Originally Posted by John_C
Robin,

Wouldn't the Reformed doctrine of the Visible / Invisible church damage your argument for unrepentant sinners taking part in our worship services. The worship service is for believers to worship God as unbelievers cannot, yet unbelievers are welcome to visit. That is not say we should conduct our worship services to accomodate unbelievers as the Gospel should be preached with conviction.

I don't think that the Biblical truth of the Visible Church (the church as we see it, which is made up of both wheat and tares hiding among the wheat) and the Invisible Church (the church as God sees her with perfect vision, all the saints throughout time, pure and holy) necessarily requires that "wheat" be invited to join the "tares" in the field! It is inevitable and expected that tares will be found among the wheat, but worship is for the wheat.

I think we're all sayin' the same thing in different ways, actually; that our the church worship and liturgy should not be written to accommodate unrepentant sinners. God-haters. If they show up and stick around long enough to hear the truth and be converted, that's great! But worship is not for the world. It's for God's own people. That's all we're sayin'.

-Robin