This isn't the statement of a sectarian who wants an exclusiveness which bars people from membership in the church. Nor is it the babbling of a fanatic who's been trying to foster a new scheme of things. It's a real fact, a fact which hasn't been recognized by many people of this generation. The reason it's not recognized is that the popular teaching of church-joining nowadays has obscured it.

Church joining isn't an ancient doctrine, but is a passing phase which has come in the last three hundred years. It could never have become so common, except for a false idea of what the church is. And with a false concept of what the church is has come a second false idea on how to become a member of the church.

Why can't we join the church? There's fraternal organizations we can join and be recognized as a full-fledged member. There's religious organizations of which we can become a member by joining, but that doesn't make me a member of the church.

Some preacher made the statement that a person could join every church denomination in the town and still be as big a sinner as before. A sinner hearing that decided to try to see if it were true. There were four churches in his small town and he joined all four of them and found he was as big a sinner as he was before. He was a member of each denomination represented in the town, but he was still an unregenerated man and a member of Satan's crowd. There's no question about it, you can't join "God's church" (the body of Christ / the family of God).

You see, the church came from above. Many people have the idea that the church originated on earth and will finally end up in heaven. Leslie Weatherhead has put it right when he reminds us that John saw the Holy City "coming down out of heaven from God." The Scriptures bear this out over and over. "We're his workmanship." The church came into existence, not because man became Godlike but because God visited man through Christ and the Spirit. We were taught to pray, "Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven." The church appearing on earth was the translation of the divine community which existed eternally in heaven.

Don't misunderstand me. The church is on earth, but it's a heavenly community which originated above. We can't join it. There's only one way we can become a member of it, and that's to be born into it. The church, being a heavenly community here on earth, is a fellowship of spiritual beings made so by a spiritual experience of being born of the Spirit of God. Man, earthly, has been elevated to spiritual life.

He "hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:6). It's been said that the only way mineral life can be elevated to a higher order is for the higher order to do the elevating. The plant sends its roots down into the soil that's made up of mineral, and it lifts these elements, assimilates them, and they become plant life. In the same way plant life can never become animal life in itself. The animal which is a higher life has the power to pluck that plant, and it becomes assimilated and through the animal metabolism becomes an integral part of animal life. Always it's the life from above lifting the life below to its level.

Earthly man is born from above and lifted to a spiritual plane. He's born into the family of God, the church. We can't join the church; we're born into it.

You say, "What about me? I joined the church." You joined an organization. Any church you can join is not God's church. God's people may be found in that organization, and they may be a part of the organization, but unless they've been born from above they're not a member of God's church. They're only associated with the people of God. They're not a part of them. We cannot join the church.