Marks of the Church

(One, Holy, Universal (Catholic), Apostolic)

Introduction:

            Among the articles of Christian faith, ‘the Church’ has a peculiar status.  Unlike the doctrines of God, Christ, Trinity, creation, fall, redemption, it was not specifically thematized in the patristic period, nor did it become the subject of controversy. The biblical images of the church have stimulated theological reflection on the church throughout the history of tradition, yet they did not serve as a basis for a systematic doctrine of the church.  In fact, there was no such systematic doctrine during the patristic and medieval periods. Only when some questions began to be raised about the church in the Middle Ages did systematic treatises on this topic first appear. Since the Reformation the nature of the church has been a matter more of confessional conflict than of doctrinal consensus. 

The closest we come to a widely accepted creedal formulation is the famous statement introduced into the Constantinopolitan supplement to the Nicene Creed (381): “We believe…the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church.” Subsequently the qualities of unity, holiness, catholicity, and apostolicity have been considered marks of the true church.  In the strict sense, Christians do not believe in the church.  Hans Kung and others have pointed out that, in general, the ancient creeds speak of believing in God and in the Holy Spirit, but of believing the church.  To say that we believe the church means the church is not God, or Spirit, or any sacred, divine, supernatural thing, despite the constant temptation to believe so.  We do not believe in the church because we are the church- a sinful, fallible, pilgrim people who scarcely can be said to believe in themselves.  Yet the creeds commit us to believe the church because it is an instrument of god’s saving work and a locus of special divine presence.  The omission of the word in from the Church clause in some versions of the Creed may remind us that the Church is a creation of God, and what we believe about it is a result of our belief in God.

Creedal adjectives:        As the instrument of God’s saving purpose, the Church has a supernatural origin and life.  That which took shape on earth in the calling of Israel and was reconstituted by Christ, is from the beginning in the mind of God.  The primary purpose of the adjectives used in the Creed is to declare the supernatural origin and being of the Church. The simplest way to set forth the doctrine in its ‘classic formulation’ is to look briefly at each of these marks:

1          One:     The unity of the Church is determined primarily not by the relation of its members to one another but by their common loyalty to Christ.  If every member is united to one Lord there can, in the very nature of things, be only one Church.  Every form, ministry, and action of the Church is subordinate to the common allegiance due to Jesus whio is Lord of the Church.  From the very beginning, Churchmen have been marked out from the world in virtue of belonging to Christ.

            This is reinforced by the fact that every believer is united to every other believer in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.  We, the members, do not make this fellowship; it is made possible by the unifying power of the one Spirit of God.  The correlative of one Spirit is one Body.  We are united in the Body of Christ.  In the NT, the unity of the Church is always prior to its local manifestations.  The fragmentation of the Church in later centuries has led to talk about a ‘spiritual unity’ which is often in striking contrast with the divisions in the Body.  This easy way of meeting the problem of disunion needs constant correction by the NT insistence that oneness of the Spirit is always complementary to that of the Body.

2          Holy:    The word ‘holy’ means separated unto God and the Church is such because it belongs to God and has no allegiance to any person or form other than to him.  The Church has from the beginning been separated by God from out of the world, and for this reason we have put such stress on the fact that the Church is not one of human societies founded by men but a unique divine society founded by God.

It is necessary to recognize that the use of the word holy does not involve the claim that every member is worthy of his high calling.  From the NT onwards there has never been a perfect Christian community in which every member is good.  Always there is the contrast between what God wills the church to be and the actual historical church, with all sins and stains which make it a very imperfect instrument of God’s purpose.  Yet it remains true that it is God who has called the church into being and it is not for the members to create its holiness.  That is present as the gift of God and it is for the Christians to seek for the perfect expression of the holiness which they already have in Christ.

3          Catholic (Universal):       The word catholic was first used by Ignatius of Antioch who said: “Where Christ is, there is the catholic church.”  The word catholic means universal and the universality of the church must be understood as the direct outcome of its origin as the divine instrument of a purpose embracing all mankind.  The church includes all who confess that Jesus is Lord and it seeks to gather the whole world within the love of God in Christ.  For this purpose God separated the church from the world.  Over against the racial limitation which was the downfall of old Israel, the new People of God has a universal scope and mission.  It is the breadth of the mission and comprehensiveness of the function entrusted to it by God which determines the true universality of the church.  The catholic churchman knows that this fellowship in Christ extends to every other believer, irrespective of the many lesser things in which we differ from one another, and that the Gospel is meant for all, irrespective of differences in outlook, circumstances and nationality.

4          Apostolic: The church is apostolic in the first place because it has continuity with the faith of the Apostles and must exhibit the same characteristics as were manifest in the Apostolic Church described in the NT.  The church of today is essentially one with the new People of God which Jesus reconstituted on the rock of the Apostles.  All the later development of life and doctrine and forms is continuous with the ancient church and we rejoice today in the enduring inheritance which we have received.  The Church today has an obligation to deliver to its succeeding race that which it has received from the past.  The spiritual ancestry of the Church goes back through many saints to the NT Church, and their work is the continuation of the life of the one Church.

            The Church is apostolic because God sends it forth into the world to proclaim and consummate the divine purpose.  It has an apostolic work to do.  Here we should not forget the element of progress in the Christian religion.  Jesus set a certain standard by his independent attitude to the doctrines and ethics of Judaism, and he did not bind future generations by detailed legislation.  His authority is of the Spirit not of the letter.  Hence in fulfilling its apostolic mission, the Church has to meet situations for which the Gospels offer no ready-made solution.  It was the intention of Jesus that his disciples should apply the principles of his life and teaching to each new circumstance as it arose.  The application of Jesus’ mind to the manifold conditions of modern life demands a consecrated spirit and a mind intellectually and ethically alert.  The fulfillment of this apostolic mission is not easy to achieve in view of the vast range of human need in respect of which the Church holds its commission.  We need not be surprised because the record of the Church’s achievement is not constant and uniform.  Moreover, we must remember that the Church is not composed exclusively of saints, scholars, and experts, but of sinners of various levels.  The apostolic mission has to begin with men where they are if it is bring them to where God wills them to be.

Conclusion:       We have seen from the above marks of the Church that the Church has a supernatural origin and life, and that it is the instrument of God’s saving purpose.  The creedal adjectives declare the supernatural origin and being of the Church.