One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic

All who are part of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ are stirred by the solemn description of the Bride of Christ penned long ago at the early Councils of the Church.

 



 

ONE - the mocker may, with some apparent justification, scorn this idea yet it remains in all our hearts a conviction that there will not be two, three or 3003 churches that meet their Lord on the Day - just ONE.  We struggle to express this very often and we do not agree who is in and out but the Oneness is not a question.

 

HOLY - here the mocking observer points to any number of ecclesiastical political evils throughout history, to glaring inequalities, to cultures of abuse and who knows what else.  The mocking observer ought to pause however for without God there is no holiness and none of those 'sins of the Church' are sins at all.  The holiness of the Church is a gift from above, variously grasped and expressed in too lesser a degree but never absent and firmly destined for the Bridal Day.

 

CATHOLIC - at which the Protestant mumbles worriedly yet should not.  The church is not a race or a tribe, a nation or a structure - it is catholic, global, entire, planetary, multi-communal, multi-era, uniquely inclusive.

 

APOSTOLIC - the Church is not simply Jehovah's Witness (to quote Isaiah), or Red Letter Christians (to quote the equally-well-meaning Tony Campolo) but is derived from the teaching of the Apostles and the full appreciation of the meaning of incarnation, substitution, resurrection, ascension and finality of the Messiah.

 

Wow.  In just four words - so much!!! 

 

But not enough.

 

When Professor Whitley lectured at Oxford a century ago he was brave enough to point out that in this crucial formulary the early Fathers forgot something.  It was not a minor omission.  As we all know, omissions are harder to spot that mistakes.  But this omission was a very big mistake because it is the omission of what is, arguably, the Founder of the Church's only commission.

 

We believe in one, holy, catholic, apostolic, MISSIONARY Church . . .

 

As my previous blog sadly implies (and as has been my experience and perpetration as a leader), conciliar meetings of varying branches of this Church continue to damn the missing word with faint praise, never denying it while never promoting it to a place where it is held tenaciously as the essence to which other tenets must often bow. 

Creeds

"Yes Lord, er, Jesus - We thank you Father that You're here with us, Jesus. That your Spirit is in this meeting Father . . ."

That's a slightly kind rendering of the near-incomprehensible opening by the worship leader at a fellowship I attended the other day. I'm enough of a Baptist to have little time for creeds but that guy needed some sorting out!

He'd be more than sorted out if he attended the church I'd been to just before. They keep religiously to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer where, I kid you not, on special feast days one gets to stand and say with the congregation the Athanasian Creed, yes, I mean ALL of it ...

Whosoever will be saved : before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholick Faith.
Which Faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled : without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.
And the Catholick Faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity;
Neither confounding the Persons : nor dividing the Substance.
For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son : and another of the Holy Ghost.
But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one : the Glory equal, the Majesty co-eternal.
Such as the Father is, such is the Son : and such is the Holy Ghost.
The Father uncreate, the Son uncreate : and the Holy Ghost uncreate.
The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible : and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible. The Father eternal, the Son eternal : and the Holy Ghost eternal.
And yet they are not three eternals : but one eternal.
As also there are not three incomprehensibles, nor three uncreated : but one uncreated, and one incomprehensible.
So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty : and the Holy Ghost Almighty.
And yet they are not three Almighties : but one Almighty.
So the Father is God, the Son is God : and the Holy Ghost is God.
And yet they are not three Gods : but one God.
So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord : and the Holy Ghost Lord.
And yet not three Lords : but one Lord.
For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every Person by himself to be both God and Lord;
So are we forbidden by the Catholick Religion : to say, There be three Gods, or three Lords.
The Father is made of none : neither created, nor begotten.
The Son is of the Father alone : not made, nor created, but begotten.
The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son : neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.
So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons : one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts.
And in this Trinity none is afore, or after other : none is greater, or less than another;
But the whole three Persons are co-eternal together : and co-equal.
So that in all things, as is aforesaid : the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped.
He therefore that will be saved : must think thus of the Trinity.
Furthermore, it is necessary to everlasting salvation : that he also believe rightly the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For the right Faith is, that we believe and confess : that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man;
God, of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds : and Man of the substance of his Mother, born in the world;
Perfect God and perfect Man : of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting.
Equal to the Father, as touching his Godhead : and inferior to the Father, as touching his manhood;
Who, although he be God and Man : yet he is not two, but one Christ;
One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh : but by taking of the Manhood into God;
One altogether; not by confusion of Substance : but by unity of Person.
For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man : so God and Man is one Christ;
Who suffered for our salvation : descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead.
He ascended into heaven, he sitteth at the right hand of the Father, God Almighty : from whence he will come to judge the quick and the dead.
At whose coming all men will rise again with their bodies : and shall give account for their own works.
And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting : and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.
This is the Catholick Faith : which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved.

Well, did you get all that? Well done if you did. As I understand the Bible the Good News is a person, Jesus, not a Creed. In his own words, he is the Way, whether I can voice the complexities of Athanasius or not.

One picture might be that essentially and to start with all we need to do with a lifeboat is climb aboard (he is the Way) but once we're gratefully aboard we'll want know why it and its crew were able to save us when no-one else could. Athanasius describes in detail why Jesus is able to save when no-one else could and who the Captain of our salvation truly is.