What was happening at Sinai was that God from his heavenly throne room was touching down to earth: the mountain was the place where heaven and earth met. There, Moses was revealed a heavenly blueprint for the tabernacle which was a terrestrial facsimile intended to prefigure the celestial authentic. That tabernacle was according to the true architectural design, but it was only an earthly model for the actual construction of the heavenly and eschatological tabernacle where God’s people would dwell. 

Fundamentals of Presbyterianism, part 1

In Christian theology, ecclesiology is the study of the church, the origins of Christianity, the church’s relationship to Jesus Christ, its role in salvation, its polity, its discipline, its destiny and its leadership.

Ecclesia was used by the scribes of the Septuagint — the ancient version of the Hebrew Bible in Greek, which was familiar to the New Testament authors — for the word congregation, as it appears in our version of the Old Testament. It is on this account that in the New Testament instead of the word congregation, we have church, which is the same as kirk or assembly. The suffix -ology literally means a word, a branch of knowledge or science.

Whenever people use the word “edify,” they usually mean it by its common definition which is to instruct and improve especially in moral and religious knowledge. It is from the Latin noun aedes meaning a house or temple, and its root is aedificare, a verb meaning “to erect a house.” As Scripture calls the covenant assembly a holy temple built up unto the Lord, for Christians to study the doctrine of the church is a literally edifying activity in many ways.

Ecclesiology as one in several parts of systematic theology

In order to understand the role of ecclesiology, we must consider it among other areas of theology, specifically, systematic theology. First, systematic theology itself is a branch of theology among several branches including exegetical theology, biblical theology, historical theology, apologetic/polemical theology, and ethical theology. Different Christian traditions and schools of thought recognize several branches of theology, but these are the major branches which are distinct from each other yet all inextricably related.

Systematic theology, in particular, deals with what the whole Bible teaches about a given topic and its relation to other topics. It often refers to an organized and comprehensive presentation of “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). Many systematic theologies have been written throughout church history especially since the Protestant Reformation. Dr. Louis Berkhof, who wrote one such systematic theology which is widely read, stated that systematic theology “seeks to give a systematic presentation of all the doctrinal truths of the Christian religion” (Introduction to Systematic Theology, p. 58). He explained that this is a “constructive” task, for it builds a structure of thought that brings each doctrine into clear formulation and organic relation to other doctrines. It is a “demonstrative” task, for it shows how every part of the system is deeply rooted in the Holy Scriptures. It is a “critical” task, for it neither jettisons the theological systems of the past nor blindly accepts any one of them, but compares all things to God’s Word in order to defend orthodox Christianity while deepening our understanding of God’s revelation.

Systematic theology itself may be divided into a number of different loci. In the fairly recently published Reformed Systematic Theology Vol. 1 by Joel Beeke and Paul Smalley, they propose an order of loci that is derived from a historical pattern in various systematic theologies:

1. Prolegomena (Greek for “things spoken before”): preliminary questions about theology and the doctrine of the Word of God.
2. Theology Proper: the doctrine of God (Greek theos), including God’s decree, providence, angels, and the demons.
3. Anthropology: the doctrine of man (Greek anthropos), his creation in God’s image, the covenant with Adam, and man’s fall into sin and misery.
4. Christology: the doctrine of Christ’s (Greek christos) person and work, including the covenant of grace and Christ’s offices, incarnation, humiliation, and exaltation in order to accomplish redemption.
5. Pneumatology: the doctrine of the Spirit’s (Greek pneuma) person and work in and through redemptive history, including his empowerment of Christ and the church for missions.
6. Soteriology: the doctrine of salvation (Greek soteria), the application of redemption by the Holy Spirit for the conversion, growth, and glorification of God’s people.
7. Ecclesiology: the doctrine of the church (Greek ecclesia) and the means by which God applies grace to his people, such as the Word and sacraments.
8. Eschatology: the doctrine of “last things” (Greek eschatoi), such as death and Christ’s return to judge the world and bring the kingdom of God in all its glory, including heaven and hell.

Earlier systematic theologians such as Thomas Aquinas, later affirmed by Herman Bavinck and many other Reformed scholars, set forth that systematic theology approaches everything in its view from a very specific perspective: God and all things in relationship to God. Paul’s majestic doxology, or “word of glory,” caps his systematic explanation of God’s counsel in salvation, with (Romans 11:36) “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” Following the apostle’s example, this is the doxological perspective that the discipline of systematic theology seeks as it analyzes various doctrines: “from him and through him and to him.” From a God-glorifying angle, systematic theology informs us with truths that accord with godliness, leading to lives of authentic worship in spirit and truth.

