Benefits of the Visible Church for
Unbelievers
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Question
Do unsaved people benefit from involvement in God's covenanted community, the church?
Answer
Unsaved people in the church receive a lot of benefit from being members of the visible church of Christ on earth: the social function, the benefits of knowing people, and all that kind of thing. But that can actually work against them, of course, if they don't come to a saving knowledge of Christ for themselves. And therefore, the, sort of, the distinction that is made between the visible and the invisible church becomes more important, that God knows those who are his, which is a narrower group of people than those who may attend week by week in a corporate worship experience.
Rev. Dr. Simon Vibert is Senior Pastor of Christ Church Virginia Water, England, and the former Vice Principal and Director of the School of Preaching at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford.