Review: The Church: The Gospel Made Visible

The Church: The Gospel Made VisibleThe Church: The Gospel Made Visible by Mark Dever
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Some parts of this book are better than others. His main point is good along with various things pertaining to congregationalism, membership, leadership, and discipline within a church. Other areas are problematic like the relation of Israel, the kingdom, inferences from history, and reference to the “universal church.” The “universal church” is a misnomer that is as unhelpful as it is unbiblical. Even though he conceded the “universal church” can be found in early writings but not in the New Testament, he continued to use the term. I appreciate the main point that the further we get from Scripture concerning how we define, structure, and function as a church, the more we obscure the Gospel.

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