The Doctrine of the Church

Part Two

The most intelligible expression of the doctrine of the Church is found in the symbolic words of the Apostles’ Creed, “I believe … in the holy, catholic Church.…” Such expression in the form of a credo is amply supported by the Holy Scriptures.

1. The Church is a holy fellowship. It is a unique, divinely-created society based on God’s covenant with his people. Israel, chosen in Christ “before the foundation of the world,” is the Old Testament Church. Abraham, “called forth” to be the spiritual leader of the Jews, and all the faithful of Israel are fellow “heirs … of the same promise” (Heb. 11:9). Jesus Christ, Incarnate God, fulfills the New Testament Church. He is the New Covenant. Such fulfillment underscores the significance of favorite phrases and terms from the Old Testament in reference to the New Testament Church.

a. St. Paul calls the Church the (true) “Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16).

b. St. Peter calls Christians “the people of God” (1 Pet. 2:10).

c. St. John teaches the broadest fulfillment in his figure of the true vine with a direct allusion to the Church as the new Israel and the successor of the temple. Jesus’ beautiful vine discourse as recorded by St. John and given in the Upper Room (15:1–16) relates Christians to the Church in Christ as branches of the vine, with the warning that separation from the Church is in reality separation from Christ. The same truth is taught by St. Paul in his allegory of the relationship of the body and its member parts (1 Cor. 12:14–31 and Eph. 4:7–14).

d. The word “ecclesia,” most often used in the New Testament for church, is Septuagint Greek from the Hebrew “kahal,” a word that describes the solemn assembly of the people of Israel. The Christian “ecclesia” is a new spiritual assembly of the people of God; while based on the old covenant, it is now, as St. John notes, a new “temple of his body.” It is baptized Christians “called forth as a new creation in Christ, all “holding fast to the Head, from whom the entire body … grows with a growth that is from God (Col. 2:19, Amplified New Testament).

The credal affirmation of the Church’s holiness repeats an undisputed New Testament doctrine. The Church is “holy” because it is “filled with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:4). St. Paul describes this “holiness” of the Church as living “in the Spirit”; he wrote to the church in Corinth as “the church of God … sanctified in Jesus Christ, called to be saints [God’s people]” (1 Cor. 1:2). It was Christ who by the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost made the Church a living organism. The Third Person of the Trinity is to be the “paracletos,” “someone called in” (see John 14:16, 17, 26, etc.); he is not to be a substitute for Christ but to be his very Presence. As the only true Vicar of Christ, the Holy Spirit has many functions in the Church. The following are representative:

a. The Holy Spirit is the Church’s indwelling illumination and truth. Our Lord promised “he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:26).

b. The Holy Spirit is the Church’s guide and inspiration for its ongoing life. He is the “means of grace” in the process of divine redemption and he is the divine agent of the Sacraments.

c. The Holy Spirit is the ordaining dynamic of the Church’s ministry, a function best illustrated by Christ himself in the first ordination: “He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John 20:22).

d. The Holy Spirit is the Church’s leader in fulfilling the divine mission commanded by Christ: “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you” (John 20:25). Only divine leadership could explain the phenomenal missionary successes of the Christian Church.

e. The Holy Spirit is the Church’s sanctifier whose divine indwelling prompts ever-deepening response to God’s will through the “means of grace” and prompts consecrated, strengthened lives within the new fellowship. “If we live in the Spirit, let us walk by the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25). The modern Church cannot ignore the urging of the Revelation of St. John: “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches” (Rev. 2:7).

