In Top
17 Reasons Bill McKeever Doesn't Understand the Latter-day Saint Faith, I
discussed the name of the Church (see #2). I was reminded of this article when
I read the following from Catholic theologian Michael Schmaus when he addressed
the use of the genitive ("church of God" [toυ θεου]) in the Pauline Epistles:
In the Pauline epistles we meet the
expression ekklesia in the same sense
as in Acts. Paul also uses it for the local congregation and the whole Church.
Frequently the two meanings are interwoven. Thus Paul speaks, for instance, of
the Church of God which is in Corinth or in Thessalonica or in Galatia (see the
titles of the letters to these communities; also Rom. 1,7; Col. 1,2; Phil. 1,1).
There are consequently, according to Paul, many churches (1 Thess. 2,14; 1 Cor.
4.=,17; 11, 16; 16, 1; 2 Cor. 8,1). Although numerically this application to
the individual churches predominates, the primary meaning for him is of the
whole Church as a unity (Gal. 1,13; 1 Cor. 10,32; 12,28; 15,9; Phil. 3,6). This
is evident especially in the letters to the Ephesians and the Colossians. The
universal Church is made manifest in the individual churches (cf. 2 Cor. 11,2).
Many times also Paul adds the genitive tou theou and thereby makes clear that
he understands the Church as the successor to the Old Testament People of God
(1 Thess.2,14; 2 Thess.1,4; 1 Cor.1,2; 10,32; 11,16.22). He goes beyond the
terminology of Acts insofar as he frequently applies he formula “in Christ” or
the genitive “of Christ,” which for him says the same thing as the characteristic
formula en Christo (1 Thess. 1,2; 2,
14; 2 Thess 1,2; Gal. 1,22; Rom. 6,16). This nuance brings out more clearly
than in Acts the progress from the Old Testament to the New Testament People of
God, without losing the continuity. It is Christ who forms the new People of
God and impress on it its special character. (Michael Schmaus, Dogma, volume 4: The Church—Its Origin and
Structure [London: Sheed and Ward, 1972], 5, emphasis added)
