Choosing Your Dualism
American Vision’s Joel McDurmon on former PCA Stellman
…when the gospel is forbidden to reach every area of life, the Christian life is then reduced to personal ethics, quiet time, and Sunday morning.
When we’re told that we’re only pilgrims, still, and that our ultimate reward is exclusively in heaven, the existence of a visible church becomes purely symbolic in this world. This means every outward form and expression of the church.
Now put these two things together and, excuse me if the Roman Catholic Church is just simply the more overt expression of this. Granted, there are certainly doctrinal differences between Catholic and Reformed, but the ecclesiology-eschatology complex is basically the same in purpose: the church and the church alone represents the kingdom of God in the earth, and exists for the saving of souls for heaven. But her visible physical expression in this earth is only symbolic of sojourning here and of what will come in heaven.
