The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum Losing Visible Church status

A quick answer, from my own personal perspective would be a physical denomination or church becomes apostate, i.e., cannot be considered as part of the visible Church when it denies and/or ignores the essential doctrines of the faith, e.g.,:

- Trinity
- Deity of Christ
- Deity and/or personality of the Holy Spirit
- Inspiration, inerrancy and/or infallibility of Scripture
- Creation by fiat; ex nihilo
- Historic Adam and the Fall
- The doctrines of sovereign grace (aka: Canons of the Synod of Dordt

As I said initially, this is my personal view and I'm sure many would balk at my criteria since it would exclude the majority of denominations/churches in existence today with my inclusion of the "Doctrines of Grace". My justification for adding this requirement is due to the fact, that anyone who held to semi-Pelagianism/Arminianism in years past was excommunicated; i.e., considered to be an unbeliever since holding to this type of heresy would constitute a doctrine which taught a synergistic salvation. Thus, if an individual was not considered a believer; part of the visible church it would logically follow that a denomination or church would be equally deserving of that judgment as well.

In His Grace,