Church Terminology

	Sometimes when I write The Daily Thought I use words
people say are hard to understand. Terminology is a
shortcut to expressing thoughts and ideas. It keeps
people from having to repeatedly re-explain certain
basic concepts. But terminology is useless unless the
meanings of the terms are not clearly understood by
those who are exposed to them. This means the meaning
of terms must be understood and accepted by those that
read or hear what is being communicated. 

Cults take terms commonly accepted among Christians
and give them different meanings in order to make
their beliefs appear “Christian.” For believers to
communicate and be protected from the misuse of terms
by cults they need to understand what the true
meanings of terms are. For instance Christendom is all
the places or areas where the people who occupy the
territory chiefly identify themselves as Christians
and where Christian influence is dominant. It does not
mean that everyone within that area is either
Christian or holds to Christian ideals.

There is a difference between the Church and
Christendom just as there is a difference between
possessing and professing Christians. There is also a
difference between Baptized Christendom, as distinct
from the general term Christendom as an area, but
there is also a difference between Baptized
Christendom and those who actually compose the true
Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is further
distinguished in two terms you may have run across in
the past. One is called the Church Visible, which is
composed of all whose names are recorded on Church
rosters. The other is called the Church Invisible:
those whose names are recorded in the Lamb’s Book of
Life.

The Church Actual is made up of the imperfect yet
redeemed people, who hunger and thirst after
righteousness, alive here on earth. The Church Ideal
is composed of departed believers who are now
triumphant in Heaven. (Hebrews 12:21) The true Church
while here on earth can also be called the Church
Militant and when it is transported to Heaven, whether
one soul at the time or in the Rapture, it can then be
called the Church Triumphant.

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