We could spend a lifetime fleshing out the nuances of each of these major systematic subject areas briefly defined, as many more qualified scholars already have. So for our purposes here, we shall focus on the locus of ecclesiology, which entails the nature of the church in its various meanings that Scripture sets forth. For instance, the invisible church is the worldwide body of Christians, transcending denominations and traditions, as all those who are truly united to Christ by faith. The visible church is institutional: the congregational assembly where people outwardly identify as Christians, where takes place the preaching of the word, the proper administration of the sacraments, and the exercise of discipline.

Different streams of Christendom and even traditions within Protestantism understand ecclesiology differently, and that necessarily shapes various forms of governance structure. The major configurations of Protestant church governance structure are Congregationalism, Episcopalianism and Presbyterianism.

Various biblical meanings for the word ‘church’

One famous Scottish Presbyterian scholar, James Bannerman, Doctor Divinitatis (1807-1868), taught every dimension of ecclesiology in his university lectures that were eventually compiled into his massive The Church of Christ: A Treatise on the Nature, Powers, Ordinances, Discipline, and Government of the Christian Church. In his words, “There are five different but closely allied meanings of the term ‘Church’ to be gathered from Scripture.” Verbatim:

1. The word Church signifies the whole body of the faithful, whether in heaven or on earth, who have been or shall be spiritually united to Christ as their Saviour. (cf. Matthew 16:18, I Corinthians 3:16-17, II Corinthians 6:16, Ephesians 5:21-32, I Peter 2:5, Revelation 21:2, 9, 22:17)
2. The term Church is made use of in Scripture to denote the whole body throughout the world of those that outwardly profess the faith of Christ. (cf. Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43, 47-39, Acts 2:47, I Corinthians 12:28, Ephesians 4:11-12)
3. The term Church is frequently employed in Scripture to denote the body of believers in any particular place, associated together in the worship of God. (cf. Acts 2:41, 47, 4:4, 5:14, 14:23, 8:1, Romans 16:3-5, I Corinthians 16:19, Colossians 4:15)
4. The word Church is applied in the New Testament to a number of congregations associated together under a common government. (cf. Acts 5:11, 8:1, 15:1-41)
5. The word Church is applied, in the New Testament, to the body of professing believers in any place, as represented by their rulers and office-bearers. (cf. Acts 6:1-7, 14:23, 15:22-23)
   (The Church of Christ, Part I, Nature of the Church, Chapter 1, The Church as Defined in Scripture, pp. 7-14)

Ecclesiology is weaved throughout the entire fabric of Scripture, although Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is especially concerned with the ecclesiological category.

(Ephesians 2:11-22) “Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called ‘the uncircumcision’ by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

The church of the Lord Jesus Christ, although a figurative structure, may be likened to a literal structure, in that it has an architect, a builder, schematics, a foundation, building materials, building equipment, project managers, construction statutes and ordinances, a production schedule, and what have you.

Ecclesia, “the called-out ones,” is a covenant assembly, a temple that is metaphorically built to be God’s holy sanctuary: the place where God dwells, the place where God’s glory is revealed, the place where God is worshipped, and the place where the blessings of Messiah are poured out.

Francis Turretin (1623-1687), a Genevan-Italian Reformed scholastic theologian, set forth several reasons to orient us to the necessity of studying the doctrine of the church (Institutes of Elenctic Theology 18.1.1). His first is that “the church is the primary work of the holy Trinity, the object of Christ’s mediation and the subject of the application of his benefits. For he came into the world and performed the mediatorial office for no other reason than to acquire a church for himself and call it (when acquired) into a participation of grace and glory. Hence, the offices and benefits of Christ, having been explained, the order demands that we discuss the church, to which alone they are destined and come to be applied.”

Turretin, in claiming that the church is “the primary work of the holy Trinity,” means that among all of God’s external works — creation, providence, his ordering of history to its divinely appointed end — the church is the zenith of his work. At this apex of the Lord’s accomplishment, he is gathering and perfecting the saints. In saying that he is “the object of Christ’s mediation and the subject of the application of his benefits,” he is answering the question, “For whom did Christ die?” The answer is the church. The location of his benefits, where the blessings of his saving work are procured and poured out, is in the church. After having discussed Christology — the person and work of Christ — logically, the next topic is ecclesiology.

Dr. Scott Swain of Reformed Theological Seminary has taught, “Ecclesiology is the direct implicate of Christology.” That is, we might not fully understand Christology unless we understand how Christology leads to the church: its creation, its preservation, and its perfection under King Jesus’ reign and rule. 

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