The Apostle’s Creed: The Universal Church

The Apostle’s Creed - the holy catholic (universal) church.

This phrase deals with the total of all people who have in the past, and who will in the future, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The catholic, universal church, is all of the Christians who have ever lived, who are currently living, and who will ever live; those who are already in heaven, those of us on earth now, and those who are yet to born. This is a clear statement that all Christians are one body, the body of Christ; there is only one Christian church. This has nothing to do with denominations! The Roman Catholic position that they are the only true church, and that only Roman Catholics will get to heaven is false; the position of Rome that the Roman catholic church is the only true church, and therefore outside of her, there is no salvation, is still their position.

However, the use of the word catholic in The Apostle’s Creed has no reference to the Roman catholic church, it simply means “universal”; see https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/catholic .

First note the Church is holy. It is holy because it is made up of saints. In Greek, holy and saint are the same word, one being the adjective, the other the noun. Christians are holy, not because we never sin, but because the Holy Spirit lives in us. And we are holy, because the holy spirit, who is holy, leads us from sin into holiness. And we are holy because we no longer have a burning desire to sin; we do sin, but we don’t want to sin. Paul said in Rom 7:19, “For the good I desire to do, I do not do, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” And we are holy because we work to avoid sinning. Jesus told us to pray, “Lead us not into temptation”. And we are holy because we are commanded to be holy, and we want to obey our Lord Jesus. “But as He who has called you is holy, so be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, Be holy, for I am holy.” 1Pe 1:15-16 So the 1st century Christian, as part of their baptismal pledge was saying that the church was made up of people indwelt by the Holy Spirit, who wanted to be holy, and that they personally would fight to be holy.

We are talking about the way saved people live, not how people are saved!

Secondly, note the word catholic. As said above, the word catholic simply means universal, all encompassing; i.e. not of one country or of one time period or of one denomination; that is all it means! It means that all of God’s people are one body, one church!

Thirdly, note the word church. This does note refer to a building, or a denomination, but to a gathering. In Greek the word for church is ekklēsia, which simply means a gathering of people for a specific purpose, like a lecture or sporting event. Right now the Lord Jesus is building his church; he said, “I will build my church” Mat 16:18 There are two main pictures in the Bible for Christ’s church: a Body and a Building. All Christians are part of the same Body, the same Building.

“There is one body and one Spirit, even as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” Eph 4:4-6

Not everyone who claims to be a Christian is truly a Christian, and obviously there are “Christian Groups” whom would say are wrong on points, nevertheless, let us not divide what Christ has truly joined. If we expect to see a person in heaven, let us be willing to have some sort of Christian fellowship with them while we are here on earth.