Covenant Reformed News – February 2018 • Volume XVI, Issue 22
This article addresses the widespread problem of a deficient ecclesiology in modern Protestantism, arguing that the church is often marginalized by competing priorities such as work, materialism, and unbiblical individualism. Drawing on Reformed confessional standards like the Belgic Confession and Heidelberg Catechism, the author calls believers to recover a biblical understanding of the church as the body and bride of Christ and to prioritize participation in the communion of saints over personal advancement and self-focused religion.
The Crowding Out of the Church In general, twenty-first century Protestantism suffers from the terrible malaise of a gross ignorance of biblical and Reformed ecclesiology, faulty and false doctrines concerning the church, and a grievous under appreciation of Christ’s bride and body. Among the factors that produce and/or reinforce a low and erroneous view of the church is the misunderstanding of other spheres, institutions or parties, including work, oneself, the family and the state, which we...