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C. DIFFERENT KINDS OF CHURCH POWER.
In connection with the three offices of Christ there is also a threefold power in the Church,
namely, the potestas dogmatica or docendi, the potestas gubernans or ordinans of which the
potestas iudicans or disciplinae is a subdivision, and the potestas or ministerium misericordiae.
1. THE POTESTAS DOGMATICA OR DOCENDI.
The Church has a divine task in connection with
the truth. It is her duty to be a witness to the truth to those who are without, and both a
witness and a teacher to those that are within. The Church must exercise this power:
a. In the preservation of the Word of God.
By giving His Word to the Church, God constituted
the Church the keeper of the precious deposit of the truth. While hostile forces are pitted
against it and the power of error is everywhere apparent, the Church must see to it that the
truth does not perish from the earth, that the inspired volume in which it is embodied be kept
pure and unmutilated, in order that its purpose may not be defeated, and that it be handed on
faithfully from generation to generation. It has the great and responsible task of maintaining
and defending the truth against all the forces of unbelief and error, I Tim. 1:3,4; II Tim. 1:13; Tit.
1:9-11. The Church has not always been mindful of this sacred duty. During the last century too
many of the leaders of the Church have even welcomed the assaults of a hostile criticism upon
the Bible, and have rejoiced in the fact that it was brought down to the level of a purely human
production, a mixture of truth and error. They have shown little of the determination which
caused Luther to cry out: “Das Wort sollen Sie stehen lassen.”
b. In the administration of the Word and of the sacraments.
It is not only the duty of the
Church to preserve the Word of God, but also to preach it in the world and in the assembly of
the people of God, for the conversion of sinners and for the edification of the saints. The
Church has an evangelistic or missionary task in the world. The King, clothed with all authority
in heaven and on earth, gave her the great commission: “Go ye, therefore, and make disciples
of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, teaching them to observe whatsoever I commanded you.” Through the ministry of the
Church the Son is ceaselessly gathering out of the whole human race a Church chosen to
everlasting life. The empirical Church of any particular time must be actively engaged in the
enlargement and expansion of the Church through missionary endeavors, must be instrumental
in bringing in the elect out of all the nations of the world, adding living stones to the spiritual
temple that is in process of construction, and must in that manner promote the completion of
the number who will ultimately constitute the ideal Church of the future, the perfect bride of
Christ, the new Jerusalem of Revelation 21. If the Church of Jesus Christ should be derelict in
the performance of this great task, she would prove unfaithful to her Lord. That work must be
continued and must be completed before the glorious return of the Saviour, Matt. 24:14. And