Ecclesiology Flashcards
What is the Church?
the community of all true believers for all time
Eph 5:25 “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (refers to all those whom Christ died for, meaning all believers for all time)
Purpose of Church
- Ministry to God: worship (Col 3:16 “sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God”)
- Ministry to believers: nurture (Col 1:28 ““present every man mature in Christ”)
- Ministry to the world: evangelism and mercy (Matt 28:19)
- Keeping these purposes in balance
Visible/Invisible Church
- Invisible because we cannot see the spiritual conditions of people’s hearts (invisible is as God sees it)
- 2 Tim 2:19 “The Lord knows those who are his”
- The visible church is the church as we see it on earth
- 1 Cor 1:2 “to the church in Corinth”
Apostles
(1) having seen Jesus after his resurrection with one’s own eyes (thus, being an “eyewitness of the resurrection”), and (2) having been specifically commissioned by Christ as his apostle.
• Acts 1:22 - Judas’ replacement “must become with us a witness to his resurrection”
• Acts 1:2 “whom he had chosen”
List of apostles
14 total: the initial group of the 12, plus Matthias (cast lots Acts 1:26), plus Paul and Barnabas (Acts 14:14), plus James (Gal 1:19)
plurality of elders in the Bible
- consistent pattern of plurality in every church (1 Pet 5:1-2 “So I exhort the elders among you… Tend the flock”)
- only one form of government consistently represented: every church had elders governing it and watching over it
Function of elders
- to rule and to teach
- 1 Peter 5:2–5 “Tend the flock… not domineering… you that are younger be subject to the elders”: strongly suggests that elders had ruling or governing functions
- 1 Tim 3:2 “able to teach”
Qualifications of elders
1 Tim 3:2-7 “above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, dignified, hospitable, an apt teacher, no drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome…”
• Titus 1:6-9
• (the ‘one wife’ thing: probably against polygamy, no mention of divorce/remarriage)
Deacons
- ordinary term for “servant” when not used to discuss church offices
- 1 Tim 3:8-13 “Deacons likewise must be serious, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for gain…”
- Functions aren’t listed here, but the verses suggest possible: administration, house visitation, counseling
- No where do they rule or teach
Women as pastors
- 1 Tim 2:12
- 1 Cor 14:34-35 (keep silent)
- 1 Tim and Titus refer to men
Church discipline
• purpose is to:
1. restore and reconcile
2. keep the sin from spreading
3. protect the purity of the church and honor of Christ
• 1 Cor 5:6-7 “a little leaven leavens the whole lump…”
• should occur when it can’t be resolved in private (Matt 18:15-17); examples in NT are diverse (divisiveness, incest, laziness…)
Discipline of elders
1 Tim 5:19-21 “Never admit any charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear…”
Continuity with Israel
- The church includes both Old Testament believers and New Testament believers in one church or one body of Christ
- Even on the nondispensational view, a person may hold that there will be a future large-scale conversion of the Jewish people, yet that this conversion will only result in Jewish believers becoming part of the one true church of God—they will be “grafted back into their own olive tree” (Rom. 11:24).
- Many NT verses understand the church as the “New Israel” or new “people of God” (Rom 2:29 “He is a Jew inwardly… circumcision of the heart”)
- Rom 4:11 Abraham is the “father of all who believe without circumcision”
Baptism
• baptism is appropriately administered only to those who give a believable profession of faith in Jesus Christ
• NT shows baptism by immersion because:
(1) baptizo means “to plunge, dip, or immerse” in water
(2) sense of immersion is in many passages (Mk 1:5 “in” the Jordan, “out of” the water, “because there was much water there”)
(3) symbolism of union with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection requires immersion (Rom 6:3-4)
Baptism verse
Rom 6:3-4
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
