The Normative Evangelical Doctrine of Church as “Mother”
The Normative Evangelical Doctrine of the Church as “Mother”
1. Earliest known explicit Christian usage of the concept of the Church as our mother:
From 2 Clement 2.1 (dated somewhere between the end of first half of the 1st Century and the first half of the second), commenting on Isaiah 54:1 and the "barren woman" (and so appears to be the earliest known Christian commentary on Isaiah 54:1), states that the prophet Isaiah "spoke of us, for our church (ecclesia) was barren before children were given to it" (The Apostolic Fathers, 3rd Edition, tr. Michael Holmes).
Also, from Cyprian (3rd Century, i.e. prior to Constantine): “No one can have God as Father who does not have the church as mother.”
2. Basic Scriptural data:
(22) For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. (23) But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. (24) Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. (25) Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. (26) But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. (27) For it is written, “Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband.” (28) Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. (29) But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. (30) But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” (31) So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman. (Galatians 4:22-31 ESV)
(9) He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the LORD! — Psalm 113:9 ESV
(1) “Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married,” says the LORD. — Isaiah 54:1 ESV
(6) But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, (7) and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” (8) This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. (9) For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” (10) And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, — Romans 9:6-10 ESV
(22) But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, (23) and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, (24) and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. — Hebrews 12:22-24
(1) And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: (2) And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. - Revelation 12:1-2
3. Continuity in Protestant-Evangelical usage of concept of Church as mother:
A. Respected Bible Expositors affirming the idea of Church as mother:
Martin Luther (16th Century), in his magisterial commentary on Galatians, discussing verse 4:26 affirms this idea.
John Calvin (16th Century) in his sermons on Galatians 4:26-27.
Matthew Poole (17th Century) commenting on Galatians 4:26.
Matthew Henry (17th-18th Century) commenting on Psalm 113:9, Isaiah 54:1, and Galatians 4:26.
John Gill (18th Century) commenting on Galatians 4:26.
Adam Clarke (18th-19th Century) commenting on Galatians 4:26.
Charles Spurgeon (19th Century) commenting on Psalm 113:9.
Keil and Delitzsch (19th Century) commenting on Isaiah 54:1.
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown (19th Century) commenting on Galatians 4:26-27.
H.C. Leupold (20th Century) commenting on Isaiah 54:1.
Edward J. Young (20th Century) commenting on Isaiah 54:1.
ESV Study Bible (21st Century) in its study notes on Isaiah 54:1.
B. Systematic Theologians
i. Historic
Francis Turretin (17th Century; central theological voice respected by such theologians as Jonathan Edwards), "Institutes of Elenctic Theology," Vol. 2, Eighteenth Topic, "The Church," First Question, Paragraph 3, pg 1: "Second, since there is no salvation out of the church (no more than out of the ark; nor does anyone have God as his Father in heaven whose church is not his mother on earth), nothing ought to be dearer to our hearts than that this mother may be known (in whose bosom God has willed us to be educated and to be nourished). It behooves us to be directed by her care until we grow up and arrive at the goal of faith."
See also the entry, mater fidelium, in Richard Muller, "Dictionary of Latin and Greek Theological Terms: Drawn Principally from Protestant Scholastic Theology."
ii. 20th Century
Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. 4, Chapter 6, Section 497, pgs 330-331.
Geerhardus Vos, "Reformed Dogmatics," Volume 5, Part 1, Chapter 1, Question 11, pg 863 (One Volume edition), speaks of the relation between the visible and invisible aspects of the church and the necessity of understanding the Church as "the mother of believers (mater fidelium) - that is, the matrix of the seed from which the church of the future grows."
Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology, Part 5: The Church, Part 2: Nature of the Church, Section B.3, pg 567.
iii. 21st Century
Robert Letham, “Systematic Theology,” pg 623.
Michael Horton, “The Christian Faith,” pg 744.
4. Contemporary “popular” Evangelical affirmation of the concept of Church as mother:
1. From Christianity Today (2015): "The Church is Your Mom"
https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2015/may-web-only/church-is-your-mom.html
2. A Vineyard article (2022): "Why Church as Our Mother is Necessary and Biblical"
https://vineyardnorth.com/why-church-as-our-mother-is-necessary-and-is-biblical
5. Christian and Missionary Alliance: A. B. Simpson’s published view on the topic
In his 1890 book, "A Larger Christian Life," Simpson discussed his vision for the church: “He is showing us the plan for a Christian church that is much more than an association of congenial friends to listen once a week to an intellectual discourse and musical entertainment and carry on by proxy a mechanism of Christian work; but rather a church that can be at once the mother and home of every form of help and blessing which Jesus came to give to lost and suffering men, the birthplace and the home of souls, the fountain of healing and cleansing, the sheltering home for the orphan and distressed, the school for the culture and training of God’s children, the armory where they are equipped for the battle of the Lord and the army which fights those battles in His name. Such a center of population in this sad and sinful world!” (A.B. Simpson, A Larger Christian Life)
A. B. Simpson, moreover, commenting on Revelation 12:1-2, also repeated the same doctrine, the very title of the Chapter being: "The Mother Church And The Manchild" (The Christ in the Bible Commentary, Vol. 4, pg 447). Of the woman spoken of in this passage, Simpson states: "This woman represents the great invisible Church of God from the first believer down to the latest age" (pg 448). He even identifies that Christ Himself is born of her, that Jesus is "the Firstborn of this glorious woman" (pg 449). He continues, stating that Jesus "is born of the Church of God, the first great issue of the glorious Woman" (pg 449). Simpson then points out that, after Christ, Christians are "the other members and children of the mother Church who will be added in due time down to the end of the age" (pg 450). For "the remnant of her seed are individual Christians" (pg 452). Tragically, "the adversary and accuser... has ever since been seeking to destroy the Woman and her seed" (pg 450). Not yet done, Simpson again treats these references to the Woman, the Bride, and the Mother as references to the Church, speaking explicitly of "the Mother Church" (pg 465) in Chapter 8, saying that the people of God represent the "the Bride of Christ, the Gentile Church" (pg 466).
6. Conclusion
Rooted in the New Testament (especially Galatians 4:26-27), which cites Isaiah 54 as its prophetic foundation, and growing from the earliest strata of the Church’s History in the 1st Century on into the earliest strata of the Reformation, carried on through both Bible Exposition and Systematic theology in each century, and reaching through and affirmed by A.B. Simpson himself, all the way to contemporary and mainstream Evangelical teaching, it is inescapably clear that thinking of the Church as a kind of “mother” is a universal mainstay of common, normal, Christian, Protestant, Evangelical thought. Mothers nourish, clothe, teach, and protect their children, which is just what the Church is called to do with those who are regenerated. Given new life by Christ and so born into the Church, the Church, therefore, being in this way our Mother, ought to be honored.
-Rev. Joshua Schooping
