All Articles For Our Doctrine

On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of the exalted Christ, was poured out into the Church, and through that Spirit Christ Himself, with all the fullness of spiritual blessings He had merited by His suffering, death and perfect obedience, returned to the Church, and the latter was translated from the old dispensation into the new. And this significant change implies, first, that the Church was led out of the dimness of the shadows into the clear light of the revelation of reality; secondly, that the Church was delivered from the bondage of the law into...

Q. 54. What believest thou concerning the ‘holy catholic church’ of Christ? A. That the Son of God from the beginning of the end of the world, gathers’, defends, and preserves to himself by his Spirit and word, out of the whole human race, a church chosen to everlasting life, agreeing in true faith; and that I am and for ever shall remain, a living member thereof. Q. 55. What do you understand by the communion of saints? A. First, that all and every one, who believes, being members of Christ, are in common, partakers of him, and of all...

The Idea of the Church (continued) However, the Church is not a mechanical, but an organic unity. It is a spiritual organism. The difference between a mechanism and an organism is that, while both are constituted of parts through which the whole functions, the former is assembled from previously prepared parts, the latter grows from a common principle of life. A watch is a mechanism, a tree is an organism. The church is the spiritual body of Christ, it is the olive tree of which He is the root; believers are branches of the vine which is Christ, members of...

According to the flesh, both Ishmael and Isaac, both Esau and Jacob were children of Abraham. Yet, only the children of the promise are counted as the seed: “In Isaac shall thy seed be called”; and again: “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” Not the will of man, neither the worthiness of man, but God’s sovereign predestination makes the distinction between children of the promise and children of the flesh, even in the historical line of the covenant. The question might arise, and frequently does arise, in the heart of man, whether, in making this distinction between...

Chapter 2: The Election of the Church (continued) The supralapsarians conceived of the order of the various elements in God’s counsel thus, that the decree of predestination precedes those of creation and the fall; God determined to glorify Himself in some whom He ordained unto eternal life, and in others whom He predestined to eternal perdition; He decreed to do so in the way of sin and grace: the fall; He decreed to create. The decrees of creation and the fall serve, in God’s counsel, the decree of predestination. Hence, the name supralapsarians: those who conceive of the decree of...

As well might we present the work of creation as being the product of the cooperation between God and man, as to give any credit to man for the marvelous work of gathering the Church of Christ out of the whole human race. The Church is not a human society that comes into existence by the free will and choice of its members, and which you may either join or refuse to join. Nor is it a school of philosophy, the disciples and adherents of which imbibe and follow the teachings of a great thinker. It cannot be compared to...

3. The Gathering of the Church (continued) A comparison of the two passages speaks for itself. While the passages from Hosea speaks of the nation of Israel, to which the Lord said Lo Ammi, not my people, and Lo Ruchama, no object of mercy; but which shall be restored, so that the Lord will be merciful to them, and they shall be called the children of the living God; the passage from the Romans quotes this passage in proof of the fact that the Lord fulfilled this promise of the restoration of Israel in the calling of the New Testament...

4. Assurance Of Membership (cont.) For proper self-examination leads to repentance. Its fruit is never morbid doubt or unbelief, but a walk in sanctification and the assurance that we are, indeed, members of the Church, living members of the body of Christ. And the assurance of present membership is, at the same time, the certainty of abiding, eternal membership. The latter is inherent in the former. The two cannot be separated. Even as calling and election are inseparable, so the assurance of the one is never without the assurance of the other. By walking in the way in which the...

To the article concerning the holy catholic church the Apostolicum appends the confession of the communion of saints. The two are most intimately related. The Church is the communion of saints. Yet, although they cannot be separated, they can easily be distinguished. The communion of saints is the Church considered only from one aspect of its nature and life, that of the fellowship between the members, and of their mutual relation to one another. In answer to the question: “What do you understand by the communion of saints?” the Catechism instructs us as follows: “First, that all and everyone who...

5. The Communion Of Saints. (continued) That history is not to be compared to a movement along the spokes of a wheel towards its hub. It does not present the picture of a number of different churches, equally imperfect in their apprehension of the truth as it is in Christ, but simultaneously approximating it. On the contrary, it was a development from a definite starting point, along a straight line, from which, however, under the influence of the carnal element in the Church, in the course of time, many departed, to follow after their own philosophy, and to establish various...