Posted on by Jack Kilcrease

Catholicity and Fellowship in the One True Church

One of the key marks of the Church mentioned in the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds is catholicity: “I believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.”1  This reflects the New Testament’s emphasis on the Church’s universality, unity, and harmony as delivered by the Holy Spirit.  Humans are sinful and remain so even after being converted to the faith. As a result, resistance to the Spirit can disrupt this unity. However, sin can never ultimately shatter the fundamental unity of the catholic Church.  Hence, in his high priestly prayer, Jesus famously prays that “they [the Church] may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (Jn. 17:21).  Similarly, Paul spends most of 1 Corinthians advising the congregation at Corinth to humbly put aside their differences under the cross and engage in practices that will promote unity, as opposed to division, in the body of Christ.

Modern Christian theologians treat many of these calls for unity in the New Testament as carte blanche orders to impose institutional unity on the Church.2  However, these passages must be counterbalanced by calls for members of the Church to separate themselves from the wicked (Matt. 18:17, 1 Cor. 5, 2 Cor. 6:14, 1 Jn. 2:19, Rev. 18:4).  We often think of sin primarily in terms of individual actions that violate the commands to love our neighbor in the second table of the Ten Commandments. Yet, we just as frequently violate the commands of the first table of the law. This occurs when Christians spread or embrace false teachings about God and fail to honor and love him above all things. Sins against the first table of the law also constitute “wickedness.”  Heresy, therefore, cannot be tolerated in the body of Christ, and separation must occur on an individual or corporate scale when false teaching occurs. 

The New Testament admonishes believers not to have fellowship with those in grave moral error. It follows that Christians cannot have fellowship with groups or individuals who error in the fundamental articles of the faith.  For example, St. Paul is quite clear that Christians should not participate in pagan worship or have fellowship with those who engage in such worship (1 Cor. 10:18-22).  Participation in sacrifice to an idol and the consumption of sacrificed meat in an idolatrous setting is an act of fellowship with those who worship false gods and through them have unwitting fellowship with demons.  Paul also compares the false fellowship of pagan worship with real communion with the true God conveyed by the sacrifices of the old covenantal order (1 Cor. 10:18), as well as the Christian Eucharist (1 Cor. 10:14-17).3  

Hence, Paul’s logic appears to be one cannot worship with or celebrate the Eucharist with people who are openly pagan, or have fellowship with pagans.  Here Paul simply continues the tradition of the Old Testament prophets who perpetually warned against not only idolatry and its toleration, but also against mixing the worship of YHWH with that of local Canaanite deities.4  The lesson for today is that participation with non-Christians in joint worship events is utterly unacceptable.  Also, contrary to the beliefs of many American Mainline Protestants, it is wrong to allow non-Christians to participate in the Eucharist. This is because the Eucharist confesses the unity of faith (1 Cor. 11:26).

Of course, the worship of idols or false gods is one thing, but fellowship with other Christians is an entirely different issue.  Early in the Age of Orthodoxy, theologian Nicholas Hunnius made a helpful distinction in his book Diaskepsis Theologica between “primary fundamental dogmas” and “secondary fundamental dogmas.”5  Primary fundamental dogmas concern the foundations of the faith and make one a Christian.  They roughly correspond to the content of the Nicene Creed.6  One is a Christian because he believes in the correct object of faith, namely Jesus Christ and the Triune God. Moreover, one is a Christian if he correctly believes what this Triune God has done to create, redeem, and sanctify us, as confessed in the Creeds.7

Engraving of Nicolaus Hunnius as the superintendent (overseer or bishop) of the Lutheran church in Lübeck

Secondary fundamental dogmas have to do with the application of primary fundamental dogmas to the Church and the individual in the gifts of creation and salvation.  This includes the nature of the Church and sacraments.8  Of course, such dogmas are not inessential, and denial of these doctrines can seriously harm one’s faith.  Indeed, in some extreme cases, errors in secondary fundamental dogmas, if held too adamantly, may even destroy faith and thereby imperil salvation.  Nevertheless, although secondary fundamental dogmas are the logical implication of primary fundamental dogmas, it might be the case that through a “felicitous inconsistency”9 it is possible to maintain the foundations of the faith while erring regarding secondary fundamental dogmas.10    

