The Marks of the Church

A ... way of illustrating how worship constitutes the church is to consider the marks of the church. The doctrine of the marks of the church is indeed precious to Protestants because it asserts fundamental differences between Roman Catholicism and the Protestant Reformation. By the marks of the church, according to the Belgic Confession, we can discern the true from the false church. The Belgic Confession goes on to define the marks of the church in the following manner:

The marks by which the true Church is known are these: if the pure doctrine of the gospel is preached therein; if she maintains the pure administration of the sacraments as instituted by Christ; if church discipline is exercised in chastening of sin; in short, if all things are managed according to the pure Word of God, all things contrary thereto rejected, and Jesus Christ acknowledged as the only Head of the Church. Hereby the true Church may certainly be known, from which no man has a right to separate himself (art. 29).

The marks of the church indicate where the true church may be found. Wherever we see and hear preaching, the sacraments, and church discipline truly performed, we know we are in the presence of the true church.

It is important to notice that the marks of the church are bound up with corporate worship. One might even summarize the doctrine of the marks of the church by saying that the true church can only be found when she is at worship. Of course, the preaching of the Word and the administration of baptism and the Lord's Supper are obviously central parts of worship. Worship is where ministers preach the Word and administer the sacraments. Discipline is harder to discern in corporate worship since the believers who gather on the Lord's Day for worship do so not as a court of the church (consistory, session, classis, or presbytery) but rather as a congregation. Still, preaching itself is a form of discipline, in its manifestation of the ministerial and declarative power of the church. For Protestants, the keys of the kingdom to which Christ refers (Matt. 16:18-19; 18:18), are not the basis for Roman Catholic teaching on papal superiority but rather divine sanction for the holy work of preaching and discipline. As the Heidelberg asserts, "The kingdom of heaven is opened by proclaiming and publicly declaring to each and every believer that, as often as he accepts the gospel promise in true faith, God, because of what Christ has done, truly forgives his sins" (Q&A 84). Preaching, then, is a way that opens and closes heaven. Furthermore, when churches fence the Lord's Table they perform an act of discipline. Even the man who preaches and administers the sacraments may do so only after he has passed the scrutiny of the church's courts. So the mark of discipline is part of worship even though not obviously on display.

Together, the marks of the church constitute the true church. Which is why the Westminster Confession of Faith states that "unto this catholic visible church, Christ has given the ministry, oracles, and ordinances of God." In the same way that the marks of the church tell us how to find the true church, so also corporate worship helps us identify the church. Worship is essential to the church's identity. If our Reformed confessional standards are correct, the church cannot be seen or known apart from worship that is Reformed according to the Word of God because worship is comprised of the ordinances that God has given to his church.

D.G. Hart and John R. Muether, With Reverence and Awe: Returning to the Basics of Reformed Worship (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P&R Publishing, 2002), pp. 53-55.