The Church

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 

And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, 

and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 

And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them 

and rested on each one of them. 

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit 

and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. 

(Acts 2:1-4)

By Stephen W. Hiemstra

The image of God in the New Testament takes three forms: The person of Jesus, Jesus’ teaching about the kingdom of God with the parables, and the founding of the church on Pentecost by the Holy Spirit. This is a trinitarian revelation of God, not by words, but by action. Here I will focus on the role of the church in projecting the image of God amidst our fallen state.

John Calvin in his Institutes of the Christian Religion, published in 1559, devotes 439 pages to discussing the role of the church. The purpose of the church is simple:

It is by faith in the gospel that Christ becomes ours and we are made partakers of the salvation and eternal blessedness brought by him. Since, however, in our ignorance and sloth (to which I add fickleness of disposition) we need outward helps to beget and increase faith within us, and advance it to its goal, God has also added these aids that he may provide for our weakness (Calvin 2006, 1011).

Those helps, he goes on to say, are the preaching of the word and the provision of the sacraments (Calvin 2006, 2012). Clearly supporting the preaching of the word are the Bible, confessions, and liturgies pulled together by councils of ancient church especially in the first four centuries after Christ. The Bible, which sketches out our primary image of God, is accordingly a gift of the ancient church, not an entirely independent revelation.

Origins of the Bible

More New Testament texts have survived from ancient times than any other ancient manuscripts. The Bible was the first publication to appear in wide circulation as a codex or bound book rather than a scroll (Metzger and Ehrman 2005, 15). Stone (2010, 14) cites the existence of 5,500 partial or complete biblical manuscripts making it the only document from the ancient world with more than a few dozen copies.

In his Easter letter of AD 367, Athanasius suggested the twenty-seven books that now make up the New Testament, as the Council of Carthage confirmed in 397. The common denominator in these books is that their authors were known to have been an apostle or associated closely with an apostle of Jesus. Pope Damasus I commissioned Jerome to prepare an authoritative translation of the Bible into Latin in AD 382 commonly known as the Vulgate (Evans 2005, 162). The Vulgate remained the authoritative Biblical text for the church until the time of the Reformation when the reformers began translating the Bible into common languages, such as German, English, and French.

During the Reformation Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German in 1522, the Old Testament in 1532, and the completed Bible in 1534 (Bainton 1995, 255). Luther also translated the Apocrypha in 1534 but specifically said they were not canonical, just good to read. Luther kept the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, but followed the Masoretic (Hebrew Old Testament) rather than the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) in selecting books for the Old Testament. The books left out became known as the Apocrypha. These books continue to distinguish the Catholic (Apocrypha included) from Protestant Bible translations (Apocrypha excluded) to this day.

Agency of the Holy Spirit

The agency of the Holy Spirit in founding and sustaining the church is highlighted in the Apostle Paul’s term for the church (Thompson 2014, 25). He refers to the church as the “called out ones of God” in Greek (e.g. 1 Cor 1:2). When those called by God get together, that is the church. The church is not a building or club; it is composed only of those called out by God himself. Because only God truly knows who he has called, the Westminster Confession of faith disguises the visible church we see from the invisible church seen only by God (PCUSA 1999, 6.140). Jesus himself makes this distinction in his parable of the wheat and the tares (Matt 13:24-30).

The authority of the church and of the Bible rests on the agency of the Holy Spirit. This authority is often physically manifested in the laying on of hands in coming to faith (e.g. Acts 8:17), during ordination (e.g. Num 27:18; 1 Tim 5:22), and in healing (e.g. Luke 4:40). Other-times, the Holy Spirit acts independently of the church through visions and reading scripture to bring people to faith.

 In the Old Testament, the primary role of a prophet was to point people back to the Mosaic covenant; in the New Testament, a prophet is better known as an apostle (one sent) or an evangelist, who points people to the new covenant in Christ. Greeks, by contrast, viewed prophets as predictors of the future, having no reference to covenants, which is why the Greek word for prophet is seldom used in Christian or Jewish circles. The special role of the prophet arises when the church deviates from its covenantal obligations.

The Problem of Sin

When postmodern church leaders enact policy inconsistent with the historical witness of the church, the only argument having ecclesiological standing is that they have been guided by the Holy Spirit. In effect, they are claiming to be prophets in the Greek sense, not the Hebrew sense, and fall under the severe guidance of Numbers 12:6 and Deuteronomy 13. By contrast, the Apostle Paul warns:

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry (2 Tim 4:3-5)

Sound teaching in Paul’s thinking requires adhering to covenantal obligations—the New Covenant in Christ understood in the context of Old Testament covenantal obligations. A distinction is, however, made between the holiness obligations that still apply and ceremonial obligations that were set aside.

The postmodern church is confronted with two crises, both having to do with the church’s dependence on the authority of the Holy Spirit. First, the Holy Spirit reflects the image of living God in the context of covenantal obligations, which are neither static nor wholly new. Second, the intrusion of a materialist culture and the state into the church has diluted the church’s focus on holiness, Christian formation, and the ability to practice church discipline. Formational weaknesses have over time created a dynamic breakdown in sensitivity to covenantal obligations unchecked by the prophetic voice in the church, which has, in other words, dulled the image of God among believers.

The Call to Sanctification

The uniqueness of the church rests on its call to sanctification (Thompson 2014, 41). If we are blessed to be a blessing like Abraham (Gen 12:1-3), then this blessing should be obvious to the world. The Apostle Paul writes:

To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. (Rom. 1:7-8)

Unless this address is total hyperbole, Paul is saying that the church in Rome is loved by God (elect), called to be saints (people who are holy), and held up as an example of faith.

This example of faith of the Church in Rome does not seem hyperbolic to me. I am reminded of an early school shooting:

On October 2, 2006, a shooting occurred at the West Nickel Mines School, an Amish one-room schoolhouse in the Old Order Amish community … [in] Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. [The] gunman … took hostages and shot ten girls (aged 6–13), killing five, before committing suicide in the schoolhouse. The emphasis on forgiveness and reconciliation in the Amish community’s response was widely discussed by the national media.⁠1

I remember this incident like it was yesterday. The Amish community could have played the victim, but refused. Instead, they went on national television and offered forgiveness to the family of the shooter. This example of forgiveness has served to motivate many others affected by such tragedies to emulate their behavior. In the same way, Paul is saying the Church in Rome is an example of faith to the world.

We are called to be saints. No one promised it would be easy or pain-free.

Footnotes

1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Ni....

References

Bainton, Roland H. 1995. Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther. New York: Penguin.

Calvin, John. 2006. Institutes of the Christian Religion (Orig Pub 1559). Edited by John T. McNeill. Translated by Ford Lewis Battles. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.

Evans, Craig A. 2005. Ancient Texts for New Testament Studies: A Guide to Background Literature. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson.

Metzger, Bruce M. and Bart D. Ehrman. 2005. The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption, and Restoration. New York: Oxford University Press.

Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PC USA). 1999. The Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)—Part I: Book of Confession. Louisville, KY: Office of the General Assembly.

Stone, Larry. 2010. The Story of the Bible: The Fascinating History of Its Writing, Translation, and Effect on Civilization. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.

Thompson, James W. 2014: The Church According to Paul: Rediscovering the Community Conformed to Christ. Grand Rapids: BakerAcademic.

The Church
Also see:
The Who Question
Preface to a Life in Tension
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Author site: http://www.StephenWHiemstra.net
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