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Four Marks Of Apostolic Research Paper

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The historical marks of the church date back to the Council of Constantinople in 381. Out of this council, The Apostles’ Creed was formulated and the four marks of the church, ‘one, holy, catholic, apostolic’, were established. The task of this paper is to briefly define these four marks and then reinterpret a mark in light of specific contextual challenges. The first mark, one, points to the unity of the church. Jürgen Moltmann says, “the unity of the church is not primarily the unity of her members, but the unity of Christ who acts upon them all, in all places and at all times”. Rootedness in Christ is what allows individuals from all backgrounds, all geographical locations, and all social statuses to be one in a church. Therefore, when the …show more content…

That mission, founded by Christ’s apostles in the Spirit, is to apostolate the world. The term apostolic carries a double meaning. The first is a reference to the original apostles, the eye witness of the risen savior. The second is a reference to it’s mission in carrying out the apostles proclamation of Christ. Therefore, “the expression ‘apostolic’ denotes both the church’s foundation and its commission”. While the church’s apostolicity can be traced back to the original apostles, it can not be limited to a certain age. In the revealing of Christ, or as Moltmann refers to it, “Easter appearances”, the church’s apostolicity is not only a category of legitimation; it is even more a category of promise and commission. The apostolic mark stands unique to the other three marks. Not because it is valued more or less, but because it is the only mark to end. Moltmann notes, “the other three characteristics continue into eternity and are also the characteristics of the church when it is glorified in the kingdom, the apostolic mission will come to an end when it is fulfilled”. The three marks, one, holy, and catholic are designations of the kingdom, while the mark apostolic, is a designations for the kingdom. In the eternal the one, holy, catholic church has it being in the fulfillment in the apostolate. Until that time, the church is to witness via word and deed to the hope found …show more content…

With rapid rise of technology, one of the new contextual challenges is how the church addresses the internet, specifically the idea of online life or virtual worlds. Techopedia defines a virtual world as, a computer-based online community environment that is designed and shared by individuals so that they can interact in a custom-built, simulated world. As Monica Kim states, “If virtual reality becomes a part of people’s day-to-day lives, more and more people may prefer to spend a majority of their time in virtual spaces”. Futurist Ray Kurzweil predicted, “By the 2030s, virtual reality will be totally realistic and compelling and we will spend most of our time in virtual environments ... We will all become virtual humans.” Historical, the one mark of the church, has been defined as the gathered congregation. Although the gathered are not limited by time or space, implied in its understanding, is that those gathered are face to face. The question then becomes can the church be virtual and still be the church? Douglas Estates, author of SimChurch says, “Virtual churches are not fake churches; they are real churches that use synthetic space as a meeting place (or a synthetic medium as a means of building community)”. Moltmann rightly attest that all statements about the church are component parts of the creed and are made by faith or they lose their

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