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How do we reconcile our confession of faith in one holy and universal and scriptural faithful church with the churches we find advertised all around us?
We begin by understanding that nothing about Sola Scriptura promises that all believers (including Protestants) will be united in all their interpretations of everything in the Scripture. Nor does Sola Scriptura promise that there will be a general consensus on most things in the Scripture.
We also embrace the distinction between an invisible and a visible church. The invisible church consists of all the elect of all ages, whereas the visible church consists of all professing believers and their children. As for the visible church there are, as Augustine noted, "wolves within and sheep without." Accordingly, in heaven we will see some who were not members of a historic Christian local body and we will not see some of the church's most illustrious members, ministers, etc. Our confession of faith in the one, holy, catholic (universal), and apostolic church is not a confession in the many, partially holy, limited, irregularly-apostolic visible church in all of its worldliness, division, and seasonings with untruth.
Just as we are simultaneously justified in Christ and yet still sinners (the now-not yet distinction in Scripture), there is the same seemingly paradoxical situation with the invisible and visible church distinction. None of us can claim we have come into our full glory until the eschaton, despite the strainings of over-realized eschatologies by some. We are not yet sanctified perfectly, likewise the church is not yet sifted from the wheat and weeds (Matt. 13:24-30), the fish to be separated (Matt. 13:47-49), and so on. The imperfect church militant is not yet the perfect invisible church.
We confess faith in there being one catholic (universal) church, despite divisions within the visible church, for the very same reason we confess by faith we are justified sinners. Why? Because God so promised we will be-are being perfected, fully realized when we come into our glory with the Lord. It is just that it is neither wholly unrealized nor perfectly realized now.
In the sense of the faithful (the one people of God), the church is one, despite contrary evidences, but not in the sense of being visibly united. In the definitive and progressive sense, the church is holy, but not empirically perfect. The church is apostolic, not because it is directly led by the Apostles themselves, rather because the church is guided, whenever and wherever it qualifies as "the church," by the apostolic proclamation and patterns from Scripture.
Unfortunately, the appeal to the invisible and visible distinctions of the church are often used to justify irresponsibility by the visible church. The parallel of the already justified and not yet sanctified is regularly used as a foundation for antinomianism where it is assumed no radical transformation of sinners takes place. Similarly, just as our duty to grow in knowledge and obedience in sanctification takes root in not a few, we can fall into the view that the visible church's state of existence is unimportant, since that, after all, we confess the invisible church's purity and universality.
Yet we take heart in knowing the universality of the church awaits us in glory, the invisible and the visible churches become one. This also means as the Reformers proclaimed, wherever the Word is rightly preached and the Sacraments are rightly administered, it is not to be doubted, there is a true church of God. It was the Reformation's call to return to the teachings of Scripture that made the gospel, not ecclesiastical organization, the test of the true church. We can see in these two marks—gospel proclamation and observance of the sacraments—both the creation and the preservation of the church—the fountain of God’s truth and the vessel to contain and display it. Certainly no church is perfect. But, thanks be to God, many imperfect churches are healthy.
Who of us can deny the reality of heresy and schism having plagued the church from the very beginning? We need only look to Scripture and see the evidences. Along with OT examples (ending in the divided kingdom), the NT churches were, on the whole, quite disappointing. Sigh. We read of the cesspool of immorality, selfishness, disorder, division, and error in the Corinthian church. Paul was nearing the anathematization of the Galatian church, where works-righteousness heresy and schism from excluding the Gentiles walked hand-in-hand. A nascent version of Jewish gnosticism (angel worship, extreme asceticism) threatened the church of Colossae. Then there are the churches of the Book of Revelation. Therein, Ephesus, being persecuted abandons her first love, Pergamum and Thyatira tolerate false teaching, coming under threat of judgment by the Lord, Sardis is dead, and Laodicea is wishy-washy, lukewarm.
