throughout: The goats were still in the flock until the appointed time of God’s judgment. It is no coincidence that the final warning to stay awake in Matthew 25 is prophetically accounted and eschatologically concerned with the final judgment of nominal believers mingled in the Church Kingdom. It shifts from parabolic to anecdotal, from invisible to visible, it is no longer the kingdom as, it is the kingdom is.

Now consider; what divides the faithful from the nominal? Is there any indication that a true believer is staying awake through the night? Or is there any indication that a believer has fallen asleep with no oil left in their lamp? Christ splits the difference at the end of the chapter:

Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’
– Matthew 25:41-45

It is clear that weak, slothful, faithless, cowardly, inward-focused, self-seeking believers do not visibly follow through on Christ’s teachings and commands here on earth, and there are visible indications and earmarks that reveal nominal Christian character (cf. James 1:27). Belief manifests behaviour, invisible manifests visible. For all were virgins and all were servants unified in name alone until the appointed time of God’s judgment. In Spirit and perseverance the whole Church Kingdom stands drowsy and divided against itself, yet in Spirit and perseverance does Christ’s one true Church Kingdom stand invisibly and visibly united to inherit the coming kingdom; who are the five faithful and wise virgins who kept their lamps lit, the good and faithful servants who doubled their profits.