The Church E-Book

Gregg R. Allison

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: Short Studies in Systematic Theology
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

What comes to mind when you think of the word church? In this volume, Gregg R. Allison helps define the church and its mission by presenting an overview of the specific doctrines and practices of different churches and denominations. He lays a basic foundation for better understanding the common practices among local church communities ("mere ecclesiology") and the ways that they diverge from one another ("more ecclesiology"). Through this systematic primer, you will come away knowing not only how various churches differ but also how they're ultimately united as the body of Christ and the temple of the Holy Spirit.

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“It would be hard to overstate how important it is, in this cultural moment, for evangelicals to recover a robust doctrine of the church. One of the most important contributions Christians can give to the world is healthy local churches in which spiritual brothers and sisters gather to give glory to the triune God. In The Church, Gregg Allison has done the church a great service in helping us recover a robust ecclesiology that will undoubtedly serve elders, deacons, ministry leaders, and congregations. I pray this book gets the wide reading it deserves.”

J. T. English, Lead Pastor, Storyline Fellowship, Arvada, Colorado; author, Deep Discipleship

“What is the church? Ask your friends, and you’ll get a legion of answers. In the face of such confusion, Gregg Allison’s volume The Church provides a clear and concise explanation—one based on decades of thoughtful study and experience. Allison considers practices that are common to Christians and on which we differ. His book is a readable, illuminating, trustworthy guide to ecclesiology that will inform your mind and kindle your soul.”

Chris Castaldo, Lead Pastor, New Covenant Church, Naperville, Illinois; author, Talking with Catholics about the Gospel

“Maintaining a proper ecclesiology is as vital now as ever. Gregg Allison’s work here is rich yet concise, intelligent yet accessible. The Church ought to be a primary resource for both leaders in every church and students in every Christian institution.”

Ryan Welsh, Campus Pastor of Teaching, The Village Church, Southlake, Texas; Adjunct Instructor, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; coauthor, Raising the Dust

“There are few men who have thought about the church as much as Gregg Allison and even fewer who have his combination of theological and practical experience. Allison’s framework for examining key doctrines and practices for various expressions of the church should prove encouraging to the theologian, insightful to the pastor, and accessible to the layperson. This book is a profitable read for anyone who loves the church and cares about her future.”

Jimmy Scroggins, Lead Pastor, Family Church, West Palm Beach, Florida; author, Turning Everyday Conversations into Gospel Conversations

“I am encouraged to see a book on the doctrine of the church by Gregg Allison! It is written by a man who has not only given his life to systematic theology, including the study of the church on an academic level, but has also given his life to the church on a practical level. Allison is a churchman who loves the church. I had the blessing of seeing his love for the church up close when my wife and I were part of a small group that he and his wife led while we were attending the same church some years ago. I saw the way that he loved, discipled, and shared his life with God’s people. The best people to learn from are those who are knowledgeable on the subject they are writing about and who also have practical experience. This is why you will be blessed to learn about the doctrine of the church from Gregg Allison.”

T. C. Taylor, Lead Pastor, One Fellowship Church, Indianapolis, Indiana

The Church

Short Studies in Systematic Theology

Edited by Graham A. Cole and Oren R. Martin

The Attributes of God: An Introduction, Gerald Bray (2021)

The Church: An Introduction, Gregg R. Allison (2021)

Faithful Theology: An Introduction, Graham A. Cole (2020)

The Person of Christ: An Introduction, Stephen J. Wellum (2021)

The Trinity: An Introduction, Scott R. Swain (2020)

The Church

An Introduction

Gregg R. Allison

The Church: An Introduction

Copyright © 2021 by Gregg R. Allison

Published by Crossway1300 Crescent StreetWheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Parts of the introduction and the chapters in part 2 are drawn from Gregg R. Allison, “The Prospects for a ‘Mere Ecclesiology,’” Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 23, no. 2 (2019): 61–84. Used by permission of Southern Baptist Journal of Theology.

Parts of chapters 2, 4, 5, and 7 are drawn from Gregg R. Allison, Sojourners and Strangers: The Doctrine of the Church, Foundations of Evangelical Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012), as marked below. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.org.

