The Marks of the Church are those things by which the True Church may be recognized in Protestant theology. Three marks are usually enumerated: the preaching of the Word, the administration of the sacraments, and church discipline.
The Belgic Confession devotes a chapter (Article 29) to the "Marks of the True Church" and lists them as follows:
The Anglican Thirty-nine Articles states in chapter 19:
The Baptist Orthodox Creed defines the "Visible Church of Christ on Earth" in Article 30:
Louis Berkhof notes that Reformed theologians have differed as to the number of marks: Theodore Beza spoke of only one (preaching), John Calvin and Heinrich Bullinger spoke of two (preaching and sacraments), while Peter Martyr and Zacharias Ursinus spoke of three – preaching, sacraments and discipline.Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (London: Banner of Truth, 1949), 576. Nevertheless, Edmund Clowney points out that Calvin "included discipline in the proper observance of the sacraments."Edmund Clowney, The Church (Contours of Christian Theology; Downers Grove: IVP, 1995), 101. Albert Mohler calls church discipline the "missing mark" of the church.Church Discipline: The Missing Mark by R. Albert Mohler, Jr. A few Puritan writers, such as Richard Sibbes, considered prayer a fourth mark of the church: I answer, our Church is easily proved to be a true Church of Christ: First, because it hath all the essentialls, necessary to the constitution of a true Church; as sound preaching of the Gospel, right dispensation of the Sacraments, Prayer religiously performed, and evill persons justly punisht (though not in that measure as some criminals and malefaetors deserve:) and therefore a true Church.
Mark Dever has set out nine marks of a healthy (rather than true) church, but does not include the sacraments.
See also
Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral Means of grace On the Councils and the Church One true church
References