More About The Church

Just for you Merinda :)
No, I did say I would post more on what we believe concerning the church, so here goes. I do this also to help sort it all out in my own head. Often topics like this can be rather full-on and difficult to completely understand. However, when really thinking about it and what our confessions (and Scripture) say, it is possible to see how truly blessed we are.

How blessed we are to have Christ as Head of the church who will preserve it to the end. How blessed we are to have a rich church history whereby we may further understand God's Word and its application. How blessed we are to confess a holy catholic Christian church. How blessed we are to have a shared faith by the Holy Spirit, through the true Word as proclaimed in our church.

A few more points to consider concerning the church:
- We don't believe in a holy catholic Christian church. But we believe a holy catholic Christian church. Why the difference? We don't trust, or put our faith, in the church. Rather we believe with our heart and profess with our mouth. We know it for sure (as God has revealed in His Word) and we proclaim its importance (being with the true Shepherd in His congregation).

- Those confessing Jesus are children of God and free in Him.
Those denying Jesus are children of Satan and slaves of him.

- We confess a congregation of believers. Not of the elect, for then we talk about the 'invisible' church- hereby running the risk of pluriformity (i.e. we can belong to any visible church as long as we belong to the greater invisible church). Having an 'invisible' church undermines the strive for both unity and purity in the church; instead we say there is no division between 'visible' and 'invisible' churches as such. Rather, the local churches are a manifestation of the catholic (universal) church. Therefore we must belong to the true church, as evident in the local church which shows the three marks (BC Art 29).

- The attributes of the church (holy, catholic, Christian, church) describe what the church is, its essence. The marks of the church are the distinguishing features pointing to where the true church can be found, its existence.

- As church we must be fighting knights and shining lights. The antithesis established between the church and the world is often seen in a very negative sense. This comes from the term 'antithesis' being viewed as 'against'. But compare the opposite, 'sythesis', which means 'compromise' or in this context being willing to compromise or establish friendship with the world and worldly lusts. Then we see that not only must we (as collective church and individual believers) be separate from the world, but also do the opposite of compromise- we must spiritually fight! The antithesis in a positive sense indicates a Christian conviction, an attitude to fight.

- Compromise with sin is not promising. Rather we must resist the devil (our obligation) and he will flee (God's promise).