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Yes, but the people of God are different under the NC than in the OC. Of the OC people it is written:-

‘Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been made like Gomorrah (Isaiah 1:9 ),

but of His New Covenant people, He says:-

‘For they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.’
Steve you are still seeing OT Israel vs. NT Church. You are still seeing TWO different covenants, instead of one progressive one. Did the saints of the OT know the LORD? Did God forgive the iniquity of the OT saints? Does God still remember the sins of the OT saints? While I AGREE with you that we have it BETTER now, it is ONE church throughout redemptive history. Look at the verses you are using to defend this;

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Hebrews 8:10-12 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel After those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, And on their heart also will I write them: And I will be to them a God, And they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his fellow-citizen, And every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: For all shall know me, From the least to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And their sins will I remember no more.
These verses have a present and future aspect to them. They have NOT been “totally” fulfilled yet. Though that have been inaugurated, Jesus tells us to pray, “thy kingdom come,” as the fullness of the Kingdom is not totally here yet. ALL do NOT yet know the LORD is proven in that: (1) we still evangelize and have missions, and (2) if the LORD tarries for a few more minutes, some new “future” saints will be born, who do not yet know the LORD.

Taken in CONTEXT this speaks of being totally fulfilled in glorification. ONLY when Christ returns for His church will it be fully comprised of ALL believers. This verse looks forward to the eschatological invisible church for its consummation. Until then there are both lost and saved in the church (visible/invisible).

Additionally, we must remind ourselves that Jer 31:34 falls on the heels of Jer 31:32 which says, “It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant …." The New Covenant today is still able to be broken every time we sin (i.e. Heb 12 on discipline follows Heb 8 on the NC), and Heb 10 states,

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Hebrews 10:28-31 Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. And again, "The LORD will judge His people." It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
The Church today is still made up of visible and invisible members.

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There may well have been those who attended the 'ekklesia' in Corinth who were not saved, but according to the Holy Spirit they were not part of the church. Rather they were those who, 'Have crept in unnoticed', and 'Have neither part nor portion in this matter' (Acts 8:21 ). 'They were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us' (1John 2:19 ). As Paul says, 'Put away from yourselves the wicked person'(1Cor 5:13 ) and 'Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition' (Titus 3:10 ).
Steve I agree with you that the unsaved in the churches do not belong to the “eternal” church or the “invisible” church (which I prefer), however they are still members of “visible” congregations. The church of Corinth had lost members in it. As you so ably pointed out ‘they crept in unnoticed,’ (thus many were not caught). Many were “in” the visible church only for a time, until they were discovered. Moreover many others were not purged out till their death. Either way, "all" do not know the LORD.

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The Church of Christ is to be a pure body as far as we can make it so.
I agree, but we are only human and cannot discern ALL the elect. If Paul couldn't do it how do you expect to do it? I agree that we should do our best, but until God does the rest (Second Coming), it will not be <img src="/forum/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

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However, baptizing infants is an even surer way of polluting the Church, as is shown in the apostasy of the Genevan church in the 18th Century, the English Presbyterian church in the 18th and again in the 20th Century, the PCA in America in the 1920s and the current ghastly state of the Church of England. The Reformed Baptist churches in England, weak as they are, are the only ones to have kept anything like a consistent witness from the 17th Century to the present day.
Well then you need to speak to God as He set up the program with circumcision and then baptism. I guess He should have consulted you before he acted.[Linked Image] God designed that saved and lost circumcised family members would be in the covenant during the OC and in the NC there are saved and lost baptized family members. Even if you excluded every infant from being baptized you still have lost baptized people in the church—you still have the SAME problem. What you have failed to see is that this is a means of grace of getting many saved. Many are saved after baptism (not by baptism). However, many would have never sat under God’s Word had it not been for their baptism. Isn't that the way it worked with circumcision as well--the unbelieving circumcised infants were saved after their circumcision (not because of their circumcision, but after it in time)? Your method does away with the covenant relationship between God and His people. But, yet we are in a New "Covenant." I think it is best not to question God’s methodology.

Reformed and Always Reforming,