The Church Comparison
Allison and Castaldo name two fundamental decisions that divide Rome and the Reformation: “authority” and “salvation.” Behind both stands a third question, the nature of the Church itself.1 The table below sets what the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches about the Church beside Scripture. For the Reformers’ own answer to “Where is the true Church?”, see The Marks of a True Church.
Table RCC16
| Roman Catholic Church | Scripture |
|---|---|
| The Whole Christ. Christ and His Church “together make up the ‘whole Christ’ (Christus totus)” [§795]. The Church is thus joined to Christ in a way that gives her a share in His mediating work.2 | Christ is “the head of the body, the church” (Colossians 1:18), and He alone “ever liveth to make intercession” for those who come to God by Him (Hebrews 7:25). The Church is His body, “the fulness of him that filleth all in all” (Ephesians 1:22–23), but the Head is not the body and the body is not a second mediator. |
| One True Church. The sole Church of Christ “subsists in” the Catholic Church, “which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him” [§816].2 | Paul writes “unto the church of God which is at Corinth” and to “all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:2), and to “the churches of Galatia” (Galatians 1:2). The Church is known by her Lord, not by her link to a successor of Peter. |
| Protestant Bodies. Rome speaks of “ecclesial communities.” The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (2007) says they are “deprived of a constitutive element of the Church” and cannot “be called ‘Churches’ in the proper sense.” Yet the fullness of grace and truth is entrusted to the Catholic Church [§819].3 | “The Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved” (Acts 2:47). Membership in the body follows the Lord’s saving work, not a bishop’s communion. Sproul observes, “Rome cannot have it both ways”: Protestants are called brothers in Christ and yet are said to lack what makes a church.3 |
| Necessity. “Outside the Church there is no salvation” [§846]. The Catechism qualifies this: those who through no fault of their own do not know Christ and His Church may be saved [§847].2 | “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). Salvation is by union with Christ; the Church is the company of the saved, not the door. |
| Mediation. Christ’s grace reaches believers through the hierarchy: bishops and priests act in His person, and the faithful are bound to them in the sacraments [§875].2 | “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). The believer approaches the throne through the one Priest, not through a chain of human mediators. |
| Nature and Grace. Allison and Castaldo identify two principles beneath Rome’s ecclesiology: the interdependence of nature and grace, and the interconnection of Christ and the Church. Grace perfects nature through visible, material means.1 | “The carnal mind is enmity against God” (Romans 8:7), and we were “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). Fallen nature is not perfected by grace but made alive by it. |
| Marks of the Church. The Church is “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic,” and these marks are tied to the visible communion with the bishop of Rome [§811].2 | The first Christians “continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Acts 2:42). The Reformers named the marks as the Word rightly preached, the sacraments rightly administered, and, in many confessions, discipline rightly exercised. See The Marks of a True Church. |
