The word “catholic” means “universal” or “entire.” It comes from a Greek word that means “according to the whole.” Unlike “orthodox,” this word actually appears in Scripture, where members of the high priest’s party examine the disciples and order them not to testify about Jesus:

So they called them and ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.

The word that eventually became “catholic” is translated here as “at all.” The only place in Scripture where this word occurs is here in Acts 4:18.

If that verse were the only place Christians used the word catholic, it wouldn’t matter. But of course it isn’t. Most of the time, when American Protestants say “catholic” they’re referring to the Roman Catholic Church. This is reasonable, as 95% of “Catholics” are members of the Church of Rome, and only 5% belong to the 22 Eastern Catholic churches.

But at the same time, Protestants assert their own catholicity.If, as Scripture attests, the church is the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 4:12), or the bride of Christ (Revelation 19:6-8), then there can be only one Church. And if there is only one Church, then the Church must extend geographically to include the entire world, and chronologically to include its members in every age.

When we look around, however, we see lots of churches. In the U.S. alone, there are about 300,000 Protestant local congregations. If there is only one Church there are only two possible explanations. First, it could be that my church is the authentic church, and all the others are impostors, including the ones I attended before I came here. The other possibility is that the churches are interconnected and thus a single church in reality despite the appearance to the contrary.

A few people have planted their flag on the first hill, but most Christians have preferred the latter. This is an easier choice for most Americans, since we don’t belong to a continuously-operating church in Jerusalem or one of the other churches mentioned in the New Testament. Instead, most of us acknowledge our church isn’t the only expression of the one Authentic Church. Nevertheless, we argue that our church is one of the constituent parts of that True Church.

What, then, is the nature of that invisible strand that connects our church with the other parts of the Authentic Church? I’ll write about that in my next post.

One of those words is “orthodox.” We don’t use the word very much, except when we use a capital “O” to refer to “Orthodox Christians,” the eastern branches of Christianity resulting from the Great Schism of 1054.

That’s too bad, because “orthodoxy” should be important to us.It means “straight teaching” or “correct doctrine,” and doctrine is important. Christians are new creations, but we’re not complete. We need to be instructed in the faith. Apollos is described in Acts 18 as having “burning enthusiasm,” which is wonderful, but he also “taught accurately the things concerning Jesus.” (That passage says he taught in the synagogue, so we might assume he taught only to non-Christians. But if we think that means Christians don’t need instruction, note that Apollos himself needed instruction: “Priscilla and Aquilla took him aside and explained the Way of God to him more accurately.”)

Doctrine seems to have a slightly negative “air” to it. Maybe it’s because it sounds like something people argue about, without much significance in the real world. To some people, doctrine suggests a debate about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. (A related word, “dogma,” has the same negative connotation.)

For other people, the problem with doctrine is that it has been set in opposition to biblical teaching. Rather than saying something is “orthodox,” they would say it is biblical.

But there are important doctrines that aren’t biblical: the Trinity, or Christ’s nature as both man and God, to pick two major doctrines. (By “biblical,” I don’t mean that these doctrines contradict the Bible. But they aren’t explicitly stated in the Bible. Rather, they are doctrines that attempt to synthesize into a single concept diverse teachings from the Bible.)

For still others, doctrine is collapsed into the catch-all bucket of tradition. Presbyterians, for example, trace their origins to the Reformed Tradition of Calvin’s Geneva. The Reformed Tradition certainly includes a great deal of theological doctrine, but it also includes polity, or theory about how the Church is to be governed. Within the PC(USA), for example, our constitution consists of a Book of Confessions, that articulates our theology, and a Book of Order, that regulates our polity.

Certainly, we hope our polity is theologically sound, we recognize it can extend beyond what is theologically defensible. At the extreme, such matters are called adiaphora, or “indifferent things,” like what time we ought to gather for worship on the Lord’s Day.

So how important is doctrine? Well, to judge from the Bible, it’s vital. From the Sermon on the Mount to the Upper Room Discourse through the letters of Paul, James, Peter, John, Jude, and the writer of Hebrews, great blocks of the New Testament are devoted to doctrine. More significant are the many passages that encourage the reader to contend for the faith, against those who might “bewitch” them, to guard against deceivers, to be of the same mind, and so forth.

In his masterful the The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis points out it is easier to muddle someone’s thinking than to get him to renounce it. It’s easier to produce heretics than apostates. For that reason, it’s vital that the church uphold the value of orthodoxy.

Now, I’m on record as liking the new look of our denomination’s website. And I’ve already commented, negatively, about a particularly smarmy “reasons I’m a Presbyterian” badge posted there.

But I was hoping the PC(USA) web site would at least be better organized. I entertained the hope that it would be easier to find things there now, and it’s not.

It’s always been difficult to find anything. The organization is…um…let’s say, “obscure.” I got in the habit, whenever I needed to find something there, of using a Google search with inurl:pcusa.org appended. That’s how I found what we believe.

But if you follow that link today, it doesn’t go to a web page about what Presbyterians believe. It goes to an advertisement for people to buy the dead-trees Presbyterians Today magazine! Apparently there’s a plan to add selected content there over time, like this helpful piece about “how to speak Presbyterian.”

Dead trees–I kid you not! In 2010! GAMC FAIL. Sigh.