2. The Church is a catholic community. It is both constituted by God upon the foundation of his mighty act for the redemption of mankind in Christ and sustained by God under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The word “catholic” describes (not defines) that church which maintains apostolic (of or related to the apostles), primitive, New Testament faith, church order, and worship. Such apostolic “marks” are summarized in the Acts of the Apostles: “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42). Another “mark,” although not mentioned in the above passage, is the special place accorded to the written “Word” (the Holy Scriptures) by the early Church. Comprehensively stated, then, catholic Christendom includes several “marks.”

a. First of all, catholicity implies strict adherence to primitive doctrine. Here the Apostles’ and the Nicene Creeds provide the needed stability for the catholic community. Let it be clearly emphasized that these creeds of the Church are not extra-biblical. These two ancient formulas of apostolic faith were developed along with and from the New Testament record; they came into use as the Church attempted to express the initiation confession of faith required of all believers before baptism, a confession acknowledging that “God hath made that same Jesus … both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2). St. Paul advises Roman Christians that “with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Rom. 10:10). Indeed, “if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Rom. 10:9).

See also St. Peter’s sermon in Acts 2:14–40 and his testimony announcing the Gospel (“good news”) of “Jesus Christ: he is Lord of all” (Acts 10:36). Note also St. Philip’s instruction and witness leading to the Ethiopian’s confession and conversion, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God …” (Acts 8:27–39); and St. Paul’s creed-like rehearsal of the primitive faith in 1 Corinthians 15:1–11. Confronted by this overwhelming New Testament witness, we must accept the creeds as true expressions of scriptural doctrine and faith. St. Paul counsels us that the purpose of the gospel proclamation is that “now unto the principalities and powers … might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God” (Eph. 3:10).

b. Secondly, catholicity involves church order and discipline based on a continuing missionary ministry within the body of Christ and led by the Holy Spirit. This “mark” again is not extra-biblical but is constituted by Christ himself who called, appointed, and ordained disciples and apostles to serve with him. “And he ordained twelve that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth …” (Mark 3:14) to be apostles (special messengers) or bishops (shepherds). The Church’s sacred ministry (those “called” and “ordained” by Christ’s “holy” Church through the Holy Spirit) is an essential element of the Church. As an account of the life and growth of the early Church, the Acts of the Apostles reveals the apostles to be the center of mission and unity within the Church.

The election of St. Matthias to fill the vacant “bishopric” of Judas among the apostles (“his bishoprick let another take,” Acts 1:20) shows the serious regard of the primitive Church for apostolic order and the office of a bishop. Further, the interesting resolution of the Jew-Gentile initiation requirements by the Council of Jerusalem reveals the first century Christian conviction that apostolic authority is the will of God the Holy Spirit. “The whole church resolved to select men … and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas … with the following letter” (regarding Gentile freedom from Jewish requirements for Christian Initiation): “For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to lay on you any greater burden than these indispensable requirements: That you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols and from [tasting] blood and from [eating the meat of animals] that have been strangled and from sexual impurity …” Acts 15:22–31, ANT).

A careful reading of the Pauline epistles shows that St. Paul considered himself a bishop in the Church. We read that he (with Barnabas) “ordained … elders in every church … (Acts 14:23) and “from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and summoned the elders of the church [to come to him there]” (Acts 20:17, ANT). We note a stern sense of apostolic authority in his firmness with the church at Corinth: “This is my order in all the churches” (1 Cor. 7:17, ANT). To the church at Thessalonica he wrote, “If any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man and have no company with him” (2 Thess. 3:14, 15). And it is a thoughtful bishop (shepherd/pastor) “of all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers [bishops] to feed the church of God” (Acts 20:28), who, after describing his suffering for Christ, wrote “beside those things … that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches” (2 Cor. 11:28).

c. Thirdly, catholicity involves the centrality within the life and worship of the apostolic Church of that Sacrament simply described as “the breaking of bread.” Instituted and commanded by the Church’s “One Lord,” this sacred rite is to be used by the Church in a special way, accompanied by a ceremony using Christ’s words and the elements he described symbolically as his “body” and “blood.” While the New Testament does not use the word “sacrament” (it appears early, however, in the writings of the Church Fathers as a synonym for “ordinance”), the sacramental nature of the Christian Church is one of its most primitive and catholic elements. The Church’s Sacraments make available to the faithful an inward blessing of “grace” (God’s undeserved favor and blessing) by means of the reception in faith of an outward and very credible sign or symbol. The traditional thanksgiving (Eucharist) feast of the Church, through the common symbols of bread and wine for Christ’s blessed body and blood, celebrates with mystical, divine action his sacrificial death and passion, and offers to penitent members of Christ’s “One Body” the spiritual sustenance of the very presence of our Lord.

