ECCLESIOLOGIA

OR

THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH

OUTLINE NOTES

BASED ON LUTHARDT

I. THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH

BY

Revere Franklin Weidner, D. D., LL. D.

Professor and Doctor of Theology in the Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary; Author of “Studies in the Book”, “Christian Ethics,” “Biblical Theology”, “Theological Encyclopœdia”; etc.

FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY

Copyright, 1903

fleming h. revell company

April.

PREFACE

Positive Theology by its own nature divides itself into four main departments, exegetical historical, systematic, and practical. In Systematic Theology we have the highest form of theological science, and in its full treatment it is best to distinguish between Apologetics, Dogmatics, and Ethics, and regard these three sciences as forming the constituent parts of the whole discipline.

We have here to do with Dogmatics, or the doctrine of faith, which is not a bare philosophy of religion, nor a bare history of dogmas, nor simply Biblical theology, nor merely a confessional—biblical science, but is in its nature a historico-philosophical science, in which the results of biblical and historical exegesis are unified and systematized. Its aim is to teach the Christian Religion as this is established in the experimental consciousness of the believer, to reproduce it spiritually, and to bring it into a scientific, systematic form. It aims so to present revealed truth as to commend the contents of Christianity to the mind, the conscience, and the heart, of man.

In a former volume (An Introduction to Dogmatic Theology, second revised edition, 1895) we have discussed all topics which belong to a full treatment of the Definition, the Contents, the Method, and the History of Dogmatics. In a second volume (Theologia; or, The Doctrine of God, 1903) we have very fully treated of all the topics connected with the first great division of Dogmatics, covering the subjects of Natural and Supernatural Revelation, the Proofs of the existence of God, the Divine attributes, the Scripture and Church Doctrine of the Trinity, Predestination, Creation, Providence, Miracles, Angels, and Satan.

There are still six great divisions of Dogmatics left, Anthropologia or the Doctrine of Man, Christologia or the Doctrine of the Person of Christ, Soteriologia or the Doctrine of the Work of Christ, Pneumatologia or the Doctrine of the Work of the Holy Spirit, Ecclesiologia or the Doctrine concerning the Church, and Eschatologia or the Doctrine of the Last Things.

In this volume we take up the subject of Ecclesiology, or the Doctrine concerning the Church. This great subject naturally falls into six divisions, 1) The Doctrine of the Church, 2) The Doctrine of Holy Scripture (Inspiration), 3) The Word of God as a Means of Grace, 4) The Sacrament of Baptism, 5) The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, and 6) The Doctrine of the Christian Ministry. In this little book we confine ourselves mainly to the first of these six divisions, to the doctrine ...