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Contra_Mundum · #3 (**permalink**) 07-22-2007, 02:54 PM

The visible church has an "ideal" quality to it, meaning that if it were possible it would perfectly represent the true church, which contains only saints. So, the statement extra ecclesiam nulla salus is speaking principially of of the true church, of whom Christ is the head. Wherever he is the true Lord, there is the one and only place of salvation, and all believers are permanent citizens of that kingdom. Outside of THAT church, there is NO salvation, inside it there is ALL salvation. So affirms the Belgic, written in the crucible of fierce persecution of the faithful, and for whose confessors the TRUE and INVISIBLE church was a most vital principle.

The WCF was written in a period of church stability, indeed of Protestant Establishment. For them the VISIBLE church was to be formed and governed by this very Creed. So, it was important that they add the word "ordinary," not so as to proclaim any other Way of salvation, but to affirm that the earthly church is not in fact the TRUE church. There is a kind of sacramental connection between the church militant and triumphant, but one is the Sign, the other the thing Signified. The WCF statement warns those who forsake the visible church that they do so at their peril. Where else will one find the gospel but in the church? Nay, but if the church forsake the gospel, then salvation will be found outside it, until the faithful church be Re-Formed around the gospel once again.

So, in a rather wonderful way, the church without a complete Re-formation (Dutch under persecution) confesses an ideal truth; and the church having undergone a (modestly) successful Re-formation (English under Protestant Establishment) confesses the secular truth.