That may be what "most" Protestants would say, but it is not an accurate description of what most of us here on the Highway believe.

The visible church is just that - visible - a structured, organized city on a hill, not a scattering of godly individuals hiding from the decadence of the world so as not to be tainted by it.

The terms visible and invisible refer simply to the wheat and the tares. The tares grow among the wheat here in the visible church, and we can't always tell which is which. But after the great harvest at the end of the age, when the wheat and the tares are separated, will we see the invisible church - that is, the true church.

The visible church is the church as we see it, through flawed, finite eyes that see only the outward appearance. The invisible church is the Church as God sees her, looking upon the heart, with perfect, flawless, timeless clarity.