Who, What or Where is the True Church?

by Dr. Mary Jane Haemig
Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn.

Talk of "the church" seems to be rampant these days. So it's useful to
review what Luther and the reformers had to say on the subject.

In the 1530s Luther devoted quite a bit of time and energy to reading,
thinking and writing about the church. One of the results of this was a
massive treatise, "On the Councils and the Church" (1539). In it Luther
addressed the question of where "such Christian holy people are to be
found in this world?"

He listed seven signs by which the church, the Christian holy people,
are to be recognized:

1) possession of the holy Word of God,
2) the holy sacrament of baptism,
3) the holy sacrament of the altar,
4) the office of the keys exercised publicly,
5) the call of ministers to "use the aforementioned four things...in
behalf of and in the name of the church,"
6) prayer, public praise and thanksgiving to God and
7) the holy possession of the sacred cross (misfortune and persecution).

Luther was well aware of accusations that he and his followers were
causing schism. Writing in the "Smalcald Articles" (1537) Luther
answered Roman Catholic opponents who claimed that they were the church
and that Luther and his followers were schismatic:

"We do not concede to them that they are the church, and frankly they
are not the church. We do not want to hear what they command or forbid
in the name of the church, because, God be praised, a seven-year-old
child knows what the church is: holy believers and 'the little sheep who
hear the voice of their shepherd.' This is why children pray in this
way, 'I believe in one holy Christian church.' This holiness does not
consist of surplices, tonsures, long albs or other ceremonies of theirs
that they have invented over and above the Holy Scriptures. Its holiness
exists in the Word of God and true faith."(Part III, article 12)