LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1967, Page 70

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70 THE DOCTRINAL ESSAY

fellowship of Christians gathered for the hearing of the
Word and the celebration of the sacraments according
to Christ’s institution. That is why we baptize into the
fellowship of Christ. This is an expression of the catho-
licity of the church. Baptism is a bond embracing the
baptized who confess Christ and are called by the Spirit
to serve Him throughout the world. The Lord’s Supper
is an expression of the catholicity of the church, for
Christ is truly present in this sacrament all over the
world.

Catholicity is an inclusive term, not exclusive.
Surely, some have to be excluded, but the church
catholic states the fact that all who are in Christ belong
to the family of God through their faith in Christ. All
who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved, said
the apostle.

Return to Scripture

Is there one process by which the catholicity of the
church can become more apparent to men and to us?
Yes, there is. The lesson of the Lutheran Reformation
is that a common return to the Scriptures as the source
of all teaching and doctrine is all-important to the mani-
festation of the catholicity of the church. Everything
else is secondary. In the Scriptures Christ is to be
found; He alone gives power and validity to everything
in the life of the church, including its catholicity. Return
to the sacraments as the stimulaters and nourishers of
the new life in Christ is all-important, for the presence
of Christ invigorates the church wherever it may be
and gives body to the catholicity of the church.

A Challenge

The term “catholic” presents a challenge to all
Christians and to all Christian denominations. The
catholicity of the church must be taken seriously, or
the confessions have to be dismissed as a mere collec-
tion of empty words.

The problem will not be solved by attaching the
term “catholicity” to any one communion or to any
group of denominations. Catholicity is not geographical.
It is rather a quality of mind and heart fundamental to
the life and witness of the church. The problem it pre-
sents to all denominations must be faced in all honesty.

The universality of the church is one with the uni-
versality of Christ. God was in Christ, reconciling the
whole world unto Himself, not counting our sins against
us. Christ rules, and Christ is glorified in the whole
world. The work of Christ is universal, surmounting all
human boundaries or barriers. Catholicity must be the
characteristic of the church, or it will not really repre-
sent Christ.

Continuity

The catholicity, or universality, of the church is in-
separably connected with the continuity of the church.
The continuity of the church is not dependent on some
form of ordination for the clergy or on the preservation
of some institutional entity. It is dependent on Christ
and on the Spirit He has sent into the world to bring
salvation to the world through the Good N ews of Christ
by the means of grace, the Word and the sacraments. In

the means of grace reside the forceful power of the Holy
Spirit. Stability rather than stagnancy therefore is a dis~
tinctive characteristic of the church catholic. When the
Word is present and the sacraments are administered in
accordance with the institution of Christ, the church
grows and is nourished by the very real presence of
Christ Himself.

Martin Luther and his associates wanted to maintain
the catholicity of the church. “Reformation” is quite
different from “revolution.” No new church was in the
minds of the Lutheran reformers. The main emphasis
was on the apostolic message, the authority of Scripture,
the use of the means of grace, and genuine witness to
Christ through proclamation of the Gospel — all of
which give to catholicity both its form and substance.

Christ’s Work Universal

The work of Christ is universal. His work is finished
and is continuing in its results, The Spirit has come
and still comes. He is no respecter of persons. Here
there can be no Greek or Jew, no circumcised or un-
circumcised, no barbarian, slave, or free, for Christ is
all and in all (Col. 3:11). All have access to the Father
by Jesus Christ. “You are all one in Christ Jesus,”
said St.Paul (Gal. 3:28). “You have one Teacher, and
you are all brothers,” said Christ (Matt. 23:8). No one
has preference over the other. No one can boast. No
one possesses anything which has not been given to all
as the gift of God’s free grace.

Every Christian bears this obligation to Christ: to
make more evident in his own life that he really believes
and confesses one catholic church. Far from encourag-
ing despair over the problems of Christendom, catho-
licity calls upon Christians to be hopeful and active,
to take a new hold on Christ by personal faith, to look
to the future. The more Christians do that, the more
will open doors appear by the grace of God in the future,
because the Gospel has not lost its power. The church
catholic, as the Augsburg Confession states, will remain
universal in its reach and outreach, stable and continu-
ing in its inner life. It is His church, the church catholic.

Apostolic
“I believe one holy, catholic, and apostolic church,”
says the Nicene Creed, and so say we. It is the con-
fession of our faith, and our confession of faith.
The church is apostolic. It goes back directly to the
apostles of Jesus Christ.

Historic Continuity

There is a historic continuity to the church that
8oes back to the apostles. The lineage of the church
is honorable, including the faithful down through the
centuries who have transmitted the Good News of
Christ to their children and their children’s children.
The lineage of the church includes not only those faith-
ful to Christ, back to the time of the apostles, but also
that cloud of witnesses in Hebrews 12 who lived by
faith, put to flight alien armies, subdued kingdoms,
were torn apart by ravenous beasts, and were put to

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