BY DR. JOHN SULLIVAN
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR-TREASURER
FLORIDA BAPTIST CONVENTION

DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH

Some say the Doctrine of the Church is the most important doctrine of the 21st Century. This accounts for the vast movement to unite all churches under one banner, one union and often one organization. There are many voices crying out for an erasure of denominational lines and doctrines, such as Promise Keepers, Trinity Network, and others.

However, I do not think this doctrine is the most vital doctrine of our day or biblically. The most vital is the doctrine of redemption.

Christ came to establish the church comprised of converted people. There can be no true church without the new birth. This is the principle that divides and makes organic union impossible. We can and should have fellowship with, pray for and work with other religious groups. But to merge into “one big church” is not possible theologically nor would it be practical redemptively.

The following is a discussion of the church as I find it in the New Testament. I recognize a debt of gratitude to Dr. George Euting, author of “The Brotherhood Program of a Baptist Church: Principles for Providing Missionary Education and Missions Involvement for Baptist Men.”

As we examine the doctrine of the church will be first begin by defining a church and exploring the nature of a church.

The word “church” is used to translate a Greek word ecclesia which basically means a gathering of citizens summoned or called out by a herald to meet in a public place for some purpose. The New Testament identifies this word with Christian believers in a stated place as, “Unto the church of God which is at Corinth” (1 Corinthians 1:2).

The word is applied to a portion of the Christians in any city who assemble in a private house, “…with the church that is in the house” (1 Corinthians 16:19; Romans 16:5; Colossians 4:15). The earliest churches probably met in a private home. We have evidence that a church met in the house of Mary, Mother of John Mark (Acts 12:12). Paul sent salutations to at least three house-churches; to the church meeting in the house of Aquila and Priscilla (Romans 16:5); to that meeting in the house of Mymphas (Colossians 4:15); to that meeting in the house of Philemon (Philemon 2). It was the custom of congregations to meet in private homes.

The term has also a wider meaning and denotes the whole body of believers, “How that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it” (Galatians 1:13; 1 Corinthians 15:9). There is an actual, visible, earthly company which is addressed as “the Body of Christ.”

“It is surely a fact of inexhaustible significance that what our Lord left behind him was not a book, nor a creed, nor a system of thought, nor a rule of life, but a visible community. It was not that a community gathered around an idea, so that the idea was primary and the community secondary. It was that a community called together by the deliberate choice of the Lord, himself, and recreated in Him…(Lesslie Newbigin).

The nature of a church is best explained in Matthew 16:18, when Jesus said, “and I say also unto thee, that thou are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.” What did Jesus mean by the use of the word “church?”

He certainly meant more than the disciples were able to understand at the time he was speaking. It is evident from the words that Jesus was communicating to his disciples on the basis of that divinely transformed type of character, which is the outgrowth of that faith in deity and “messiahship” of Jesus expressed by Peter’s confession. It was his purpose to build a new congregation distinct from the old congregation of Israel.

“This would indicate to the disciples that the agency through which their Lord would promote his cause would not be the historical nation of Israel but a body of people who confessed him as Savior and Lord” (H. E. Dana).

Later Simon Peter explained this new congregation of people by saying, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; which in time past were not a people but are now the people of God” (1 Peter 2:9-10). It is the gathering together of these people of God, redeemed by Christ that signifies the use of the word “church.” The believers referred to as “they” in Acts 2:42, 46, later becomes identified as the church (Acts 2:47). Those believers had received the words of salvation; were baptized; continued steadfastly in the apostle’s doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and in prayers.” (Acts 2:41-42).

The nature of the church is evident from the nature of the membership. As the nature of a Christ is to be like Christ, the church is to reflect the nature and work of Christ on earth. Next week we will discuss that nature.

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