Parts of chapters 4, 5, 6, and 8 are drawn from The Baker Compact Dictionary of Theological Terms, by Gregg R. Allison, copyright © 2016, as marked below. Used by permission of Baker Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

Much of the “More Baptism” section in chapter 6 is taken from Gregg R. Allison, “The Ordinances of the Church,” The Gospel Coalition, Concise Theology Series, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/essay/the-ordinances-of-the-church/. Used by permission of the Gospel Coalition.

Cover design: Jordan Singer

First printing 2021

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are from The New American Standard Bible®. Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-6246-4 ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-6249-5 PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-6247-1 Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-6248-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Allison, Gregg R., author.

Title: The church : an introduction / Gregg R. Allison.

Description: Wheaton, Illinois : Crossway, 2021. | Series: Short studies in systematic theology | Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020016746 (print) | LCCN 2020016747 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433562464 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781433562471 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433562488 (mobi) | ISBN 9781433562495 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Church.

Classification: LCC BV600.3 .A449 2021 (print) | LCC BV600.3 (ebook) | DDC 262—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020016746

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020016747

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

2021-02-05 09:56:16 AM

To the courageous and faithful Italian church planters Andrea and McKenzie, Dani and Xenia, Elio and Nicoletta, Francesco and Claudia, Franco and Priscille, Gian Luca and Nella, Giuseppe and Rachel, Jonathan and Annette, Leonardo and Valeria, Michel, Pippo and Enrica, Rob and Sandy, Stefano and Jennifer.

You have enriched my life and ministry!

Contents

Series Preface

Introduction

Part 1

Foundational Issues

 1  The Triune God and the Church

 2  The Church according to Scripture

Part 2

Mere Ecclesiology and More Ecclesiology

 3  The Identity of the Church

 4  The Leadership of the Church

 5  The Government of the Church

 6  The Ordinances or Sacraments of the Church

 7  The Ministries of the Church

 8  The Future of the Church

Conclusion

Further Reading

General Index

Scripture Index

Series Preface

The ancient Greek thinker Heraclitus reputedly said that the thinker has to listen to the essence of things. A series of theological studies dealing with the traditional topics that make up systematic theology needs to do just that. Accordingly, in each of these studies, a theologian addresses the essence of a doctrine. This series thus aims to present short studies in theology that are attuned to both the Christian tradition and contemporary theology in order to equip the church to faithfully understand, love, teach, and apply what God has revealed in Scripture about a variety of topics. What may be lost in comprehensiveness can be gained through what John Calvin, in the dedicatory epistle of his commentary on Romans, called “lucid brevity.”

Of course, a thorough study of any doctrine will be longer rather than shorter, as there are two millennia of confession, discussion, and debate with which to interact. As a result, a short study needs to be more selective but deftly so. Thankfully, the contributors to this series have the ability to be brief yet accurate. The key aim is that the simpler is not to morph into the simplistic. The test is whether the topic of a short study, when further studied in depth, requires some unlearning to take place. The simple can be amplified. The simplistic needs to be corrected. As editors, we believe that the volumes in this series pass that test.

While the specific focus varies, each volume (1) introduces the doctrine, (2) sets it in context, (3) develops it from Scripture, (4) draws the various threads together, and (5) brings it to bear on the Christian life. It is our prayer, then, that this series will assist the church to delight in her triune God by thinking his thoughts—which he has graciously revealed in his written word, which testifies to his living Word, Jesus Christ—after him in the powerful working of his Spirit.

Graham A. Cole and Oren R. Martin

Introduction

We Know the Church

We know the church.

It’s the brownish-red brick building with white columns and a tall steeple just a few blocks down the street. It’s the former Creamy Creations bakery whose space has been converted into a meeting place and whose storefront now bears the name New Creation. The church is the small makeshift chapel whose original galvanized iron sheets for “walls” have been replaced by white clapboard siding. It’s the rented sheep pen on the farm to which the city dwellers travel two hours for its predawn meetings. The church is the grand cathedral downtown known for its architectural wonders, its beautiful stained-glass windows and mosaic artwork, and its magnificent pipe organ.

