RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Church, The Christian
institution stands outside and above those who compose it, or simply consists of them, the answer must be that in the apostolic use of the word it is regarded as having its existence wholly in those who are called, not as though it had come to them from without but as though they were, by their calling and reception of the message of salvation and baptism, united with each other and with Christ into one body. Paul indeed spoke once of a " Jerusalem which is above " (Gal. iv. 26) as the mother of Christians, and therefore as preexistent; but this is not the same thing as the earthly church. He had in mind a common Jewish and apostolic conception, difficult now to realize, of a reality preexistent in heaven which was the prototype of the Old Testament theocracy, which had for its offspring the members of the church on earth, who were born from above, which, finally, was one day to descend in its completeness when the full revelation of the kingdom takes place (Hcb. xii. 22; Phil. iii. 20; Rev. xxi. 2). The name " church " was applied solely to the earthly fellowship, not to the company of the departed saints (as in the later conception of " church triumphant ") — though in a sense to them, as to the heavenly Jerusalem, the faithful on earth " are come " already. The various vital functions and activities of the church relate to mutual edification in God, whose word is to " dwell in them richly " (Col. iii. 16); to the promotion of the moral and religious life in the individual members by loving admonition, encouragement, and care. All the members of the church were regarded as having (just as under the old covenant, Ex. xix. 6) a priestly position before God (I Pet. ii. 5, 9; Rev. i. 6, v. 10); they were to offer to him themselves, their bodies, their acts of praise, thanksgiving, and brotherly love as a sacrifice (Rom. xii. 1; Heb. xiii. 15, 16). Each member had his own part in the common work of edification; but the special gifts which enable him to perform it varied (see Charismata).
This leads to the question of offices in the apostolic church. The word diakoniai, " ministries," in I Cor. xii. 5, denotes special functions incumbent upon definite members of the body in the service of the whole. While the word " office " is generally applied more strictly to functions committed to a particular man, whether by church or state, the New Testament has no word for offices in this sense. The functions coming under this head would naturally cover the external direction of the church, in so far as this required defmite institutions and formally appointed and recognized officers. So the elders, or episcopal, stood at the head of the churches, and deacons were charged with the care of material needs and especially of the poor. Formal appointments or election and g formal installation occurred; but the
Offices^De Testament nowhere gives a law
termined' Prescribing this course. The needs of by Church *'^e church determined the arrange- Needs, ment. Thus the apostles, originally appointed by Christ to the headship of all his disciples, were obliged to abandon first the detailed care of the poor, and then, under the pressure of their wider tasks and frequent absence from
Jerusalem, the regular direction of the internal affairs of the church there. Besides the offices mentioned, prophecy was allowed to work freely under the impulse of the Holy Spirit. For the exercise of the function of teaching or admonition, the possession of the necessary charisma was held to suffice. The elders naturally took a prominent part in the instruction and exhortation that found place in the gatherings (I Tim. in. 2, v. 17), but participation in it was by no means confined to them. The office of the apostles was unique, resting upon its special institution by the Lord, concerned with the establishment of his kingdom and the original spread of the Gospel, and thus incapable of transmission to others.
There was a notable difference between the churches of Jewish and those of Gentile origin, the former desiring to give the latter only such a position in the church of God as the proselytes of the gate held under the old dispensation, while Paul, on the contrary, regarded both classes alike as saints and members of the body of Christ. The association of the various local communities into one church was not expressed by any formal constitution, but by the free communion of fraternal love. At the close of the apostolic period, the epistles of John, while insisting strongly on the necessity of this lo^dng union, laid down no rules governing external unity and said nothing of ecclesiastical forms. Nor is there any warrant [according to the views of some modem scholars] for seeing in the " angel " of Rev. ii., iii. the early stage of an episcopal office; they are not the heads and rulers of the seven churches, but rather represent in each case the characteristic spirit of the particular church. See Organization of The Early Church.
III. The Church in Traditional Christianity.— 1. In Primitive Catholicism: Out of the ekklesia of the apostles, and principally on the territory covered by Jewish Christianity, grew up a postapostolic development which is called the Catholic Church. From the Evangelical standpoint we can but recognize in its conception of the way of salvation and the nature of the church a notable declension from the original principles, which continued progressively down to the Reformation. Christianity maintained itself, indeed, as an organic whole against the assaults of persecution on one side and heresy on the other; it set up as a permanent standard for its religious belief the New Testament writings admitted to be apostolic, together with the canon of the Old Testament; and it undertook on the basis of these to formulate a summary of the common faith in its Rule of Faith (q.v.). But even in the subapostohc period there is evident a general weakening of the original spirit, a lack of vital comprehension of the plan of salvation as at first revealed, and a tendency toward a legalistic conception and regulation of Christian life, as well as to a conception of the church
1. Tend- which found its essence in external enoy ordinances. And these ordinances, es-
toward pg^jaHy as pertaining to the governl^egansm. ^^^^^ ^j^^^^j^
hood, continued to develop until they ended in what is known as Roman Catholic Christianity. The
Church, The Christian