Theologians distinguished the outer, formal, and institutional structures from the inner, spiritual, subjective, and intersubjective forms of the church. Thus the organism (inner) was distinguished from the organization (outer), and the community (inner) from the institution (outer). This distinction is not generally found in older Protestant ecclesiologies, as elaborated in the Westminster Confession or Faith or the Belgic Confession, for example. But this distinction addressed questions that arose
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