By Charles C. Ryrie, Th.D. , Ph.D. The doctrine of the church is one of the prominent themes of Pauline theology. A glance at a concordance will show that Paul uses the term church sometimes to denote a local organization of professed Christian believers (1 Cor. 1:2) and other times to denote the whole body of believers (Col. 1:18). This twofold usage not only embodies the principal divisions of Pauline ecclesiology, but it also indicates the reason why this doctrine