The visiting Christian brother did not suffer from dementia, but his 90 years had removed many inhibitions. We learned this in a somewhat humorous way.
Our small congregation sometimes sang Samuel J. Stone’s hymn, The Church’s One Foundation. On the day of his visit, when we sang the verse
Yet she on earth hath union
With God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion
With those whose rest is won,
this esteemed brother loudly exclaimed, “that sounds like mysticism!” Some of us struggled to hold our composure well enough to finish the hymn. His honesty was refreshing and his timing hilarious.
The hymn and this brother’s reaction to it raise an interesting question: do saints on earth have “mystic sweet communion” with saints who have already gone to be with the Lord?
Paul mentions some interesting facts related to this idea in his letter to the Hebrews. These facts may seem mystical1 to some. The Apostles says Jesus sings praises to God (Heb. 2:10–12) in his church.
This congregation comprises the “many sons” under Jesus’ command; he is the Captain of their salvation. Jesus sanctifies them and he is united with them; they are his brothers. Among these, Jesus sings.
This fulfills a prophecy written a thousand years before Paul wrote Hebrews. David said the Messiah would come and say, “I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee” (Psa. 22:22). He would say this after his crucifixion, which David also foretold in graphic detail (Psa. 22:11–21). Jesus sings in his church in his glorified body.
Paul associated the time for the Messiah to sing “in the midst of the church” (Heb. 2:12) with “the world about to come”2 (Heb. 2:5, my translation) in his generation. According to inmillennialism, this is the Messianic Age that remained after “the end of the Jewish state, both civil and ecclesiastic.”3 Jesus had described this end and the new age in the Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24 and 25). Jesus sings in his church during the Messianic Age.
The glory of this is astounding. We live in the age when Jesus sings praises to God among his saints, all his saints. All the saints—whether dead or alive—hear their Lord sing.
Paul connects living saints with those who have died in another Hebrews passage. He says: “ye are come . . . to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect” (Heb 12:22–24). The saints on earth have come to the congregation that includes “the spirits of just men made perfect.”
The church in which Jesus sings comprises those “registered in heaven” (Heb. 12:23, NKJV). This registration existed “from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8; 17:8).
The major evangelical confessions of faith recognize the makeup of this church. For example, the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith says,
The catholic or universal church, which (with respect to the internal work of the Spirit and truth of grace) may be called invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect, that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ, the head thereof; and is the spouse, the body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.4
This church is the elect “gathered into one, under Christ.” God registered their names before the foundation of the world, but they were not “gathered” until Christ Jesus offered himself as the sacrifice for sin. Caiaphas the high priest served as a reluctant witness to this when “he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad” (John 11:51–52).
Jesus is now gathering his saints into this assembly. He gathers the saints still on earth into local assemblies and then dwells among them (Rev. 1:12–20). The 1689 London Baptist Confession says all saints are part of the general assembly in heaven, but those still on earth “may be called visible saints; and of such ought all particular congregations to be constituted.”5 The local church is the visible manifestation of the unseen general assembly in heaven: “The church below . . . is a part of that above.”6 When these saints die, their state of existence changes, but their membership in the general assembly does not, as we will soon see.
The churches on earth are manifestations of the general assembly. The apostles sometimes refer to a particular church—a part—as if it is the whole of something. For example, Paul said the Corinthian assembly was the temple of God (1 Cor. 3:16; emphasis added) and the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27; emphasis added).
Discounting figurative language, we will have difficulty understanding why Paul says the Corinthians were the body. Christ has only one body, and it was not confined to Corinth. To understand the Apostle, we must recognize he uses a common figure of speech that puts a part for the whole.7 Using it, we can say a faithful church of Christ today is “the general assembly and church of the firstborn” (Heb. 12:23).
Some saints have graduated “to be with Christ; which is far better” (Phil. 1:23). These take part in this church as “the spirits of just men made perfect” (Heb. 12:23).
The universal church comprises some saints who have already died in the Lord and others still on earth worshipping in local assemblies. Jesus is gathering all of them into one body (Col. 3:15).
The charge of mysticism arises from this dual (but temporary) condition. This is not a new problem. The early church had questions about how those who had died in the Lord would take part in the parousia of Christ (his presence in the Messianic Age; see 1 Thess. 4:13f).
Once the Messianic-Age gathering (cp. Matt. 24:31) is complete, God will give all the saints glorified bodies when he raises them from the dead. The present division in the “general assembly and church of the firstborn” will no longer exist. None of the saints will exist only as “the spirits of just men made perfect” (Heb. 12:23).
For now, if hearing Jesus sing in his church is “mystic sweet communion with those whose race is run,” so be it. Let us rejoice we have come to the church comprised of all saints where this happens.
Footnotes
- Perhaps we should clarify that we will use this word in future posts to mean “symbolic,” not “occult.”
- “The inhabited world the one being about to be”—Paul R. McReynolds, Word Study Greek-English New Testament, (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 1999).
- John Gill, An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, The Baptist Commentary Series (Paris, AR: The Baptist Standard Bearer, 1989), 6:619.
- The Baptist Confession of Faith & the Baptist Catechism, (Birmingham, AL: Solid Ground Christian Books, 2010), 54 (26.1).
- The Baptist Confession, 54–55 (26.2).
- Gill, Exposition, 9:480.
- Synecdoché of the part for the whole. To further classify this figure used in relation to the church, we can say this is a synechdoché where “an integral part of men (collectively) is put for the whole, or others associated with them.”—E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech Used in the Bible Explained and Illustrated, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1968), 648.
