Article not in this book but on the same topic:

THE BODY OF CHRIST
By the late Rosco Brong
Former Dean of Lexington Baptist College

Published in the Berea Baptist Banner May 5 , 1992.

"For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the
body of Christ" (Eph. 4:12).

Fanciful misinterpretations and misapplications of figurative language in the Bible are among the means used by Satan and his ministers to discredit the Word of God among the ignorant. With reference to the New Testament Church, Satan has accomplished one of his most cunning deceptions in the popular though ridiculous myth that the figurative "body of Christ," as Christ’s church is scripturally called, is not really a body at all, but is identical with the family or the kingdom of God.

Scripture passages in which the church is referred to and described under the figure of a human body as the body of Christ include: Rom. 12:4, 5; I Cor. 10:16,17; 12:12-28; Eph. 1:23; 4:4, 12-16; 5:23-30; Col. 1:18, 24; 2:19; 3:15.

A careful and intelligent study of these scriptures in context is enough to expose to the Bible believer the evident fallacy and folly of the universal church heresy.

A BODY ESSENTIALLY

"For as we have many members in one body in Christ" (Rom. 12:4-5). The essence of the comparison is the organization of different members in one body. If a human body is ground into hamburger and fed to the dogs on six continents, it is no longer a human body. Neither do Christians constitute a body scattered around the world in space and through 19 or 20 centuries in time. The idea is so superbly silly that it could have been spawned only by Satan and adopted by people more influenced by the philosophy of Plato than by the teachings of Christ.

"We have many members in one body" (v. 4), referring to the human body of each of us, does not mean that we have one big universal invisible human body. But such a monstrous idea is exactly as sensible as the idea that the one body in verse 5 is universal or invisible.

Ecumenical, modernistic, and compromising interpreters who reject the Lord’s church but try to count themselves in a mythical universal church need to study the abstract, generic, institutional, general, distributive, and ideal uses of words; or, if they already understand the truth about the church and reject it, they need to get saved.

Repeating, the essence of the comparison of a genuine New Testament church to the human body is the fact that each is an organization or organism having different members with different functions but all functioning for their mutual profit in the whole body.

A BODY EATING

"We being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread" (I Cor. 10:16-17). The reference, of course, is to the Lord’s Supper, which is scripturally observed by the members of one church or at least one kind of church eating from one loaf or at least from one kind of bread. But of course there are in the world many genuine children of God who belong to false churches or to no church at all, and who partake of different kinds of bread in mockeries of the Lord’s Supper or never partake at all; and of course those Christians are no part of the "one body," or one kind of body, referred to here.

A BODY EXERCISING

More than anywhere else in the Bible, the figure of the human body to represent an organized church is elaborated in I Corinthians 12:12-28. The baptism in verse 13 is of course water baptism; the one body is what would today be called a Baptist church. Note the words "no schism" in verse 25. Advocates of a universal church have an imaginary body full of schisms or splits—surely nothing fit to represent Christ, Who is not divided (I Cor. 1:10-13). Verse 26 beautifully describes the ideal fellowship in a genuine church; I suppose that no believer in a universal church is stupid enough to pretend that the language fits his imaginary body.

A BODY EDIFIED

God gave Christ to be "Head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all" (Eph. 1:22-23). Christ in turn (Eph. 4) "gave gifts. . .for the edifying of the body of Christ." Again the expression "one body" in Ephesians 4:4 means one kind of body, just as "one baptism" in the next verse means one kind of baptism.  Edification of a genuine New Testament church, an organized body of baptized believers under the headship of Christ, is fittingly figured in Ephesians 4:11-16. Note the emphasis in verse 16 on "the whole body fitly joined together." In plain words, the figure means that the church needs to be well organized in order to experience "the effectual working in the measure of every part."

A BODY ENGAGED

"For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body" (Eph. 5:23). "The church" or "the body" is no more universal or invisible than "the husband" or "the wife." The terms are used abstractly, generically, or ideally, and express reality only when applied to real entities. No man ever yet loved a universal invisible wife. The church which Christ loved and for which He gave Himself (v. 25) is an organized body of baptized believers in Him, having Him alone as its Head.

A BODY EXALTED

"And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence" (Col. 1:18). See how Christ has honored and exalted the church which He Himself organized during His personal ministry on earth and declared that He would continue to build upon Himself! Under the figure of a building, He is its foundation; under the figure of a body, He is its Head.  Shall He recognize as members of His body rebellious children who have refused to join themselves to Him as Head in a church relationship? The supposition is mere fatuous fancy, without a shred of scriptural support.

A BODY ENDURING

Paul rejoiced in his sufferings for the saints at Colosse that he might "fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake,  which is the church" (Col. 1:24). Of that church, he tells us in the next verse, he was "made a minister." Now, it hardly needs to be pointed out to intelligent readers that Paul’s ministry was not performed merely in an abstract idea, but in real assemblies of the saints having definite organization and location. Because or by means of the sufferings of Paul and the afflictions of Christ in the flesh of other faithful ministers through the centuries, the figurative body of Christ, formed during His earthly ministry, has endured to this good hour; and such churches will be here when He comes again (Matt. 16:18; 28:20; Eph. 3:21; etc.).

A BODY ENLARGING

Christianity in general is in a spiritual decline, having less and less of God as it has more and more in numbers and wealth; less and less of truth as it dotes more and more on bogus miracles; or, in the language of scripture, "having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof" (II Tim. 3:5). A genuine New Testament church, however, being an organized body holding fast to Christ as its Head, "from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God" (Col. 2:19).  This is the kind of growth we need.

A BODY ENROLLED

"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful" (Col. 3:15). How can the peace of God rule in hearts that rebel against the teaching of His Word on the church and its ordinances?  The first church at Jerusalem (before Pentecost) had a roll or list of names to the number of "about an hundred and twenty" (Acts 1:15). They had been called not only to salvation but also to the peace of God ruling in their hearts in one body. As one body they carried on business for the Lord, including the election of Matthias as a successor to Judas Iscariot.  How thankful we ought to be, if our names are enrolled not only in the Lamb’s book of life, but also in the membership of the kind of church which Jesus organized, commissioned, and promised to be with until the end of the age! (Matt. 16:18; 28:20). True members of this kind of church will eventually be brought together in one heavenly city, the new Jerusalem, as the bride of Christ (Rev. 21:2).

CONCLUSION

Saul of Tarsus learned that when he persecuted the church he persecuted Christ (Acts 9:4), and as Paul the apostle to the Gentiles he learned to honor and serve Christ by honoring and serving His churches. Modern seekers for self-glory who downgrade and minimize the sacred importance of Christ’s churches are either ministers of Satan or unfaithful in their ministry for Christ. Enemies of truth may accuse us of believing that only Baptists are saved. They lie. Salvation and church membership are two different things. Every saved person on earth ought to be a member of a genuine New Testament church, but many saved people, perhaps most of them, are not. Their numbers cannot justify their disobedience (Ex. 23:2).

Jesus organized and commissioned only one kind of church. That kind of church is better in the sight of God than false churches organized by men, and certainly it is infinitely better than a universal church which does not even exist except in heretical imaginations.