Journal: Christian Apologetics Journal
Volume: CAJ 04:1 (Spring 2005)
Article: The True Church and Its Message: to the Council of Nicea (A.D. 325)
Author: William E. Nix

CAJ 4:1 (Spring 2005) p. 63

The True Church and Its Message:
to the Council of Nicea (A.D. 325)

William E. Nix

Seeking the true church and its teaching in history is akin to trying to follow a single noodle in a bowl of spaghetti. In general five basic approaches to finding the true church and its teachings are enunciated in the West. First, some assert that the true church is the Roman Catholic Church1 with its apostolic succession and twenty-one Ecumenical Councils.2 Second, a modification of this view traces the true church through Roman Catholicism until the time of the so-called “Magisterial Reformations.” From that point they follow it through various so-called “Protestant” denominations to the present.3 Third, others assert that the true church under the apostles and prophets was ruined during New Testament times and that the true church is to be found on occasions when two or three believers gather together in worship and prayer but without visible structure.4 Fourth, still others assert that the true church is found among the so-called “heresies” that were hunted down and persecuted by the institutional Roman Catholic Church throughout the past two millennia.5 Finally, there are those

CAJ 4:1 (Spring 2005) p. 64

who assert a “spiritual kinship” approach to church history. It asserts that the true church actually exists and its teachings are transmitted among believers within and outside the institutional churches, councils, and various so-called “heretical” sects as they appear throughout history.6

Any attempt to discover the true church and its teaching requires a broadening and lengthening of this array of Western perspectives to include the Eastern Traditions, or the Orthodox Catholic Church. With no centralized organization, the Orthodox Church finds its unity a common faith and communion in the sacraments and Christ himself as the real head of the church. It identifies itself as a family of “autocephalous”7 (αὐτός + κεφάλαιὀ, “self + head,” or “self-governing”) churches, with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople [Istanbul] holding honorary primacy as primus inter pares (first among equals). Although the number has varied throughout history, the Orthodox Church today consists of more than a dozen autocephalous churches.You must have a subscription and be logged in to read the entire article.
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