LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1967, Page 69

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THE DOCTRINAL ESSAY 69

Augsburg Confession sets up as the yardstick to de-
termine what is necessary for catholicity: what is “nec-
essary for righteousness before God.” Again we are
brought face to face with the cardinal doctrine of the
church: justification by grace through faith in Jesus
Christ.

Doctrine and Life

The catholicity of the church is expressed in the
doctrine and life of the church. Both doctrine and life
must be in conformity with the pure understanding of
the Gospel; that includes the administration of the sac-
raments. Wherever the Gospel has been turned into
a new law, promising salvation to men in conformity
with certain regulations rather than by the gift of God
in Christ, the catholicity of the church is immediately
threatened. Whenever the sacraments become an ex-
pression of law rather than of the Gospel, the catholicity
of the church has immediately been put under a cloud.

Martin Luther again confirmed the catholicity of the
church with his “grace alone, faith alone, and Scripture
alone.” This is the teaching of the church catholic, and
by it the church lives. The church catholic is made up
of men and women scattered throughout the world who
agree on the Gospel and have the same Christ, the same
Holy Spirit, and the same sacraments. “They gather
locally in large congregations, and are scattered in
lonely places, in all the world, in various kingdoms,
islands, lands and cities, from the rising of the sun to
its setting” (Apology VII, 20, from the German). The
church catholic exists.

“Catholic” Equals “Christian”

Lutherans invested the word “catholic” with Chris-
tological content. Christ is everything. He is all in all.
Therefore the Lutheran Confessions could render the
word “catholic” simply with the word “Christian,” which
is not an institutional designation but advances the
idea that the church exists wherever the Gospel is
preached. Schlink says: “The catholicity of the church
is the catholicity of its Lord, who is present and active
wherever the Gospel is preached according to His com-
mission and the Sacraments are administered.”

What about all the false people and the false teachers
in the church, the wicked and the hypocrites, who ob-
viously do not follow Christ? It cannot be said that
the presence of such people in the church did not bother
the professors at Augsburg, because it did — but it did
not shake their faith in Christ or their confident asser-
tion of the catholicity of the church. It is the Gospel
that builds the church, and it is the Gospel that deter-
mines the catholicity of the church. Though the wicked
may be members of the church, they are not members
of Christ. Even though they are “within the church”
itself, it must be said of them that since they “belong
to the kingdom of the devil, they are not the church.”
(Apology VII, 17)

Not “Ecumenical”
The term “catholic” therefore, as we understand it,

‘includes all whom God has given to Christ. We do not

‘identify the word “catholic” with “ecumenical,” which

means simply “worldwide” and is limited to this earth.
Indeed, the word “ecumenical” has come to have so
many meanings that it might be better for us to refer
to the ecumenical creeds as the catholic creeds, just as
the Athanasian Creed described the faith believed and
proclaimed by the catholic church as the catholic faith.
In so doing we concede nothing to the Roman Catholic
Church. Indeed, we deny to any church body the ex-
clusive prerogative of calling itself, and itself alone,
catholic.

The catholicity of the church exists in spite of the
fragmented nature of Christendom. The fragmentation
is serious. In many cases it is not just historical or tradi-
tional but has to do with the heart of the life of the
church, its doctrine. No single church body and no
single denomination can lay full or exclusive claim to
the title or the attributes of the church of God as it is
described in the New Testament. Yet the catholicity of
the church remains.

No Jigsaw Puzzle

The ecumenical movement, good as have been some
of its intentions, has often been characterized by the
mistaken idea that the catholicity of the church has to
be restored by putting together somehow the pieces of
the church as if it were a gigantic jigsaw puzzle. The
trouble with this approach is that the pieces do not fit
the picture of the church as it is portrayed in the New
Testament. What is needed is that the ecumenical
movement be infused with the spirit of true catholicity,
the reality and power of which come to the church from
Christ Himself, being transmitted to the church through
the God-given means of grace, the Gospel and the sac-
raments. The activity of Christ through Word and sac-
rament produces the reality of catholicity by the power
of the Holy Spirit. The Augsburg Confession says,
echoing St.Paul: “There is one body and one Spirit,
just as you were called to the one hope that belongs
to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism.”

Foretaste

The catholicity of the church on earth is a foretaste
of something greater to come. Catholicity will always
be insecure in history, something never to be taken for
granted. The fullness of catholicity will always remain
a hope on earth to be realized in all its fullness in
heaven. This is nothing new. It is characteristic of all
the Christian life and includes the eternal life, to which
we lay claim now but will realize in all its fullness in
heaven. What we must remember is that the people
whom we shall meet in heaven are the same ones who
share in the catholicity of the church here.

Since it always remains a hope, catholicity is always
a pressing forward to the historical realization, at least
in part, of what will become apparent in all its fullness
at the end of time.

Church Universal —

The body of Christ in all places and in all ages is
the church universal. That church universal makes its
presence known in the local congregation to the local