Or maybe the church is the few rural families that gather for Sunday morning worship and potluck dinner as they have done for many decades and generations. It’s the thousands of anonymous suburban strangers who meet for one hour in a comfortable, state-of-the-art auditorium to hear motivational talks based loosely on biblical stories. The church is seventy-five faithful survivors of the government’s antireligion purge, crammed into a three-room apartment to whisper words of hope while watching warily for spies. It’s the forty people who compose the “launch team” poised to plant a new church in a largely unchurched part of the city. It’s the millions of people worshiping virtually through the software platforms SecondLife or AltspaceVR.

Perhaps the church is the citizens of the nation, born into the faith because they were born in that nation. It’s all the elect, those believers who are predestined by God to be his people.1 The church is the patriarchs and old covenant believers in Yahweh—people like Abraham, Isaac, Moses, Ruth, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Esther—together with the new covenant followers of Christ. It’s the new covenant Christians who have been incorporated into the body of Christ through water baptism and baptism with the Holy Spirit. The church is those doubly baptized people only. It’s those doubly baptized people plus their baptized children.

Or the church is especially the Roman Catholic faithful; a bit less so the Orthodox and Protestants; possibly the monotheistic Muslims and Jews; potentially Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and others who follow the instructions of their religion; as well as animists, agnostics, and atheists who obey the dictates of their conscience.2 The church is where we witness “self-sacrificing love, care about community, longings for justice, wherever people love one another, care for the sick, make peace not war, wherever there is beauty and concord, generosity and forgiveness, the cup of cold water.”3 The church is all people who have ever lived and will live, because, whether in this life or after death, they have embraced or will embrace the goodness of God.4

Yes, we know the church!

Or, given these many notions of church, do we really? The Church: An Introduction will help you know the church.

Mere and More Ecclesiology

This book is part of a series, Short Studies in Systematic Theology, whose aim is for theologians to “[address] the essence of a doctrine.”5 In this case, the doctrine that I treat is ecclesiology.6 This term comes from two Greek words: ekklēsia, “church,” and logos, “study.” Ecclesiology, then, is the study of the church. Specifically, this book, as an introduction to the doctrine of the church, is oriented to what I call mere ecclesiology and more ecclesiology.

As for mere ecclesiology, I don’t mean several things. By mere, I don’t mean “something that is unimportant.” While not as important as the doctrines of the Trinity and Jesus Christ,7 this doctrine is crucial in terms of our understanding and practice of the church. Nor does mere signify “something that is simple” in the sense of not complex, a reductionistic ecclesiology that strips down the doctrine to just a few preferred topics. And mere does not signal “being nothing more than” in the sense of a “lowest common denominator.” Such an approach would ignore or conceal theological distinctives that tend to highlight disagreements between various ecclesiologies. That aspect falls under my label more ecclesiology. Therefore, a mere ecclesiology is not an approach that trivializes this doctrine or is reductionistic or minimizes differences of perspective on ecclesiology.

As I use it, mere indicates “common ground,” in the sense of that which is central to the subject matter. At the same time, such core concentration does not disregard or disguise the fact that the topic is much more extensive than is its identified essence. An example of this use of mere is C. S. Lewis’s very familiar work Mere Christianity.8 Lewis writes to unbelievers, and his purpose is “to explain and defend the belief that has been common to nearly all Christians at all times.” Appropriately, then, he intentionally avoids all disputed matters with respect to Christianity. Lewis adds this clarification: “The reader should be warned that I offer no help to anyone who is hesitating between two Christian ‘denominations.’ You will not learn from me whether you ought to become an Anglican, a Methodist, a Presbyterian, or a Roman Catholic.” And Lewis underscores the fact that Christians “exist” not in a theoretical idea, like his proposed “mere Christianity,” but in concrete churches and denominations. Indeed, for Lewis, his Mere Christianity

is more like a hall out of which doors open into several rooms. If I can bring anyone into that hall I shall have done what I attempted. But it is in the rooms, not in the hall, that there are fires and chairs and meals. The hall is a place to wait in, a place from which to try the various doors, not a place to live in. For that purpose the worst of the rooms (whichever that may be) is, I think, preferable.9

Lewis’s Mere Christianity, then, functions as a theological construct that serves a specific purpose of highlighting essential doctrines and core practices of the Christian faith. It is the common ground shared by most Christians throughout the history of the church. It does not claim or even aim to be a description of the faith and practice of actual Christians such as Daniel Hess or Daniele Haas, or of specific existing churches such as Redeemer Presbyterian Church or Redeemer Baptist Church or Redeemer Lutheran Church or Redeemer Episcopal Church.

