church militant

nounTheology.

those Christians on earth who are engaged in a continuous war against evil and the enemies of Christ.

Origin of church militant

First recorded in 1530–40

They will always remember that thou wert their faithful mother, their robust nurse, and their church militant.
Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No 3, September 1863 | Various
Indeed, the outward manifestations of Huguenot zeal had then ceased to be characteristic of the church militant.
The Anglo-French Entente in the Seventeenth Century | Charles Bastide
The church militant and triumphant could no longer be the church humble and unknown.
A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 3 (of 10) | Franois-Marie Arouet (AKA Voltaire)
Islam became a permanent and world-wide religion only when it clothed itself with armour and became a church militant.
The Moors in Spain | Stanley Lane-Poole
I'll swear that's not the text, but any of my troopers could quote it you; every man of them is an incarnate church militant.
The Tavern Knight | Rafael Sabatini

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