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says: “The Catholics teach: the visible Church is first,—then comes the invisible: the former
gives birth to the latter.” This means that the Church is a mater fidelium (mother of believers)
before she is a communio fidelium (community of believers). Moehler grants, however, that
there is one sense in which “the internal Church” is prior to “the exterior one,” namely in the
sense that we are not living members of the latter until we belong to the former. He discusses
the whole subject of the relation of those two to each other in his Symbolism or Doctrinal
Differences.[Chap. V, especially in the paragraphs XLVI-XLVIII.] He stresses the identity of the
visible Church with Christ: “Thus, the visible Church, from the point of view here taken, is the
Son of God, everlastingly manifesting himself among men in a human form, perpetually
renovated, and eternally young — the permanent incarnation of the same, as in Holy Writ, even
the faithful are called ‘the body of Christ.’”[p. 59.]
2. THE GREEK ORTHODOX CONCEPTION.
The Greek Orthodox conception of the Church is
closely related to that of the Roman Catholics, and yet differs from it in some important points.
That Church does not recognize the Roman Catholic Church as the true Church, but claims that
honor for itself. There is but one true Church, and that Church is the Greek Orthodox. While it
acknowledges with greater frankness than the Roman Catholics the two different aspects of the
Church, the visible and the invisible, it nevertheless places the emphasis on the Church as an
external organization. It does not find the essence of the Church in her as the community of the
saints, but in the Episcopal hierarchy, which it has retained, while rejecting the Papacy. The
infallibility of the Church is maintained, but this infallibility resides in the bishops, and therefore
in the ecclesiastical councils and synods. “As invisible,” says Gavin, “she (the Church) is the
bearer of divine gifts and powers, and is engaged in transforming mankind into the Kingdom of
God. As visible, she is constituted of men professing a common faith, observing common
customs, and using visible means of grace.” At the same time the idea is rejected of “an
invisible and ideal Church, of which the various bodies of Christians formed into distinct
organizations and calling themselves ‘Churches,’ are partial and incomplete embodiments.” The
Church is “an actual, tangible, visible entity, not an unrealized and unrealizable ideal.”[Greek
Orthodox Thought, pp. 241-242.]
3. THE PROTESTANT CONCEPTION.
The Reformation was a reaction against the externalism of
Rome in general, and in particular, also against its external conception of the Church. It brought
the truth to the foreground once more that the essence of the Church is not found in the
external organization of the Church, but in the Church as the communio sanctorum. For both
Luther and Calvin the Church was simply the community of the saints, that is, the community of
those who believe and are sanctified in Christ, and who are joined to Him as their Head. This is
also the position taken in the Reformed confessional standards. Thus the Belgic Confession
says: “We believe and profess one catholic or universal Church, which is a holy congregation of