All of which is to say that those who, while refusing to assemble with a visible church, claiming descent from the churches of the New Testament and mourning for the reestablishment of "apostolic churches" need to recall the actual, empirical character of these NT churches. So exactly how could any church today claim greater fidelity than the churches planted and supervised by the apostles themselves? Beloved, the church has never been the Good News. It was not then in the early days; and it is not now. At best, the church can only be the witness to the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ for sinners like us.
Romanists who superficially weigh the debate over the nature of the gospel will view the Reformation as schism. Those of us who understand that Rome officially denied the gospel at the Council of Trent will see in the Reformation an extraordinary example of God's mercy toward His church in saving a remnant to continue the church's truly catholic legacy.
The plain facts are that the church consists of sinners and has no promise anywhere in Scripture of being so guided by the Spirit that it can ever claim infallibility. It is not the case, contrary to Romanist canards lobbed at Protestantism, that multiple churches claim infallibility. Rather it is that the church's fallible ordained servants are trying, as best they can, to come to grips with the main teaching of our only infallible rule of faith and practice—Scripture. The different confessions of our faith are all based on the Scriptures and are not really mutually exclusive. They share wide areas of convergence on matters of doctrine, and where the differences lie, they are mostly found within various traditions among their denominational distinctions. Unfortunately, we Protestants spend more time talking about where we disagree than on where we agree.
The Romanist reading this thinks how the apparent disunity of Protestantism is not suffered by their "one true faith". Rome's veneer of monolithic unity is but a thin veil covering the historical and often seething dissent within over matters related to the Mass, Trent I versus Trent II, celibacy, divorce, homosexuality, Rome popes, Avignon popes, Pisan popes, daughters of popes as poisoners, sons of popes as Cardinals, popes in battle gear and commanding armies, "old time" Catholics, liberal Catholics, Eastern mystical or New Age Catholicism, liberation theology Catholics, Charismatic Catholics, Evangelical Catholics, Cultural Catholics, Popular Folk Catholics, female priests, and so on. The church of Rome makes a solitude and calls it peace. There is quiet and stillness enough in the grave, but it is not the quiet of health, but of death.
AMR
We begin by understanding that nothing about Sola Scriptura promises that all believers (including Protestants) will be united in all their interpretations of everything in the Scripture. Nor does Sola Scriptura promise that there will be a general consensus on most things in the Scripture.
We also embrace the distinction between an invisible and a visible church. The invisible church consists of all the elect of all ages, whereas the visible church consists of all professing believers and their children. As for the visible church there are, as Augustine noted, "wolves within and sheep without." Accordingly, in heaven we will see some who were not members of a historic Christian local body and we will not see some of the church's most illustrious members, ministers, etc. Our confession of faith in the one, holy, catholic (universal), and apostolic church is not a confession in the many, partially holy, limited, irregularly-apostolic visible church in all of its worldliness, division, and seasonings with untruth.
Just as we are simultaneously justified in Christ and yet still sinners (the now-not yet distinction in Scripture), there is the same seemingly paradoxical situation with the invisible and visible church distinction. None of us can claim we have come into our full glory until the eschaton, despite the strainings of over-realized eschatologies by some. We are not yet sanctified perfectly, likewise the church is not yet sifted from the wheat and weeds (Matt. 13:24-30), the fish to be separated (Matt. 13:47-49), and so on. The imperfect church militant is not yet the perfect invisible church.
We confess faith in there being one catholic (universal) church, despite divisions within the visible church, for the very same reason we confess by faith we are justified sinners. Why? Because God so promised we will be-are being perfected, fully realized when we come into our glory with the Lord. It is just that it is neither wholly unrealized nor perfectly realized now.
In the sense of the faithful (the one people of God), the church is one, despite contrary evidences, but not in the sense of being visibly united. In the definitive and progressive sense, the church is holy, but not empirically perfect. The church is apostolic, not because it is directly led by the Apostles themselves, rather because the church is guided, whenever and wherever it qualifies as "the church," by the apostolic proclamation and patterns from Scripture.
