because it was made up of the people of God, manifested the power of
God, was the repository of the truth of God, was filled with the
gifts of the Spirit of God, and was actually used by the Spirit in
performing the works of God. Such characteristics made it "_the church
of God_."

[Sidenote: Local membership]

Membership in the general body of Christ was conditioned solely on
the new birth, or salvation. Since the individual church was the local
embodiment of the general church, none but the saved could properly
become members thereof, and all who were truly saved (in the same
locality) belonged to it by divine right. At this point, however, the
human element in the constitution of the local church became manifest.
We have pointed out the divine element in the true church--the element
that particularly distinguished it as the church of God, but the
bringing together of many individuals in one assembly involved also a
social element and required the principle of _recognition_. There
is, however, no evidence that such recognition was given by a formal,
official act of the church in its corporate capacity. And since
salvation is of the heart, it was possible for human recognition to
temporarily miss its true purpose. Thus, in the church at Jerusalem
we find recognized as a constituent part of the assembly two false
members--Ananias and Sapphira. On the other hand, when the converted
Saul "was come to Jerusalem, he essayed to join himself to the
disciples: but they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he
was a disciple" (Acts 9: 26). The church at Corinth, already referred
to, had some false members at the time the Pauline epistles were
written. The church at Samaria also tolerated for a time one whose
"heart was not right in the sight of God" (Acts 8).