the church history puresen

7/30/2019 The Church History Puresen

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WHAT IS THE CHURCH?

Presented by Kennedy Gitau


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WHAT IS THE CHURCH?

Is it a building?


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Is it a building?

An organization?


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Is it a building?

An organization?

A way of affirming correct confessional criteria?


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The church is more than that, but exists in relation to all those

meanings.


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H I S T O R I C A L V I E W S O F T H E C H U R C H

The Early Church


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The Early Church

The Council of Nicaea and the Council of Constantinople agreed

on the Nicene Creed.


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The Early Church

The Council of Nicaea and the Council of Constantinople agreed

on the Nicene Creed.The Apostles Creed didnt appear until in the eighth century. It

added the phrase the communion of saints to the sentence We

believeone holy catholic and apostolic church.


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The Protestant Reformation


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The Reformers accepted Nicene confessions as key in

understanding the church. However, they emphasized on one, holy,

and catholic church than on apostolic church.


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The Reformers accepted Nicene confessions as key in

understanding the church. However, they emphasized on one, holy,

and catholic church than on apostolic church.

However, they continued to speak of the apostolic faith and

apostolic authority.


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The Protestant Reformation lead to the establishment of statechurches based on the faith of the head of each principality.

Church shifted from a broader sense of ecclesiology to

institutional churches


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The Free Church Movement


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It began by the Anabaptists (the Radical Reformers)


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Insisted on complete separation of church and state and personal

experience of conversion.


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Insisted on complete separation of church and state and personal

experience of conversion.

Instituted a shift from institutional ecclesiology to a personal one.

What mattered is ones personal relationship with God.


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Pietism


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Pietism

This movement grew up in the late seventeenth and early

eighteenth centuries. It was a response to a stymied traditionalism andrationalistic confessionalism in the state churches of Europe


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Pietism

This movement grew up in the late seventeenth and early

eighteenth centuries. It was a response to a stymied traditionalism and

rationalistic confessionalism in the state churches of Europe

Ones personal experience with God became the center of Gods

redemptive work in the world


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T H E M O D E L S O F T H E C H U RC H

The church as an institution


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The church as communion


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The church as sacrament


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The church as the herald


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The church as the herald

The church as the servant


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I S T H E C H U R C H L O C A L O R U N I V E R S A L ?

Two concepts about universality of the church:


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One, the church being universal, as in it is transferable into every

culture.


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One, the church being universal, as in it is transferable into every

culture.

Two, the mystical oneness of the church operated by the Spirit

beyond the institutional church.


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S C H O L A S T I C I S M

Scholasticism embraced realisma belief in the extra-mental

existence of universals.


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S C H O L A S T I C I S M

Scholasticism embraced realisma belief in the extra-mental

existence of universals.

Scholastic realists argued that universals such as species and genera

were ultimately real things and individual beings were merely

particular instances of these universals.


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Under scholastic framework, then, the historical church (which is a

combination of particular churches) is just but an expression of a

universal church (a mystical one).


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Under scholastic framework, then, the historical church (which is a

combination of particular churches) is just but an expression of a

universal church ( a mystical one).

But if this were true, could God destroy an instance of this

universal church (I mean, like one particular church) without

necessarily destroying the universal church?


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N O M I N A L I S M

Nominalists argued that faith alone presupposed Gods

omnipotencethat he can do everything possible, excluding that

which supposes obvious logical contradiction.


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N O M I N A L I S M

Nominalists argued that faith alone presupposed Gods

omnipotencethat he can do everything possible, excluding that

which supposes obvious logical contradiction.

Everything exists because God wills it.. Gods actions in the world

are continuous, bound neither by natural laws nor his previous

determination.


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Nominalists also denied existence of universals. This is because

embracing such a position posed an immediate danger to the doctrine

of divine omnipotence.


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Nominalists also denied existence of universals. This is because

embracing such a position posed an immediate danger to the doctrine of

divine omnipotence.

That is, if a universal did exist, then God would be unable to destroy

any instances of it without destroying the universal itself. For example,

God could not damn human beings without damning all humanity.


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If there are no real universals, then every being must be radically

individual created by God through his infinite power and sustained by

him alone.


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If there are no real universals, then every being must be radically

individual created by God through his infinite power and sustained by

him alone.

Therefore, under the nominalist framework, there would be no

universal church to which particular churches belong. Each church is

radically local.


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The problem with nominalist view:

God is the only necessary thing. Everything is contingent upon His

will, in such that God affects the world, but is not affected by it.

The relationship gives one-way relationship.


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Presenters views:


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Presenters view:

There exists no mystical universal church. Each church is radically

local (particular), and it is part of the universal physical church, on a

purely social contract facilitated by the Holy Spirit. This social

contract is the Holy Communion.


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Presenters view:

There exists no mystical universal church. Each church is radically local, and it is

part of the universal physical church, on a purely social contract facilitated by the

Holy Spirit. This social contract is the Holy Communion. God is omnipotent, yet he has chosen to self-limit, in order to share in the life

of the local churches and be affected by them, without necessarily changing His

essence.


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