Chapter 2: The Visible Church Defined

2-1. The Visible Church before the law, under the law, and now under the
Gospel, is one and the same and consists of all those who make profession of
their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, together with their children.

2-2. This visible unity of the body of Christ, though obscured, is not
destroyed by its division into different denominations of professing Christians;
but all of these which maintain the Word and Sacraments in their fundamental
integrity are to be recognized as true branches of the Church of Jesus Christ.