Chapter Nine — The Marks of a True Church
When is a church not a church? I frequently get let ters from people who pour out their souls and say: "I'm very unhappy in the church I attend. I'm not happy with what's preached or the activities that are going on in the church." This is a very serious question. It was paramount in the sixteenth century at the time of the Ref ormation, when we saw the greatest fragmentation of the visible church that ever took place. After the Protestant reformers broke with Rome, all kinds of divergent groups
What Is the Church?
arose. They had different creeds, different confessions, dif ferent forms of government, and different liturgies. They all claimed to be Christian churches, and many of them claimed to be the only true church. Thus, the people of that day asked: "How can we tell? What are the marks of an authentic church?"
The Reformers wrestled with that question, since Rome did not recognize the Protestant churches as authentic. Rome said in the past that the church can be defined this way: where the bishop is, there is the church, and if there is no authorization by a Roman bishop, then whatever societies spring up are not valid churches. The Protestant Reformers took a different view of the matter. They sought to isolate and delineate the marks of a valid church and they settled on three distinctive characteristics. First, they said a church is a true church when the gospel is preached faithfully. Second, a true church is one where the sacra ments are rightly administered. Third, they said a true church practices authentic discipline of its people. A corol lary of the third point is ecclesiastical government, which exists for the nurture and the discipline of the people. Of all the different elements that make up a church, these are the three non-negotiables that the Reformers pinpointed
The Marks of a True Church as essential marks of a true church. Let's consider these marks in more detail:
1) Where the gospel is proclaimed faithfully. What the Reformers meant by this was not simply the announce ment of the good news of Jesus' death and the atonement, but rather the faithful proclamation of the essential truths of Christianity. If a church denied an essential aspect of the Christian faith, that institution would no longer be consid ered a church. Historic Protestantism would not recognize Mormonism as an authentic Christian church because the Mormon faith has denied the eternal deity of Christ.
2) Where the sacraments are administered. According to the Reformers, if there are no sacraments—the Lord's Supper and baptism—it's not a church. That becomes significant today because we have parachurch groups like Young Life, Campus Crusade, and InterVarsity that are engaged on a daily basis in various elements of Christian outreach and ministry. Their calling is to work alongside the church. Ligonier Ministries may also be called a para church ministry. We're an educational institution and we are not a church. Ligonier Ministries doesn't admin ister the sacraments. We don't have church membership whereby we impart discipline to people who are part of the
What Is the Church?
constituency of Ligonier. That's not our function. We're called to assist the church educationally, but we have a very narrow focus at that point and don't claim to be a church. Nobody's a member of Ligonier in that sense. We don't baptize people and have them enter the Ligonier church, for there isn't one. The serving of the sacraments is a task for the church.
3) Church discipline. We have seen through church history that church discipline has been somewhat variable. There have been times in the past where church discipline has manifested itself in ways that were harsh. During the sixteenth century, there was fierce persecution not only from the Roman Catholic Church against Protestants, but also Protestants against Catholics. We know that people were subjected to torture and all manner of punishments as a means of church discipline. From our vantage point in the twenty first century, this seems to be cruel, unusual, and barbaric. Perhaps it is, but I want us to understand this: the leaders of the church in the sixteenth century really believed in hell. They believed that there was no worse fate that could befall a human being than to be cast into hell. The church really believed that it was justifiable
The Marks of a True Church to use almost any means necessary to rebuke and discipline its members in order to keep them out of the jaws of hell. If it took a torture chamber, the rack, even the threat of being burned at the stake to rescue a person from the jaws of hell, it was considered legitimate. I'm not defending that, but I am trying to help us understand the mindset of people in the sixteenth century who took hell seriously. Today, we seem to have an attitude that we don't need to discipline people at all because it doesn't matter. That may be because many people don't believe in the threat of divine judgment.
The pendulum tends to swing to extremes in church history when it comes to discipline. Sometimes the church gets involved in harsh and severe forms of discipline. At other times, the church is marked by an extraordinary form of latitudinarianism. This is where no discipline is imposed upon the people. A few years ago, one of the mainline denominations in America had a controversy in the church when a group of pastors and scholars put together a paper in which they completely redefined the Christian sexual ethic of one man and one woman for life in marriage. This report was introduced as legislation for
What Is the Church?
the church amidst much opposition from those who were more orthodox. A showdown came at the annual meeting of this denomination and when the vote was taken, the proposal was defeated.