Unfortunately, the appeal to the invisible and visible distinctions of the church are often used to justify irresponsibility by the visible church. The parallel of the already justified and not yet sanctified is regularly used as a foundation for antinomianism where it is assumed no radical transformation of sinners takes place. Similarly, just as our duty to grow in knowledge and obedience in sanctification takes root in not a few, we can fall into the view that the visible church's state of existence is unimportant, since that, after all, we confess the invisible church's purity and universality.
Yet we take heart in knowing the universality of the church awaits us in glory, the invisible and the visible churches become one. This also means as the Reformers proclaimed, wherever the Word is rightly preached and the Sacraments are rightly administered, it is not to be doubted, there is a true church of God. It was the Reformation's call to return to the teachings of Scripture that made the gospel, not ecclesiastical organization, the test of the true church. We can see in these two marks—gospel proclamation and observance of the sacraments—both the creation and the preservation of the church—the fountain of God’s truth and the vessel to contain and display it. Certainly no church is perfect. But, thanks be to God, many imperfect churches are healthy.
Who of us can deny the reality of heresy and schism having plagued the church from the very beginning? We need only look to Scripture and see the evidences. Along with OT examples (ending in the divided kingdom), the NT churches were, on the whole, quite disappointing. Sigh. We read of the cesspool of immorality, selfishness, disorder, division, and error in the Corinthian church. Paul was nearing the anathematization of the Galatian church, where works-righteousness heresy and schism from excluding the Gentiles walked hand-in-hand. A nascent version of Jewish gnosticism (angel worship, extreme asceticism) threatened the church of Colossae. Then there are the churches of the Book of Revelation. Therein, Ephesus, being persecuted abandons her first love, Pergamum and Thyatira tolerate false teaching, coming under threat of judgment by the Lord, Sardis is dead, and Laodicea is wishy-washy, lukewarm.
All of which is to say that those who, while refusing to assemble with a visible church, claiming descent from the churches of the New Testament and mourning for the reestablishment of "apostolic churches" need to recall the actual, empirical character of these NT churches. So exactly how could any church today claim greater fidelity than the churches planted and supervised by the apostles themselves? Beloved, the church has never been the Good News. It was not then in the early days; and it is not now. At best, the church can only be the witness to the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ for sinners like us.
Romanists who superficially weigh the debate over the nature of the gospel will view the Reformation as schism. Those of us who understand that Rome officially denied the gospel at the Council of Trent will see in the Reformation an extraordinary example of God's mercy toward His church in saving a remnant to continue the church's truly catholic legacy.
The plain facts are that the church consists of sinners and has no promise anywhere in Scripture of being so guided by the Spirit that it can ever claim infallibility. It is not the case, contrary to Romanist canards lobbed at Protestantism, that multiple churches claim infallibility. Rather it is that the church's fallible ordained servants are trying, as best they can, to come to grips with the main teaching of our only infallible rule of faith and practice—Scripture. The different confessions of our faith are all based on the Scriptures and are not really mutually exclusive. They share wide areas of convergence on matters of doctrine, and where the differences lie, they are mostly found within various traditions among their denominational distinctions. Unfortunately, we Protestants spend more time talking about where we disagree than on where we agree.
The Romanist reading this thinks how the apparent disunity of Protestantism is not suffered by their "one true faith". Rome's veneer of monolithic unity is but a thin veil covering the historical and often seething dissent within over matters related to the Mass, Trent I versus Trent II, celibacy, divorce, homosexuality, Rome popes, Avignon popes, Pisan popes, daughters of popes as poisoners, sons of popes as Cardinals, popes in battle gear and commanding armies, "old time" Catholics, liberal Catholics, Eastern mystical or New Age Catholicism, liberation theology Catholics, Charismatic Catholics, Evangelical Catholics, Cultural Catholics, Popular Folk Catholics, female priests, and so on. The church of Rome makes a solitude and calls it peace. There is quiet and stillness enough in the grave, but it is not the quiet of health, but of death.
AMR