Introduction
The first and primary life question that one must ask is “Who is the Christ?” But inescapably attendant upon that question is a second one, “Where is the Church?” For if one answers correctly the question of who Christ is, one will be led necessarily and directly to ask, “Where is His Church?” The two questions are inseparable. One cannot ask the first without asking the second. And one cannot be mistaken about the answer to the second without also being mistaken about the answer to the first. Which is to say, if we properly understand who Christ is, we are free to properly understand where the Church is. But if we are mistaken in where the Church is, we will also be mistaken in who Christ is. Ecclesiology is Christology.
In light of that, then, the question as to where the Church is is not an idle one. It is fundamentally important. So important, in fact, that our answer will either confirm a proper Christology or deform it. We might have Christ and keep Him, if we rightly understand His Church. But if we have Christ and do not rightly understand His Church, we are in very real danger of losing Him Whom we have once held.
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