Jesus has the keys (Rev. 1:18). He opened the gates (Mt. 27:53). The gates do not prevail, regardless of our faithfulness or lack thereof, because of His finished work (Jn. 19:30). I believe that.
He gave the keys to His Apostles. He entrusted His Apostles to carry on His teachings to the Church put together and created by God, just as He put together the people of Israel through the seed of Abraham.
John, Chap. 17: I do not pray for the world, but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine and I am glorified in them. I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your Truth. Your Word is Truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who believe in Me through their word. That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I in You. That they also may be one in us. That the world may believe that You sent Me. I in them and You in Me, that they may be made perfectly one and that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me.'
excerpt from lecture on the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church
When we examine this phrase, the word we have to look at first is Church and then go back to these four characteristics or marks of the Church. What is the origin of this word - Church? We need to know from the Greek - Ecclesia - EK = from, and Kaleo = called out. To be called out from. So those who are part of what is called the Church (Ecclesia) - and of course we're using it not in the sense of the Church building - we speak of the Church building referring to the Church in the secondary sense. But when we speak of the Church, we are speaking of those human beings who comprise this society, which we are going to see is not merely a human community - what makes it be what it is - what gives it its essence is that it is the people, the assembly that have been called out of this world, called to a higher state of existence by God Who has made such a thing possible by everything we have described in the Creed up to this point. So this society, this body that we call the Church, the first of its characteristics is that it is a visible body. It has a real, concrete existence. There is nothing vague about it. Perhaps the best comparison to use so that we can understand this teaching about the visibility of the Church - its existence throughout time and history is to look at the Old Covenant and to realize that to be a member of God's people, the people that He had called to Himself in the Old Covenant was a very clear thing - you were either part of Israel or you weren't part of Israel. You were part of Israel if you were born of the seed of Abraham - if you were born of a woman descended from Abraham, and if you were a male bearing the mark of circumcision on your body. All of these are very organic, visible things, and all of that visibility of the people of the Old Covenant goes along with the promise that we mentioned.
I think in our first session - that it is to the chosen people that God promises that in the seed of Abraham, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. So it's very easy to know whether one was a member of the Old Covenant community - the chosen people. It was whether or not one was descended from Abraham.
Now in the New Covenant with Christ, the faith of the Church is that from the beginning - from Christ and the Apostles, the Lord's Will - the purpose of the Lord's coming was that He was going and has given this new life that He has made possible - and when we use that expression 'new life,' we have to use it in the most intense sense possible - that it is really a new creation that we are talking about when we speak of the new humanity. That if there is an immeasurable difference between a member of the human race and a creature of the animal kingdom, we would go as far as to say that there is also an immeasurable difference between a member of the human race, an ordinary human being in the image and likeness of God and a member of the people of God - those whom He has called and whom have responded to that invitation to become part of His new creation. It's not just a little window dressing that's been added to the New Covenant people. If anyone is in Christ, the Scripture says, he is a new creation The old order has passed away and everything is new.
So the language that the Scriptures and the tradition of the Church uses from the beginning to refer to the Church is a very concrete language. The Church is the Body of Christ. Christ is the head and those who are part of His Body are the members. When we spoke of the ascension of Christ, the Church experiences - where Christ is, there His Body is present also. Christ, the Head, is in Heaven, and the members of His Body are already mystically present in Heaven with Him. As we live time on earth so Christ is present with us until the end of the world. So if we are going to speak of the Church as the Body of Christ or as the Bride of Christ, and that Bridal marriage, nuptial imagery, to refer to the people of God, is consistent both in the OT and the NT, continually through the prophetic writings in the OT - Israel is spoken of as the Bride of God, and when the relationship between God and Israel is threatened because of Israel's unfaithfulness and idolatry - and that's, of course the amazing thing about the history of Israel - that from the beginning to the end, the relationship is always threatened by infidelity - God says that no matter how unfaithful His people are, no matter how many of them will be lost due to their infidelity, God will never cast off His people. God remains married to His people as a bridegroom to bride."
"So, if that image holds for the Old Covenant for God and Israel, it is brought to an indescribably higher level in the New Covenant when in the Church - of course we have that wonderful passage in the epistle of the Ephesians, Ch 5, that is read at every Orthodox marriage, 'The husband is head of the wife, so also Christ is head of the Church, for He is the savior of the body. Therefore, just as the Church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy without blemish. No one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes it and cherishes it just as the Lord does the Church. For we are members of His Body, of His Flesh, and of His Bones' - again a very physical, real, organic expression, 'this is a great mystery,' St. Paul says, 'but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.'
