Ecclesiology

Question 1

What is the Church?

Answer 1

We are a people that are Christ’s very own.

Question 2

Three Historical Marks of the Church

Answer 2

1. Right Preaching of God’s Word
2. Right Administration of the Sacraments
3. Faithful exercise of church discipline

Question 3

How is the church named in the NT?

Answer 3

Ekklesia – means called out ones, literally means the assembly.

Question 4

What distinguishes the church?

Answer 4

We are to be a called out people who form the company who are God’s people.

Question 5

What is the difference between the local church and the universal church?

Answer 5

Local are part of a specific location.

Universal is all believers.

Question 6

Is there continuity between the Local and Universal Church?

Answer 6

1. Christ is Lord of the Church
2. The Church Exists only by the Power of the Spirit
3. There is One Body in Christ
4. We are bound by the New Covenant.
5. We are a Testifying Community
6. We are a Worshiping Community

Question 7

When did the Church begin?

Answer 7

Pentecost

Question 8

How is the church a “mystery?”

Answer 8

“mystery” means truth that was formally concealed, now revealed.
Truth previously hidden, now made known.
Gentiles get to be together as one with the Jews in God of same status.

Question 9

How does the mystery of the Church relate to the continuity and/or discontinuity between OT Israel and the NT church?

Answer 9

The fundamental question - Is Israel the OT Church? Is the Church the New Israel.
yes and no.
There is continuity in the New Covenant blessings.
The church is a people independent of national preconditions. (Acts 15:14)

Question 10

Explain the Biblical metaphors for the church.

Answer 10

1. The People of God - direct continuity with OT saints.
2. Body of Christ - Clear headship, Unity, interdependence, value of each member
3. The Bride of Christ - Christ’s unconditional love, Church is to be pure.
4. Church as a Building - Christ as cornerstone, foundation, Living stones that grow
5. The Flock of Christ - Jesus is the good, chief shepherd, we are called to follow, he protects and pursues lost sheep.

Question 11

What is the goal of church discipline?

Answer 11

Restoration and reconciliation.
In Matt 18:15, it is the goal that discipline be ended at the first step. Church discipline is to have the goal of personal reconciliation among individual believers. Cf., Gal 6:1; James 5:20.

To keep sin from spreading.
Heb 12:15; 1 Cor 5:2, 6-7; 1 Tim 5:20.

To protect the Purity of the Church
1 Cor 5:1-2; 6:6; Eph 5:27; 3:10; 4:1-3; Rev 2:20

Question 12

NT passages that teach church discipline

Answer 12

Matt 16:19 and 18:18ff.
1 Cor 5:1-13.
2 Cor 13:10
Titus 2:15

Question 13

The three views of baptism discussed in class, Be able to critique each.

Answer 13

Sacramental View - Baptism as a means of saving grace
Saving Grace is conveyed
Clear scripture that salvation is though Jesus not Baptism
infant baptism is not in scriputre

Covenantal View - Baptism as a sign and seal of the covenant
A kind of Grace is conveyed
infant baptism is not in scripture

Believer’s Baptism
No Grace is conveyed.
Strongest scriptural evidence
Exclusive

Question 14

What is the Lord’s Supper? What does it accomplish?

Answer 14

The Lord’s Supper is a visual, olfactory, tactile, and taste reminder of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
It should be a holistic experience, combining sorrow, joy, thanksgiving, and deep love for Jesus.

Meaning of the Lord’s Supper

1. Christ’s death
2. Our union with Christ
3. Spiritual Nourishment
4. Unity of Christians
5. Affirmation of Christ’s love for me
6. Affirmation that all salvation blessings are mine in Christ
7. Affirmation of personal faith in Christ

Question 15

Know the passages where the qualifications for elder and deacon are discussed.

Answer 15

1 Tim 3

2-7, 8-13

Question 16

Be able to defend the notion of local church membership.

Answer 16

Gives teeth behind Church discipline
Matt 18.
Oversight over the assembly, stewardship. Leadership responsibility
Acts 2,6

The election of offices implies a membership
1 Tim 3, Tit 1:5

Question 17

Explain the four views of the Lord’s Supper discussed in class.

Answer 17

Views of the Presence of Christ in the Elements
Roman Catholicism: Transubstantiation
Philosophical view of substance and accidents

Accidents - things that an object can fail to have and still be the object
Substance - essential to the object

In the mass, a miracle takes place in which there is a transference of substance so that the substance of the bread and wine becomes the substance of body and blood.
Accidents stay the same as what they were. It still looks like bread, tastes like, etc, but is in substance the body of Christ.
It looks the same, the accidents are the same, but the substance has changed.

Jesus handed them bread and said, this is my body. Are we to understand that the substance changed - Jesus gained weight?
This cup is the New Covenant. Why do we make the literal identification of the blood of with cup? Are not the is’s, is’s of analogy rather than identification? I am the door

Lutheran: Consubstantiation
A miracle takes place in the Eucharist
The substance of the body and blood of Christ are joined in, with, and under the substance of the bread and wine.
Con means with - substances are joined with each other.

If it really is ubiquitous, then the body and blood of Jesus are everywhere, not just in the bread and wine.
Is Jesus claiming that actual substance of himself is given.
Jesus is using language of analogy.

Reformed View
It denies that a miracle takes place of the substances. It is just bread and wine.
But, there is a spiritual presence of Christ that accompanies the taking the elements.

Memorial View
It has the most going for it biblically. It was instituted precisely because Jesus wanted this to symbolize his death and resurrection. The symbols are indicative of the offering of himself in his broken body and shed blood.
They were to cause us to remember what we were to keep central in our thinking because it is essential to our identity.

The point is a memory device. A pneumonic device. The remembering is rich. It is not “Oh, yeah. I remember that now.”