The church reflects the character of God. The Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed, fashioned by the Council of Constantinople in AD 381, affirms that Christians believe in "one, holy, universal and apostolic church." These four adjectives (notae ecclesiae) have been used historically to summarize biblical teaching on the church.1 The church is one, holy, universal, and apostolic as a reflection of God's unity, holiness, immensity, eternality, and truthfulness.
The church is one and is to be one because God is one. Christians have always been characterized by their unity (Acts 4:32). The unity of Christians in the church is to be a property of the church, and a sign for the world reflecting the unity of God himself. Thus, divisions and quarrels are a peculiarly serious scandal. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, "There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all" (Eph 4:4–6). In 1 Corinthians 1, Paul argued for the unity of the Christians based on their unity in Christ. In Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12, Paul taught there is one body. And in Gal 3:27–28, Paul said that Christians are all one in Christ, regardless of ethnicity. He also called the Philippian church to unity (Phil 2:2). Paul's teaching reflects Christ's own teaching that there is one flock (John 10:16). Therefore Christ prayed in John 17:21 for his followers to be one.
The church is one, though divided.2 This unity is not visible at the organizational level; it is a spiritual reality, consisting in the fellowship of all true believers sharing in the Holy Spirit. It becomes visible when believers share the same baptism, partake of the same supper, and look forward to sharing one heavenly city. The church on earth experiences this unity only as its members are united in God's truth as it is revealed in Scripture.
The church is holy and is to be holy because God is holy.3 The holiness of the church describes God's declaration concerning his people as well as the Spirit's progressive work. After all, the church is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, and it is composed of saints set apart for God's special use (see 1 Cor 1:2). So the church's holiness is fundamentally Christ's holiness. It possesses it by the declaration of God.
At the same time, Christ's holiness will be reflected in the church's holiness.4 Christ "loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless" (Eph 5:25–27). In this present age the church will never attain ethical holiness perfectly. "The Lord is daily at work in smoothing out wrinkles and cleansing spots. From this it follows that the church's holiness is not yet complete. The church is holy, then, in the sense that it is daily advancing and is not yet perfect."5
But the holy status the church possesses by virtue of God's declaratory act also separates the church from the world for God's service. Hence, both the Old and New Testaments emphasize the importance of holiness among the people of God so that they might accomplish that service to which they are called.6 Certainly a church which resigns itself to evil fails dismally. This holiness of status is a being-set-apart, not a being-cut-off, which results in holiness of action in the world.
The church is universal and is to be universal because God is the "Lord of all the earth"7 and "King of the ages."8 The church is universal in that it stretches across space and time. Universality alone among these four attributes is not actually found in the New Testament. Rather this description developed from later reflection upon the true church. "Catholic" is the older English word used to describe this attribute. But because of that word's association with the Church of Rome, "universality" provides a better translation of the Greek word katholicain originally used in the creeds. Universality is not the domain of any one group of true Christians. In Ignatius of Antioch's letter to the Smyrneans in the early second century AD, he wrote that "where Jesus Christ is there is the universal church" (Smyrn. 8.2). From the third century AD, the word came to be used synonymously with "orthodox," as opposed to "heretical," "schismatic," and "innovative."9
While every true local church is part of this universal church and is an entire church itself, no local church can be said to constitute the entire universal church. Therefore, Christians must exercise care in their assumptions about the correctness of doctrines or practices that may, in fact, be peculiar to their own time or place. Ever since the initial inclusion of Gentiles into the first-century church, the church has obeyed Christ's mandate to spread his gospel to all nations, so that the church will finally be composed of people from all nations. "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation" (Rev 5:9). The continuity of the church across space and time prevents the church from being held captive to any one segment of it. The church, in both its local and universal manifestations, belongs to Christ and Christ alone.
