Dr. Guy Waters is the Professor of New Testament at the Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson, Mississippi and a teaching elder in the Mississippi presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in America. Today, he joins us to speak about his book, One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church (Lexham Academic), in which he sets out a full-scale Reformed doctrine of the church. The title echoes the four classical “marks” confessed in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed. This study is an extended exploration of how Scripture, read through a Reformed lens, fills out each of those creedal descriptors and binds them together into a single, coherent doctrine of the church.
Dr. Waters organizes the book in three movements:
- Biblical Revelation (Part I). Seven chapters trace “the people of God” from creation and Eden through Abraham, Moses, the prophets, Christ and the apostles, showing that God has always had one covenant people that reaches its eschatological maturity in the new-covenant church.
- Doctrinal Construction (Part II). Waters treats the classic loci of ecclesiology: the church’s four attributes (one, holy, catholic, apostolic); its marks (pure preaching, right sacraments, biblical discipline); its government (Christ the king, officers and courts); its worship (word, sacraments, prayer, Lord’s Day); its life (gifts and discipline); and its mission (“gathering and perfecting the saints” until Christ returns) .
- Truth for Life and Mission (Part III). A final chapter applies the doctrine to church-state relations, defending a robust spirituality of the church and principled religious liberty.
The conclusion distills the argument into seven theses that function as a theological checksum. Throughout, Waters interlaces biblical exegesis, historical theology and confessional sources (especially the Westminster Standards). The result is both an academic survey and a pastoral manifesto aimed at equipping the church for faithful witness today.
The conversation explores the essential identity and mission of the church, the continuity between the Old and New Testaments, and what is distinctly new through Christ’s redemptive work. Waters outlines the seven theses of his book, offering clarity on ecclesiology for today’s church, particularly in light of confusion over polity, worship, and the church’s relation to the state.
This episode is an invitation to recover a robust, Reformed understanding of the church’s nature and calling, rooted in Scripture and developed in the tradition of historic confessions.
Chapters
- 00:00 Mid-America Reformed Seminary CME Conference
- 01:30 Introduction
- 03:20 The Story Behind the Book
- 06:54 The Emphasis of this Book
- 10:43 The Need for Ecclesiology Today
- 15:33 The Seven Theses of the Book
- 18:54 The Continuity of God’s People in the Old and New Testaments
- 22:02 What Is New in the NT through Christ
- 28:02 The Mission of the Church
- 33:56 The Relation of Scripture to Polity
- 38:00 Worship
- 43:32 Ministering in Word and Deed
- 47:28 The Church and the State
- 52:26 The Spirituality of the Church
- 56:27 Conclusion
Participants: Camden Bucey, Guy Prentiss Waters