Part 2 – Summary of R.B. Kuiper’s The Glorious Body of Christ

As we continue our summary of Kuiper’s treatise on the glory of the church we will begin by exploring his views on the catholicity of the church. Kuiper affirms that there are two misinterpretations of catholicity. “There are those who take too narrow a view of it; on the other, there are those who view it too broadly (61).” One example of such is the Church of Rome that calls itself The Catholic Church. According to Rome, the universality of the church does not extend itself to any other institution except that of the Church of Rome itself. The author calls this “restricted universality.”
On the other hand, “many Protestants take far too loose a view of the catholicity of the Christian church (61).” These groups consider any group that call themselves “churches” to be part of the catholic church. This is in stark contrast to Rome, but nevertheless it commits another grotesque error. The error is a serious doctrinal one. Simply, any church that denies essential Christian dogma (Apostle’s Creed or Nicene) cannot be considered part of the universal church or Christ. They are in the words of Kuiper:” False churches.”
In his critique of National Churches such as the Church of England R.B. Kuiper writes:

In the past there have been several national churches, and some persist to this present day. The Church of England is an outstanding example. But if catholicity is an attribute of the Christian church, it follows that a national church is a contradiction in terms. It is not even correct to describe the church of Christ as international. It is supra-national. That is to say, it far transcends all nationalism (64).

In chapter 11 Kuiper speaks briefly on illumination. He writes concerning the error of the Anabaptists when he says that:

they stressed the right of private interpretation of the Word of God to the point of practically ruling out the illumination of the church by the Spirit of truth (71).

The fact that the Anabaptist ended with peculiar doctrines and scattered groups proves that their lack of emphasis on communal and ecclesiastical dependence for interpretation led them to heresies (some denied the Trinity). Though the body of Christ is no longer dependent on the church to interpret every jot and tittle in God’s Word, the Holy Spirit has left us with a grandiose history of scholars and theologians whose insights have greatly and must continue to aid the body of Christ in their endeavor to be truthful to Sacred Writ.