But what took place after was perhaps more strange. Though the church did not adopt this particular position on sexual behavior, it also did not censure or discipline those who advocated the position. The church was in effect saying, "This is not our official position, but if you want to be a minister in our denomination and hold and teach these things, we're not going to do anything about it." There was a failure of discipline at that point. This happens all the time in the modern-day church.
This also raises a question. If a church fails in a sig nificant way to discipline its members with respect to gross, heinous, and egregious sins, is that institution still a church? When does the church become apostate? That is not an easy question to answer because it's very rare in church history that an institution will admit it doesn't believe in the atonement of Christ or the deity of Christ or other essential truths. It's not always very clear cut. Often, the church plays loosely with essential truths of the Chris tian faith.
The Marks of a True Church
We make a distinction between de facto apostasy and de jure apostasy, between formal and material apostasy. Formal apostasy is when the church clearly and unequivocally denies an essential truth of the Christian faith. De facto apostasy is apostasy at a material or practical level, where the creeds are still intact but the church doesn't believe the creeds anymore. The church undermines the very creeds that they say that they believe.
That brings us to a practical application. When should one leave a church and go to another? First, I would say that this is not a decision anyone should make lightly. It's a serious matter. Almost always, when we join a church, we do it with a solemn vow before God. To remove oneself from a group before whom one has made a sacred vow requires serious reasons. This must be justified on solid grounds.
Today, people move from one church to another with out a second thought. When we leave a church over silly reasons like paint colors or an offending remark, we fail to see the sacred nature of the church itself.
We should not leave when there's no just reason. We ought to honor our commitment to a church to the best of our ability as long as we possibly can unless we are not
What Is the Church?
able to be nurtured and nourished as a Christian there. When the church is apostate, a Christian must leave. You may think you should stay within the church and try to work for its change and recovery, but if the church is in fact apostate, you're not allowed to be there. Consider the showdown between the prophets of Baal and Elijah at Mount Carmel. After God displayed his power over Baal can you imagine somebody saying, "Well, I see now that Yahweh is God, but I'm going to stay here in the house of Baal as salt and light and try to work for its reform"? We're not allowed to do that. If the institution we are in commits apostasy, it is our duty to leave it.
No matter what, we should always look carefully at the marks of the church. Is the gospel preached? Are the sacra ments duly administered? Is there a biblical form of church government and discipline? If those three things are pres ent, you ought not to leave. You ought to work to be an edifying part of that section of the body of Christ.
In these few chapters we have glimpsed the nature and scope of God's bride, the church of Jesus Christ. It is only when we understand our true purpose that the church will shine in all of her beauty. United in truth as we hold to the Apostolic faith, we will declare and demonstrate to an
The Marks of a True Church onlooking world that our triune God is worthy to be wor shiped and served. As the called-out ones of the Father, this is our greatest joy. This is the church: a people for His own possession who live together to glorify Him.
About the Author
Dr. R.C. Sproul was founder of Ligonier Ministries, founding pastor of Saint Andrew's Chapel in Sanford, Fla., first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine. His radio program, Renewing Your Mind, is still broadcast daily on hundreds of radio sta tions around the world and can also be heard online. He was author of more than one hundred books, including The Holiness of God, Chosen by God, and Everyone's a Theologian. He was recognized throughout the world for his articulate defense of the inerrancy of Scripture and the need for God's people to stand with conviction upon His Word.
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A building with a steeple and stained glass windows?
When the word church is mentioned, many people think of a building. Others think of a denomination. But the church is so much more.
In this booklet, Dr. R.C. Sproul explains that the church is a group of people, not a building. These Christians make up the universal family of God and are called to live lives that glorify Him. Beginning with one of the church's earliest statements of faith, Dr. Sproul takes an in-depth look at the "one, holy, catholic, and Apostolic" church.
The Crucial Questions booklet series by Dr. R.C. Sproul offers succinct answers to important questions often asked by Christians and thoughtful inquirers.
Dr. R.C. Sproul was founder of Ligonier Ministries, founding pastor of Saint Andrew's Chapel in Sanford, Fla., and first president of Reformation Bible College. He was author of more than one hundred books, including The Holiness of God.
RELIGION / Christian Theology / Ecclesiology