The church is apostolic and is to be apostolic because it is founded on and is faithful to the Word of God given through the apostles. Early in Jesus' public ministry, Jesus "called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles" (Luke 6:13). Toward the end of his ministry, Jesus then prayed "for those who will believe in me through their [the apostles'] message" (John 17:20). From the apostles until the present day, the gospel which they preached has been handed down. There has been a succession of apostolic teaching based on the Word of God. Paul tells the Ephesian Christians that they had been "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone" (Eph 2:20). The succession which followed the setting of this foundation may not always have involved a person-to-person transmission, but there has been a succession of faithful teaching of the truth. Writing to the Galatians, Paul stressed that their allegiance to the gospel message he had already given them superseded any allegiance to him personally (see Gal 1:6–9).
What does that mean for today since the apostles are long gone? Some Protestants have been hesitant to affirm this attribute because the Roman Catholic Church has interpreted it as being tied to the authority of the bishop of Rome. Yet the apostles' teaching rather than their persons are the focus of this attribute. Edmund Clowney put it succinctly: "To compromise the authority of Scripture is to destroy the apostolic foundation of the church."10 The physical continuity of a line of pastor-elders back to Christ's apostles is insignificant compared to the continuity between the teaching in churches today and the teaching of the apostles.11 Only with the apostles' teaching is the church "the pillar and foundation of the truth," as Paul described it to Timothy (1 Tim 3:15).
These four attributes have long been used to express the Bible's teaching about the church. They are the church's gifts and tasks. One theologian summarized:
The church is already one, but it must become more visibly one . . . in faith and practice. The church is already holy in its source and foundation, but it must strive to produce fruits of holiness in its sojourn in the world. The church is already catholic, but it must seek a fuller measure of catholicity by assimilating the valid protests against church abuse . . . into its own life. The church is already apostolic, but it must become more consciously apostolic by allowing the gospel to reform and sometimes even overturn its time-honored rites and interpretations.12
1 For more on the scriptural foundation of these four adjectives, see Richard D. Phillips, Philip G. Ryken, Mark E. Dever, The Church: One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic (Phillipsburg: P&R, 2004). Cf. J. C. Ryle, Knots Untied, 10th ed. (London, 1885), 217–18; R. B. Kuiper, The Glorious Body of Christ (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1967), 41–72; Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 4th ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1941), 572–76. A number of ecclesiologies have been structured following these four characteristics of the church; e.g., G. C. Berkouwer, The Church, transl. James E. Davison (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976); Gabriel Fackre, The Church: Signs of the Spirit and Signs of the Time (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007); and partially, Michael Horton, People and Place: A Covenant Ecclesiology (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox, 2008). In his first chapter Berkouwer discussed the relation of the four classic attributes with the Reformers' marks of a true church, especially pp. 7–17.
2 See Hans Kung, The Church, 320.
3 Lev 11:44–45; 19:2; 20:7; 1 Pet 1:14–16.
4 Rom 6:14; Phil 3:8–9.
5 John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, in Library of Christian Classics, vol. xx, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960), IV.i.17.
6 Deut 14:2; 1 Cor 5–6; 2 Cor 6:14–7:1.
7 Josh 3:11,13; Ps 97:5; Mic 4:13; Zech 4:14; cf. Jer 23:24.
8 Rev 15:3.
9 For example, see Clement of Alexandria in Henry Bettenson, ed., The Early Christian Fathers: A Selection from the Writings of the Fathers from St. Clement to St. Athanasius (New York: Oxford University Press, 1956), 247; for further discussion see Mark Dever, "A Catholic Church: Galatians 3:26–29," in Richard D. Phillips, Philip G. Ryken, and Mark Dever, eds., The Church: One, Holy , Catholic, and Apostolic (Phillipbsburg, NJ: P&R, 2004), 71–72.
10 Clowney, The Church, 76.
11 Robert Reymond commented on this succinctly: "Just as the true seed of Abraham are those who walk in the faith of Abraham, irrespective of lineal descent, so also the apostolic church is one which walks in the faith of the apostles, irrespective of the issue of 'unbroken succession'" (New Systematic Theology, 844).
12 Donald Bloesch, The Church (Downers Grove: IVP, 2002), 103.