d. Fourthly, catholicity acknowledges the sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures; they contain “all doctrine required as necessary for eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ (Book of Common Prayer, p. 542). The primitive Church unreservedly maintained that the mighty acts of God in Christ, the Christian Gospel related to the entire Holy Spirit-inspired revelation of God, demand top priority in faith and witness. The Kerygma (the “proclamation”) is the “good news” of Christ’s Incarnation, “blessed Passion and precious Death, his mighty Resurrection and glorious Ascension” (Book of Common Prayer, p. 82). St. Paul, the “special messenger” of the Gospel, regarded the Holy Scriptures as bearing inspired witness to the eternal truth. “All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16). The Acts of the Apostles pictures St. Paul dramatically involved in public instructions (and debates) refuting the Jews and “showing by the scriptures that Jesus is the Christ [the Messiah]” (Acts 18:28).

The role of the Spirit-filled Church as teacher, interpreter, and guide in the use and study of the Holy Scriptures is assumed in the New Testament, and the extreme Reformation reaction of private and individual interpretations to Roman Catholic misuse of the Bible is, as John Wesley described it, “rank enthusiasm.” St. Paul’s crackling rebuke to Corinthian enthusiasms was, “Did the Word of the Lord originate with you …?” (1 Cor. 14:36, ANT). St. Peter wrote in support of the same position, “No prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation” (2 Pet. 1:20). The Church continues to teach the written, inspired Word as our Lord commanded: “Search the scriptures, for in them … ye have eternal life: and they … testify of me” (John 5:39).

No single Christian communion may claim exclusive catholicity. The Church of Rome, however, with much collusion from non-Roman Christians, assumes a monopoly on the word “catholic.” And unfortunately, Rome has succeeded in this claim, at least as far as modern mid-twentieth century usage is concerned. Much doubt, however, surrounds the real and vital catholicity of Rome. The late Bishop Charles Brent once described the Roman Catholic church as “wearing a catholic garment to hide a sectarian heart.” Non-Roman Christians must insist that the word “catholic” describes a theological rather than a single ecclesiastical organization or geographical state. For the “holy fellowship,” which is Christ’s body and bride, and which maintains steadfastly catholic faith, order, worship, Sacraments, and unity, modern non-Roman scholars and theologians must find a new and dynamic apologetic.

The Christian Church is not just another religious organization that attempts to answer man’s search for salvation and peace. The Christian Church with its divine atoning gift, “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), is God’s answer to man’s inability to attain new life. The Church thus becomes the corporate expression of faith in and witness to “the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead” (Acts 3:15). The Church Militant is founded upon the “new Covenant” which God accomplished in Jesus Christ and his Church entered by repentance, confession of faith, and baptism into Christ, our divine Master and Lord. Further, the Church corporately expresses a mission “to all the world” to make known to each generation the redemptive ministry of the Church’s Saviour and Redeemer. St. Paul considers the Church’s divine mission and his subsequent commission to evangelize as his inescapable taskmaster. “For Christ sent me … to preach the gospel … for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us who are saved, it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:17, 18). St. Paul counsels that in and through Christ’s Body, the Church, God gives men his peace. “For he is our peace, who hath made [us] one … having abolished in his flesh the enmity … that he might reconcile unto God … one body by the Cross …” (Eph. 2:14–16). Here is strong, overwhelming, world-saving doctrine! Oh that such a doctrine of the Church would capture all true believers when they affirm in the Apostles’ Creed, “I believe … in the holy catholic Church.” With St. Paul, Christians then could fully ascribe all “glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen” (Eph. 3:21).

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