Calvin's Institutes of Religion, 4.1.9-4.1.14.
After a curious post by Dr. Derek Thomas at Ref21 (which we posted), citing Calvin's lamentable comment about our Book of Common Prayer, an oddity and yet something Dr. Thomas inserted, we feel the need to track alongside Dr. Thomas. Ergo, a blogonista of sorts, following Dr. Thomas, but making sure "oddities" are tracked.
Calvin is concerned about the "visible" and "universal church" and the manner of identification. The visible and universal church is identified by the "right doctrine correctly taught and the due administration of the Sacraments." This church is spread throughout the earth.
He is concerned about the church universal, schism, unity and the marks of identity for the Christian Churchman.
The Lutheran Confession, the Augsburg Confession (1530), says a true church is a "congregation of saints in which the gospel is rightly taught and the sacraments rightly administered." While not holding to something in the Lutheran Confessions, they are truly Catholic, Christian, and are True Churches.
The XXXIX Articles says, "The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be buly ministered according to Christ's ordinance, in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same." (XIX). This is almost verbatim from the Augsburg Confession.
Martin Bucer (Cranmer's adviser on the Book of Common Prayer), the First Scots Confession (1560) and the Belgic Confession, Article 29 add a "third note," church discipline.
Calvin unquestionably had a "High View" of the Church, contrary to what some Anglo-Romewardizers say about Calvinists. It is a higher view than most evangelicals hold. Calvin says that we cannot "spurn its , authority, flout its warnings, resist its counsels, or make light of its chastisements." In this respect, Calvin sounds like Richard Hooker. The Church is the "pillar and ground of the truth (1 Tim.3.15)."
If it is a true Catholic Church with these two marks, it is the Body of Christ, outside of which there is no salvation. Yet, given Finneyism, revivalism, charisphilia, individualism, Arminianism, liberalism (mainliners), and Anglo-Romewardism, we need to revisit the question: What and where is a Church a True Church?
It is here that the Word is rightly read, preached, and heard. It is here that faith is born. It is here that the sacraments are rightly administered, infant (for infants of believers) and adult baptism (for new joins), as well as the Lord's Supper, as dominical sacraments so ordered.
Calvin notes that these two marks are the frequent targets of Satanic attack. He observes that at some periods in history, the "pure preaching of the Word" has disappeared. That was exactly the situation during the Reformation. It is a serious problem today.
We are warned along two lines: to "avoid the scrupulous deceits," by implication, of the false teachers. Secondly, to avoid "rashness and pride on the other hand."
Even if there are "some faults," this should not "estrange us from communion with this church." Even if there are corrupt people in the pew, one is to be reminded of Jesus' parable of the wheat and tares.
A difficulty emerges here in Calvin's thought--perhaps it will be resolved elsewhere. Primary articles of faith exist that unite True Catholic Churches, e.g. Trinity and the Creeds. Yet, slippery questions remain for discernment within the Church, to wit, what is primary versus secondary in terms of importance. Caution and kindness are directed by Calvin (although Calvin does not hesitate to speak of the Cathars, Donatists, Anabaptists, and, later, Anti-christ in Rome).
Obvious candidates emerge as false churches, to wit, without the notes of a true church: Rome, chariphilic churches, and the mainline with its official denials of the theological loci. J. Gresham Machen's Christianity and Liberalism offers a widely available tool for an analysis of why liberalism is not Christianity. Rome is obviously in this orbit. The wide expressions of charisphilia lack the two notes.
There is a third mark that Calvin held, and even many reformed churches ignore: the administration of church discipline.
ReplyDeleteI agree, to wit, that "discipline" was a "mark" of a true church. Whether acknowledged or not, I would suggest that "discipline" informed the Elizabethan and Reformed Church. It's inescapable for a True Catholic Church to exist without this. By that, I mean this, "defining doctrine, setting boundaries, purging leaven," as well as the authoritative proclamation of the remission of sins.
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