Die vier Nicaanse merktekens van die kerk as rigtingwysers in 'n ekklesiologiese diskoers

Abstract

The research centred around the four concepts in the Confession of Nicea namely unity, holiness, catholicity and apostolicity. The question investigated was whether these four marks could serve as guidelines for an ecclesiological discourse. In this article attention was firstly paid to the Confession of Nicea about the marks of the church, next it was looked into whether these marks could in principle be traced in the letter to the Ephesians. Lastly, the the marks were tested in a revelation-historically, cursory manner and in accordance with the letters to the seven congregations in Revelations. The conclusions reached amounted to the following: during the earliest centuries and/or ages the church identified, in accordance with the marks of the church, its identity as being missionary. That is why the marks in their alignment to the activities of the church, are still missionary, to give expression to the missionary identity of the church. The four marks of the church namely unity, holiness, catholicity and apostolicity should still be determining the missionary ecclesiological identity of the church.