jepta 2001 21 - European Pentecostal Theological Association

The Journal of the European Pentecostal Theological Association, Vol. XXI, 2001
Ephesians 4:4 makes reference to the Church as I believe it does when it says that
there is "one Body," then it doesn't get any clearer than that. There is only one
Church and Christ Jesus is its head. But what kind of church is it
There are many ways in which we could go, but as I read the New Testament I
am struck by how tangible and material are the descriptions of the Church. It is
not that the Church is not a spiritual reality - it is. But the New Testament knows
nothing of a Church that is completely invisible. The Church in the New
Testament is always represented as people with names and addresses. Thus the
Apostle writes, "To all God's beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints
(Romans 1:7)." He writes "to the church of God which is at Corinth (1
Corinthians 1:2) or "to the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints
who are in the whole of Achaia (2 Corinthians 1 : lb)." He writes "to the churches
of Galatia (Galatians 1:2b)," as well as "to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at
Philippi, with the bishops and deacons (Philippians I : lb)." Likewise, he writes
"to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ at Colossae (Colossians 1:2)" as well
as "to the church of the Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians 1 : 1 b and 2 Thessalonians
1 : lb)." But if mention of Christians in a given geographical region or a named
city isn't sufficient to demonstrate the visible, material, tangible character of the
Church in the New Testament, we need only think of the Apostle's work
concerning Onesimus the slave. In this letter, Paul writes "to Philemon our
beloved fellow worker, and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier,
and the church in your house (Philemon 2)." Paul, it seems, did not think of the
Church in terms of any visible/invisible dichotomy. He thought of the Church in
material and tangible terms. He wrote to individuals and to groups that gathered
in real places, with published street addresses. He didn't write to the church at
Rome, and then drop the letter at the city limits and wait to see who picked it up.
He had a specific group of people in mind in each place.
For me to argue the materiality of the Church from the New Testament is not to
deny that it can also be argued from the New Testament that Paul thought and
spoke about the Church in more "mystical" terms as well. When we read his
metaphors about the Body of Christ or the Bride of Christ or the Family of God,
we have transcended the visible reality of a simple collection of Christians who
gather at a specific street address. After all, the Body of Christ is not complete
only in the local community, though in some ways it might be. It is complete
only when all Christians are viewed as part of the Body of Christ. But a body
without a head is an incomplete picture, so the Apostle notes that the Head of the
Church is Jesus Christ.
As we look at the Church from another angle, we must note that whether it is the
congregation in Philemon's home or an unnamed group of people meeting in an
unspecified place in the city of Rome or Thessalonica, the metaphor of the Body
of Christ is a way of describing the Church in its universality. In a sense, the
Body of Christ is not complete unless we take into account all the "saints," past,
Roman Catholic-Pentecostal Dialogue:Some Pentecostal Assumptions:
Cecil M. Robeck, Jr.
present, and future, that is, dead, living, and yet unborn. If many of these people
are unknown to us by name, or they are known to us only in some mystical sense,
that does not in any way negate the fact that we are still speaking about real
people who have been, are, or will be known by others and who are now in a
sense, known only by God. The Church is a physical, material presence in our
reality, but it extends far beyond that.
It is precisely because the Church is not merely an invisible, spiritual reality that
the Apostle begs the Ephesians to live a life worthy of their calling. The life for
which he calls includes an eagerness "to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the
bond of peace (Ephesians 4: 1-3)." I suppose we could argue about the nature of
the genitive tou pneumatou', that is, of the Spirit, but my vote is to look at this
thing as that which the Spirit has created, the fellowship in or of the Spirit, which
is the Church, and to realize that in some sense, we are called to maintain the
unity of that thing that the Spirit has created, and to do so "in the bond of peace."
If this is what Ephesians 4:l-6 is about, then we must come to terms with two
concepts that have come down to us through history. The first is the concept that
the true Church exists within the larger church. The Montanists provide us with a
clear example of this model. Here, names could be attached to those who were
part of both groups. They were identifiable. Everyone knew where he or she fit,
and they called each other names. There were the pneumatikoi and the others
were the pseuchichoi. There were the "spiritual" ones, and there were those who
were not.' Does this not sound like there were those who held something like the
"Full Gospel" over the heads of others
In the second case, we are introduced to spiritual and material realities. In this
case, it is Augustine who points the way. When he looked at the post-
Constantinian Church around him, he realized that the Church he surveyed
looked quite different from the one about which he read in the New Testament.
There were people who claimed the name "Christian" who, in Augustine's mind,
were not "Christian" by the standards of the New Testament. As a result, to
describe the Church, he drew from Jesus' parables of the wheat and tares
(Matthew 13:24-30) on the one hand, and the good and bad fish that were caught
by the same net (Matthew 13:47-48) on the other. The wheat and the good fish
were obvious references to the righteous - remember these parables provide us
with pictures that are analogous to the Kingdom of the Heavens - or in
Augustine's mind, the Church. The field of wheat and tares, and the net with
both good fish and bad fish came to be identified as Christendom.'
' Tertullian, Treatise on the Soul 9.3-4; D. Powell, "Tertullianists and Cataphrygians," Vigiliae
Christiame 29 (1975), 33-54.
' Augustine, City of God, passim; On Baptism Ill. xix. 26.