• Starting today August 7th, 2024, in order to post in the Married Couples, Courting Couples, or Singles forums, you will not be allowed to post if you have your Marital status designated as private. Announcements will be made in the respective forums as well but please note that if yours is currently listed as Private, you will need to submit a ticket in the Support Area to have yours changed.

What Are the Marks of the True Church?

Michie

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Feb 5, 2002
183,018
66,418
Woods
✟5,955,893.00
Country
United States
Gender
Female
Faith
Catholic
Marital Status
Married
Politics
US-Others
This past weekend, a Calvinist explained to me that she left the Methodists after concluding that they weren't a church, since they didn't preach the pure word of God. To Catholic ears, this sort of claim can sound pretty strange, so I wanted to explain what Calvinists mean by this, and why it's wrong.


I. What's Meant

In the Sixteenth Century, the Reformers faced a serious problem. They believed, as John Calvin wrote in Book IV, Chapter I of Institutes of the Christian Religion, that “beyond the pale of the Church no forgiveness of sins, no salvation, can be hoped for.” Since Calvin and others were breaking away from the visible Church, this doctrine posed a serious hurdle. After all, they appeared to be condemning themselves with their own words.

So what they did is redefine what “Church” means. The clearest example of this is from the Dutch Calvinist Belgic Confession (1567):


Continued- What Are the Marks of the True Church?