Although Hunnius included justification by faith in the list of primary fundamental dogmas,11 later Lutheran Scholastics like David Hollaz correctly placed this doctrine, important as it is, within the category of secondary fundamental dogmas.12  One can clearly remain a Christian by believing in Christ, while at the same time incorrectly apprehending how Christ applies salvation to the individual.  To give an example, the Roman Catholic Church has an erroneous view of the sacraments and justification, yet remains Christian because it still confesses correctly who Christ and the Triune God are.  In the Apology to the Augsburg Confession, Philip Melanchthon applies 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 in this manner.13  

Hence, on the one hand, theological error calls into question the possibility of fellowship. But, on the other hand, such error does not mean confessional Lutherans damn Christians who do not agree with us.  Over the years, Lutherans have hotly debated how and on what basis they can establish fellowship with other Christians within the one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. This has been especially true in light of various political authorities’ attempts to herd Lutherans and Reformed Christians together into a single Union Church.14 In fact, one such attempt gave birth to the American denomination now known as the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.  

  1. The Three Universal or Ecumenical Creeds; CT, 30. ↩︎
  2. See: Hellen Mardaga, “Reflection on the Meaning of John 17:21 for Ecumenical Dialogue,” Ecumenical Trends 34, no. 10 (2005): 148-152; Wolfgang Bienert, Einheit als Gabe und Verpflichtung: Eine Studie des Deutschen Ökumenischen Studienausschusses zu Johannes 17 Vers 21 (Frankfurt: Lembeck, 2002); Ralph Allan Smith, “The Trinitarian Covenant in John 17.” Global Missiology 3 (2005) 1-13; Thomas Söding, “Die Einheit der Liebe. Joh 17 auf dem. Ökumenischen Kirchentag 2003 in Berlin,” Bibel und Kirche 58 (2003) 119-126. ↩︎
  3. See discussion in: Gregory Lockwood, 1 Corinthians (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2000), 321-358. ↩︎
  4. Thomas Judge, Other Gods and Idols: The Relationship Between the Worship of Other Gods and the Worship of Idols Within the Old Testament (London: T & T Clark, 2019).  ↩︎
  5. Hunnius, Diaskepsis Theologica, 3-138. ↩︎
  6. Hunnius, Diaskepsis Theologica, 109-119. ↩︎
  7. Hunnius, Diaskepsis Theologica, 3-68. ↩︎
  8. Hunnius, Diaskepsis Theologica, 69-138. ↩︎
  9. Francis Pieper, Christian Dogmatics, vol. I (Concordia Publishing House, 1950), 6, 72, 84, 87-91; and Vol. II: p. 156.  ↩︎
  10. Schmid, The Doctrinal Theology of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, 99. ↩︎
  11. Hunnius, Diaskepsis Theologica, 115-119. ↩︎
  12. Schmid, The Doctrinal Theology of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, 98-99. ↩︎
  13. Ap VII; CT, 233. ↩︎
  14. See: Robert Bigler, The Politics of German Protestantism: The Rise of the Protestant Church Elite in Prussia, 1815-1848 (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1972); Christopher Clark, “Confessional policy and the limits of state action: Frederick William III and the Prussian Church Union 1817–40.” Historical Journal 39, no. 4 (1996): 985–1004.  ↩︎

From the draft manuscript for Lutheran Dogmatics: The Evangelical-Catholic Faith for an Age of Contested Truth (Lexham Press).

Cover image from “The Commonitories of Vincent of Lerins,” Silouan, June 2023, accessed June 5, 2024, https://silouanthompson.net/2023/06/commonitories-vincent-of-lerins/; “Rule for Right Interpretation,” accessed June 5, 2024, https://www.pinterest.com/pin/in-response-to-heresies-that-had-risen-in-the-church-in-the-first-several-centuries-st-vincent-of-lerins-articu–163677767691529511/; and engraving of Nicolaus Hunnius as the superintendent of the Lutheran church in Lübeck, accessed June 5, 2024, https://picryl.com/media/hunnius-6a4651.