So if the bridegroom of the Church and the head of the Body - if those expressions do not refer to any kind of vague idea. See they refer to the Person of the incarnate Lord, Jesus Christ. Likewise, the members of the Body and the Bridegroom of the Bride refer something that is very, very visible, not vague - see we have to be very careful here because there are many people who are influenced in one way or another by the Reformation idea of - comes from one part of the Reformation - that the Church is invisible, that the Church is somehow the gathering that won't really be clear who's in it until we are in heaven. It is comprised of all those who believe in and love Jesus, who have this individual or private relationship with Him and that's the Church, and you can't tell by looking around who's really in it. Well, the teaching of the Church from the beginning - and later on we are going to see how the testimony not only in the Scriptures, but in the teachers of the Church who bear witness to this - is that the Church in this world is very visible, has very real boundaries, that you're either in it or you're not in it, just as for the Old Covenant. You were either of the seed of Abraham or you were not. So, likewise, in the New Covenant, in the new people that have been called by God to comprise the new creation, the new humanity, the same rule also holds - that just as Christ called real people to Himself, the Apostles, and through the Apostles, established the Church on their foundation, so throughout time until the end of time, through human history, the Church exists in this world as a visible body - a visible bride for Christ, the bridegroom.
The Church is comprised of those who confess the teachings and the life of the Church that have been held from the beginning everywhere by everyone who have claimed to be the Church, who partake of the life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that has been made present in the Church through the channels we call the sacraments. That's what makes you a member of the Church. Nothing else. No kind of idea, no kind of individualized conviction, no kind of privatized act of faith. These things may all have their place, but what makes a person a member of the Body, a member of the family of God that we call the one Church is if one confesses the life and doctrine of the Church and partakes of the life that is made present to her by the Holy Trinity in the sacraments.
***St. Iraneus of Lyons, whom I've mentioned a number of times before - he's third generation - knew those who knew the Apostles - writes, 'Where the Church is, there also is the Spirit of God. Where the Spirit of God is, there also is the Church and all its grace.'
***St. Cyprian of Carthage, who was a great bishop in the third century, in the city of North Africa, where there was once a great and mighty Church that isn't there anymore at all....I'll mention something on that later - says 'The Church is one' - capital 'c' - 'even though the number of churches' - small 'c' - 'is constantly growing, as the Church' - capital 'c' - 'becomes more fertile. There are many churches' - small 'c' - 'but only one Church.' - and then this statement, I think it's very important for you to take with you this evening from St. Cyprian - 'he cannot have God as Father who does not have the Church as Mother.'
It cannot be because how one comes to have God as a father is by adoption. We do not come into this world as children of God. We come into this world as creatures of God. We must be reborn in water and spirit within the Body of those whom God called to Himself from this world within. The early teachers of the Church like to say - God is my Father, the Church is my Mother, the womb I came out of is the baptismal font. See, the breasts that I nurse at are the Holy Eucharist.
***'The Church is greater than heaven and earth,' St. Ambrose of Milan writes in the 5th century. 'It is a new world, and Christ is its sun. Christ is its light.'
***St. Athanasius, 'The Body of Christ, to which Christians are united through baptism, is the source of our resurrection and salvation.' Our resurrection and salvation we do not find by ourselves isolated off in a corner. Rather it is in the Body of Christ that is made the Body of Christ, through the sacraments. This is the source of our resurrection.
***'The Church is the earthly paradise in which the God of heaven dwells' - St. Germanos of Constantinople in the 8th century.
***'The Church is a great window through which the Son of Righteousness shines upon a world of darkness' - St. Nicholas Cabasilas (sp?) in the 14th century.
***'Christ's Church is not an institution' - institution used in the sense of the political or corporate institutions of this world. 'It is new life with Christ, and in Christ, directed by the Holy Spirit.' Fr. Sergius Bulgakov, a 20th century theologian.
***'The Church is the center of the universe. The place where its destiny is made. The place where the destiny of the whole cosmos is revealed, is in the new world of the Church.' - Vladimir Lossky, another 20th century theologian.
***'In the darkness of this fallen world, the Church is an opening in the wall made by the Triumphant Cross. The love of the Trinity never ceases to shine the light of the Resurrection.' - Olivier Clement
***Father Alexander Schmemann - 'The Church is the entrance into the life of Christ.' The communion with eternal life.
The faith is simple. I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Jesus Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. That has endured, regardless of argument over filioque, papacy, mariology, baptism, eucharist, chants, candle colors, or anything else.
Faith in faith is the immature state in which we all start with. A one time proclamation does not mean salvation. The actualization of Christ's redemptive works for us on the Cross and Resurrection, and our lives living it daily in the community of the Church is what salvation is.
Where we differ is I also believe the warning about a falling away, grievous wolves entering in. We can look at history and see it happened. Some, like RC or EO, do not believe it, thinking they are the true Church, but God gives grace to the humble.
Yes, I think it's in Hebrews about the warning of man-made doctrines. This is why it's important to cling to His Church because that is the surest way, if one is dedicated to God, in finding ultimate union with Him.
