Jerry Shugart
Well-known member
Here we read about the "church of the Firstborn":
"But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect" (Heb.12:22-23).
As members of the Body of Christ, our citizenship is a heavenly one:
"But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Phil.3:20).
As members of the Church, which His Body, we are raised with Him and are sitting with Him in the place of our citizenship:
"Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ...And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph.2:5-6).
Lewis Sperry Chafer, the founding President of Dallas Theological Seminary, understands that the Body of Christ is a heavenly entity, and not earthly at all:
"The Church is composed of all nations, including Israelites, and sustains no citizenship here, but instead the believers are strangers and pilgrims...every covenant or promise for the Church is for a heavenly reality, and she continues in heavenly citizenship when the heavens are recreated" [emphasis added] (Chafer, Systematic Theology, IV:47-53).
Sir Robert Anderson says, "The only true Church is that which the Lord is building, and it has no corporate existence upon earth...The Body of Christ is not on earth, nor can it have a corporate existence until the Divine purpose respecting it has been fulfilled" [emphasis added] (Anderson, Forgotten Truths, pp.79,99).
"But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect" (Heb.12:22-23).
As members of the Body of Christ, our citizenship is a heavenly one:
"But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Phil.3:20).
As members of the Church, which His Body, we are raised with Him and are sitting with Him in the place of our citizenship:
"Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ...And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph.2:5-6).
Lewis Sperry Chafer, the founding President of Dallas Theological Seminary, understands that the Body of Christ is a heavenly entity, and not earthly at all:
"The Church is composed of all nations, including Israelites, and sustains no citizenship here, but instead the believers are strangers and pilgrims...every covenant or promise for the Church is for a heavenly reality, and she continues in heavenly citizenship when the heavens are recreated" [emphasis added] (Chafer, Systematic Theology, IV:47-53).
Sir Robert Anderson says, "The only true Church is that which the Lord is building, and it has no corporate existence upon earth...The Body of Christ is not on earth, nor can it have a corporate existence until the Divine purpose respecting it has been fulfilled" [emphasis added] (Anderson, Forgotten Truths, pp.79,99).
