So what is A true church is a bit different than what is THE True church?
I guess we got off on the wrong foot?
ThatBrian feel free to comment?
The True Church is defined in several places in Scripture. Scripturally, the following statements must be true about the true Church:
1. It is built on the rock of what Peter confessed in Matthew 16.
2. It does not fail, also based on Matthew 16
3. It is the Pillar and Ground of the Truth, Vis-a-vis I Timothy 3:15
4. It is united in dogmatic Faith, teaching only one gospel, vis-a-vis Ephesians 3
The Church was not a nebulous idea in the Scriptures, but a concrete and definable construct designed by God and given to man in the upper room on Pentecost following the Ascension of Christ.
These wishy washy concepts of an "invisible church" avoid the topic of the lack of unity by saying that there is a fundamental Christianity that is supposedly accepted by all Protestants, which is obviously not really true. The only unity among Protestant denominations is a facade, thinly veiled attempts to disguise the deep-rooted dogmatic division on even the most basic dogmas, such as salvation. I'm not going to get into the debate of which is which, but the same God that saves based on free will and the response of a choice-enabled man is not the same as the God that saves based on what amounts to the lottery, but is really Hellenistic Fate doctrine shoe-horned into the gospel.
These two descriptions of God are contra-indicators of each other, for one cannot be the true God if the other is the true God. God either saves by election or by honoring the free will of mankind. He cannot be both.
This is why I would go with the ancient definition of the Church as an organism. It has organization, as every body has, but its head is Christ, as you have said earlier.
Now, you will never find a parish that is perfect, except for one that is empty of all people. The moment you or I walk into the Church building, we make that gathering an imperfect gathering. It is a hospital for the sin-sick, and not a museum for the Saints. You will expect to see people and even clergy making horrible mistakes and even falling into despicable heresies. But that is what is to be expected when men are part of anything, which is why the Church has a Head, which is Christ. He is in sovereign control, guiding the Church into all truth through the Spirit. On the individual level, there are many faults, but the proverb of Solomon reminds us that in a multitude of counsel, wisdom will be found, and when that counsel is established and curated by the Son of God, that wisdom will be infinite in nature, just as its Source is infinite in nature.
