What Does "Being in Babylon" Mean? Being Invisible Only Church? No.

Assorted retorts from yahoo boards and elsewhere: Joe on Judas · A Protestant End Times Theologian (Good on End Times, at least moderately, Bad on Church History and Ecclesiology) · Great Bishop of Geneva! What Does "Being in Babylon" Mean? Being Invisible Only Church? No.

But that is unfortunately what this fan site for the Reformation (yes, they spell it with an R, I think a D is more appropriate), is telling their readers:

The Reformation Messenger January 2014
Does God have a Visible Church on This Earth?
https://www.imsmessenger.org/january-2014/does-god-have-a-visible-church-on-this-earth/

As far back as Martin Luther, Christians have recognized that God has an invisible church which consists of members from all Christian churches, because there are faithful members in all communions, including that of Rome. They have accepted Christ as their personal Saviour, and they are counted as His people. Therefore, in Revelation 18:4, in the time of the end, and this is that time, the call is made, “Come out of her (Babylon) My people.” Many of God’s people are still in Babylon; they belong to God’s invisible church. At the time of the “Loud Cry” of Revelation 18:4, they will come out and join God’s visible remnant church.

I suggest, this is wrong. In the end times, the visible Church is divided, one part is faithful to Apostolic Tradition, another part compromises with the Scarlet Beast and with a Babylonian counterfeit of the Church. But both parts are visible.

It's not the Remnant Church that is new. It is the part compromised in Babylon that is new.

And all this time, there is a visible Church, going back to the Apostles.

Luther is not unique or even very original in making a distinction between the visible Church, where some members are going to Hell, and an invisible ... to St. Augustine, it would be Platonic Archetype ... consisting of every soul that will be saved or already is finally saved.

What makes Luther special, however, and it may go back to Wycleff or Hus, is the idea that the invisible Church is sufficient to take care of the promise of indefectibility.

Here are two Biblical references to indefectibility, one from the OT, one from the NT:

The stream of the river maketh the city of God joyful: the most High hath sanctified his own tabernacle God is in the midst thereof, it shall not be moved: God will help it in the morning early
[Psalms 45:5-6]

Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world
[Matthew 28:19-20]

The first one promises indefectibility either of Israel or of a legitimate successor of Israel. We Catholics believe that to be the Church and that this is also promised in Matthew 28.

Both repeats of this promise are also tied to God claiming all power. (Matthew 28:18 as God in the flesh, and before that Psalm 45:11, before His incarnation).

Now, Luther admitted indefectibility, which Catholics were using to criticise his ecclesiology, and he responded by claiming it is the invisible Church that is indefectible.

There is some logic to this. The invisible Church is made up of only souls that go to Heaven, and therefore each soul is (ultimately) indefectible, and therefore their communion is indefectible. But there is a deep problem with this.

1. The promise itself involves a command of teaching all nations, and teaching authorities have to be visible;
2. This is even underlined elsewhere in the NT, namely for instance:
   
   

   You are the light of the world. A city seated on a mountain cannot be hid Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house
   [Matthew 5:14-15]

The Church is visible, because the Church gives light to the world, and God is not putting that light under a bushel. We can imagine the Devil might want to put it under a bushel, but he is weaker than God.

And "a city seated on a mountain" also involves another cross-reference, namely to a Church built on a rock:

And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven
[Matthew 16:18-19]

The visibility of the Church is therefore promised as "upon this rock I will build my church" in parallel with "a city seated on a mountain" and when it comes to a towing match between God and the Devil about putting the light under a bushel:

1. God does not intend to put it under a bushel (Matthew 5:15)
2. The Devil and all his counsels (the gates of a city being where the counsel thereof is taken) will not prevail to put it under a bushel (Matthew 16:18).

Meanwhile, next verse in Matthew 16 shows another reason why the Church has to be visible: it has offices and officers. You cannot obey the keeper of the keys if you cannot identify him by visibility. That's one reason Pope Michael II says against "Boniface IX" who is not openly acting as a papal claimant. That's one reason Pope Michael I back in his time had against the "Pope in Red" or "Siri was Pope" thesis, since Giuseppe Siri did not openly claim to be Pope (at least after the purported at first acceptance of papal office in the conclave).

Is this reason for a visible Church also parallelled by other loci? Yes.

And if he will not hear them: tell the church. And if he will not hear the church, let him be to thee as the heathen and publican.
[Matthew 18:17]

As the context is about conflicts, this is not just the Church teaching, but also deciding, like an officer of some kind of justice or jurisdiction decides a case. So, it is a perfect parallel to Peter getting the keys. Indeed, in Catholic theology, this is a good case for when the "power of the keys" is used in the life of the Church.

The people who are told to get out of Babylon in Apocalypse 18 are already visibly Catholics. It is just that they have compromised their Catholicity in a sinful relation with the spiritual darkness of Babylon (Modernist Anglicanism comes to mind as a candidate) and a manipulative as well as sinful relation with The Scarlet Beast (Communism comes to mind as a candidate). Meanwhile, full Catholicity without such compromise is found the other side of a very recent split within Catholicism.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
Decapitation of St. John
the Baptist
29.VIII.2024

Decollatio sancti Joannis Baptistae, quem Herodes circa festum Paschae decollari praecepit. Ipsius tamen memoria solemniter hac die colitur, qua venerandum ejus caput secundo inventum fuit; quod, postea Romam translatum, in Ecclesia sancti Silvestri, ad Campum Martium, summa populi devotione asservatur.