Lewis’s employment of the term in Mere Christianity is a fine example of how I use mere in this book.10Mere ecclesiology is a theological construct that serves a specific purpose of highlighting the essential nature of the church, its core ministries, its principal leadership framework, and more. These central attributes, functions, and structures represent the common ground shared by most churches throughout history.11Mere ecclesiology does not disregard or disguise the fact that the doctrine and practice of the church is much more extensive than is its identified essence. And it does not claim or even aim to be a description of actual Presbyterian, Baptist, Lutheran, and Episcopalian ecclesiologies.

The task of addressing specific beliefs and practices of different churches and denominations is what I call more ecclesiology, the parallel work alongside mere ecclesiology. The essential nature of the church, its core ministries, its principal leadership framework, and the like that represent the common ground shared by all churches are expressed in different characteristics, functions, and structures in particular churches and denominations. A few examples will suffice. All churches are directed and instructed by leaders, but particular churches are guided and taught by different types of leaders: bishops, pastors, elders, overseers, deacons, trustees, and directors. All churches have some type of governmental structure, but particular churches are organized according to different types of polities: episcopalianism is bishop led, presbyterianism is elder ruled, and congregationalism is member approving. All churches administer the rites that Jesus ordained for them, but particular churches call them by different names (ordinances or sacraments) and administer the first rite of baptism either to adults (credobaptism, for believers only) or to children (paedobaptism, for the infants of believing parents). Particular churches call the second rite by different names (the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist, Communion, or breaking of bread) and view its relationship to the presence of Christ in terms of consubstantiation, memorialism, spiritual presence, or some combination.

As an introduction to the doctrine of the church, this book addresses both mere ecclesiology and more ecclesiology. For each topic, the first section presents the common ground shared by most churches throughout history. This aspect tackles the essence, or core, of the church’s identity, leadership, government, ordinances or sacraments, ministries, and future. The second section of each of these six topics describes how this essence expresses itself in the actual practices and structures of particular churches.

Before delving into mere ecclesiology and more ecclesiology, however, I need to ground our topic in both Scripture and theology.

1. Augustine, On Baptism, against the Donatists, 5.27.38, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, 1st ser., ed. Philip Schaff (1886–1890; repr., Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1994), 4:477.

2. This view is the inclusivist position of the (post–Vatican II) Roman Catholic Church as explained in Vatican Council II, Lumen Gentium, 14–16. For further discussion, see Gregg R. Allison, Roman Catholic Theology and Practice: An Evangelical Assessment (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014), 163–66, 175–80.

3. Clark Pinnock, Flame of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 209–10.

4. This is the position of universalism, as held, for example, by David Bentley Hart, That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2019).

5. See the “Series Preface.”

6. For a more in-depth treatment of the church, see Gregg R. Allison, Sojourners and Strangers: The Doctrine of the Church, Foundations of Evangelical Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2012).

7. See treatments of these two doctrines in this Short Studies in Systematic Theology (SSST) series: Scott R. Swain, The Trinity: An Introduction, SSST (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2020); Stephen J. Wellum, The Person of Christ: An Introduction, SSST (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2021).

8. C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Touchstone, 1996).

9. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 11–12; italics mine.

10. Todd A. Wilson does something similar in a different area with Mere Sexuality: Rediscovering the Christian Vision of Sexuality (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2017). A recent attempt at a mere ecclesiology, though restricted to a magisterial Protestant perspective, is Joseph Minich and Bradford Littlejohn, eds., People of the Promise: A Mere Protestant Ecclesiology (Lincoln, NE: Davenant Trust, 2017).

11. For this reason, this book engages with A Reforming Catholic Confession (2017), whose notion of mere is similar: “What we offer is not a harmony of Protestant confessions, or an attempt to discover our lowest common doctrinal denominator, much less a charter for a new denominational entity or ecumenical organization. Rather, our statement aims at displaying an interdenominational unity in the essentials of the faith and agreement that the Word of God alone has final jurisdiction—hence ‘mere’ (focused on the essentials) ‘Protestant’ (founded on the Bible).” “Explanation: A Historical and Theological Perspective; Why We Say What We Say,” art. 15, A Reforming Catholic Confession, accessed June 15, 2020, https://reformingcatholicconfession.com/.

