What Does 'One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church' Mean?

Near the end of the Nicene Creed, after the long affirmations about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, comes a statement about the church: "We believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church." These four adjectives — known as the Four Marks of the Church — have been a source of ecumenical tension, denominational debate, and genuine theological reflection ever since they were written in 381 AD.

One

The church is "one" because it has one Lord, one faith, one baptism (Ephesians 4:5). This unity is not primarily organizational — it is grounded in the unity of God himself. The council affirmed that however many congregations, languages, or traditions exist, there is one body of Christ in the world.

This raises obvious tensions given the fractured state of Christianity today: Catholic, Orthodox, and thousands of Protestant denominations all claim to be part of this one church. Most traditions hold that visible unity is a goal to work toward, while the deep spiritual unity in Christ already exists beneath the divisions.

Holy

The church is "holy" not because its members are sinless — anyone who has attended a church board meeting knows better — but because it belongs to and is set apart by a holy God. The holiness of the church is derivative: the church is holy because Christ, its head, is holy, and because the Spirit dwells within it.

This understanding was tested early. The Donatist controversy of the fourth century asked: if a bishop had compromised during persecution, were his sacraments valid? Augustine argued that the holiness of the sacraments depends on Christ, not on the moral quality of the minister. The church is holy in spite of its members, not because of them.

Catholic

"Catholic" in this context does not primarily refer to the Roman Catholic Church, though that denomination uses the term as part of its name. The word comes from the Greek katholikos, meaning "according to the whole" or "universal." The church is catholic in that the gospel is for all peoples, in all places, in all times. It is not a regional religion or an ethnic one. Its message is universal in scope.

Ignatius of Antioch, writing around 107 AD, was the first to use the phrase "catholic church" in Christian literature. He meant by it the whole church as opposed to a local congregation. In the creed, it carries the sense of the complete, whole, universal body of Christ spread across the earth.

Apostolic

The church is "apostolic" in two senses. First, it traces its origin to the apostles — those who were sent by Christ and whose teaching, preserved in the New Testament and the early creeds, constitutes the foundational deposit of the faith. Second, it continues the apostolic mission: the church is sent, as Christ sent the apostles, into the world.

Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Christians connect apostolicity primarily to an unbroken succession of ordained ministers going back to the apostles. Most Protestants connect it primarily to faithfulness to apostolic teaching — the doctrine of the New Testament. Both emphases are present in the early church's understanding.

Why the Four Marks Still Matter

The Four Marks are not a description of how the church currently appears — they are a vision of what the church is called to be and what it truly is in Christ. When a congregation recites these words, they are not making a sociological observation. They are making a theological claim and accepting a calling: to be united, set apart, universal in welcome, and rooted in the teaching of the apostles.