The Marks of the Church are those things by which the True Church may be recognized in

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

. Three marks are usually enumerated: the preaching of the Word, the administration of the sacraments, and

church discipline Church discipline is the practice of church members calling upon an individual within the Church to repent for their sins. Church discipline is performed when one has sinned or gone against the rules of the church. Church discipline is practiced wi ...

. The Belgic Confession devotes a chapter (Article 29) to the "Marks of the True Church" and lists them as follows: The Anglican Thirty-nine Articles states in chapter 19:

Louis Berkhof Louis Berkhof (October 13, 1873 – May 18, 1957) was a Dutch-American Reformed theologian whose works on systematic theology have been influential in seminaries and Bible colleges in the United States, Canada, Korea and with individual Christia ...

notes that Reformed theologians have differed as to the number of marks:

Theodore Beza Theodore Beza ( la, Theodorus Beza; french: Théodore de Bèze or ''de Besze''; June 24, 1519 – October 13, 1605) was a French Calvinist Protestant theologian, reformer and scholar who played an important role in the Protestant Reformation ...

spoke of only one (preaching), John Calvin and

Heinrich Bullinger Heinrich Bullinger (18 July 1504 – 17 September 1575) was a Swiss Reformer and theologian, the successor of Huldrych Zwingli as head of the Church of Zürich and a pastor at the Grossmünster. One of the most important leaders of the Swiss R ...

spoke of two (preaching and sacraments), while Peter Martyr and

Zacharias Ursinus Zacharias Ursinus (18 July 15346 May 1583) was a sixteenth-century German Reformed theologian and Protestant reformer, born Zacharias Baer in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland). He became the leading theologian of the Reformed Protestant movement ...

spoke of three – preaching, sacraments and discipline. Nevertheless,

Edmund Clowney Edmund Prosper Clowney (July 30, 1917 – March 20, 2005) was a theologian, educator, and pastor. Early life and education Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he earned a Bachelor of Arts from Wheaton College in 1939, a Bachelor of Theology f ...

points out that Calvin "included discipline in the proper observance of the sacraments." Albert Mohler calls church discipline the "missing mark" of the church.Church Discipline: The Missing Mark
by

R. Albert Mohler, Jr. Richard Albert Mohler Jr. (born October 19, 1959) is an American Evangelicalism, evangelical theologian, the ninth president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and host o ...

References

Ecclesiology Calvinist theology Christian terminology

See also

References