Part 1

Foundational Issues

1

The Triune God and the Church

In this opening part, I present the foundation for ecclesiology. Because this book is an exercise in systematic theology, I begin with a consideration of the triune God and the church. As one theologian proposes,

The revealed secret of God not only concerns the unfathomable majesty of God himself; it also concerns that human society [the church] which the triune God elects, sustains and perfects “to the praise of his glorious grace” (Eph. 1.5). From this there emerges two fundamental principles for an evangelical ecclesiology. First, there can be no doctrine of God without a doctrine of the church, for according to the Christian confession God is the one who manifests who he is in the economy of his saving work in which he assembles a people for himself. Second there can be no doctrine of the church which is not wholly referred to the doctrine of God, in whose being and action alone the church has its being and action.1

Following this wise counsel, I turn to a discussion of the triune God and the church. I focus on three prominent biblical metaphors or images: the people of God, the body of Christ, and the temple of the Holy Spirit.

All that exists has been created by and has its being from the triune God. So it is with the church: it is the creation—or, better, the re-creation—of the God who is three-in-one. Men and women, redeemed through the gospel from “every tribe and language and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9), gather in churches and compose the people of God, the body of Christ, and the temple of the Holy Spirit throughout the world. These biblical pictures help us imagine the church as a Trinitarian re-creation.

At the heart of this affirmation is the traditional doctrine of the inseparable operations of the Trinity. That is, in every divine work—such as creation, providence, salvation, and consummation—the three persons act indivisibly. Take the work of creation as an example. The Father spoke the universe and everything in it into existence (e.g., “Let there be light,” Gen. 1:3) through the Word, or the agency of his Son (John 1:1–3; Col. 1:15–16; Heb. 1:1–2), as the Holy Spirit “was hovering over the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:2) in preparation for actualizing the world.2 Thus, though we commonly refer to the first person as Creator, the doctrine of inseparable operations signifies that creation did not come into existence apart from the work of the second and third persons as well.

So it is with the church. While we commonly associate the church with the Son—foremost in our mind is the metaphor of “the body of Christ” (1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 4:12)—the inseparable operations of the Trinity mean that this re-creation does not come into existence apart from the work of the Father and of the Holy Spirit through the gospel. Indeed, the church is a Trinitarian re-creation: the people of God, the body of Christ, and the temple of the Holy Spirit.

The People of God

The people of God exist in two senses. First, human beings as created by God are his people. This image, then, relates to human beings as the only creatures who bear the divine likeness (Gen. 1:26–27). In a creation sense, all people who have ever existed, exist now, and will ever exist are rightly the people of God. As Scripture explains,

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for

“In him we live and move and have our being”;

as even some of your own poets have said,

“For we are indeed his offspring.” (Acts 17:24–28)

As the people of God in a creation sense and as divine image bearers, all human beings have dignity, worth, and significance and are to be accorded respect, honor, and love.

Second, human beings as redeemed by God are his people. This image, then, relates to Abraham and the patriarchs; the faithful remnant of Israel; Simeon and Anna, who beheld the infant Jesus; and genuine Christians in the church—to single out some examples. In a redemption sense, all people who have experienced salvation through the good news are rightly the people of God. It is in this second sense that I discuss the biblical image of the people of God.

Positively and negatively, the Old Testament focuses on the people of Israel as the people of God. One passage addresses God’s establishment of Israel as his people, while a second passage rehearses the expulsion of Israel as God’s people. The first narrative occurs shortly after the people were liberated from enslavement to Egypt:

Moses went up to God. The Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.” (Ex. 19:3–6)

God established his people as called mercifully by the Lord to himself as a covenant people. By heeding the covenant, they were the Lord’s treasured possession among all the rest of the people whom he created, flourishing as a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.

Sadly, the people of Israel did not heed the stipulation “if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant” (Ex. 19:5). Rather, they disobeyed God’s word and broke the covenant. Accordingly, God expelled them from being his covenant people. Scripture uses striking language to portray this covenant divorce: “When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord