Episode 28
Bishops, Elders, and the Birth of Church Hierarchy
Takeaways:
- The early church leaders, particularly Ignatius, emphasized the need for a centralized authority to maintain unity and control within the evolving Christian community.
- The separation of presbyters and bishops marked a significant shift in church leadership, moving away from the scriptural model toward a more hierarchical structure.
- Historically, the concept of a singular ruling bishop was not universally accepted until the latter part of the second century, indicating a gradual evolution in church governance.
- The idea that church organization is essential for unity contrasts with the New Testament view of the church as a living organism, where every member actively contributes to growth and service.
- Paul's experiences with suffering and the 'thorn in the flesh' illustrate how God can use difficulties for spiritual growth, challenging the notion that all suffering is punishment.
- The podcast discusses how modern perceptions of church authority and leadership diverge from early Christian practices, highlighting the need to return to a more biblically grounded understanding.
Transcript
And good day to you.
Speaker A:Thanks for joining the study this morning.
Speaker A:We want to talk a little bit about the influence in the early years of the latter first century that would form a centralized organization.
Speaker A:You know, historically the post apostolic Christians, if indeed we can call them Christians, certainly adopted a pyramid rule in their lives.
Speaker A:And they did so by the organizational patterns of their culture, that is the Jewish synagogues and the pagan religions of the day in Rome.
Speaker A:But Ignatius was the first leading figure who was instrumental toward this shift and toward the elevation of one elder called bishop who had ultimate power, kind of like Jesus.
Speaker A:We must emphasize that these early church leaders took charge of an organization.
Speaker A:You have to establish such an organization to which the people become members to affect any kind of control over them.
Speaker A:And of course, Ignatius claimed his motivation was to present a united front in the face of so much chaos and so much error in order to thrive and and grow and to maintain unity.
Speaker A:As he perceived it, they thought someone has to rule, someone has to pass down their rulings to the laity.
Speaker A:Someone had to take the place and fill the shoes of the apostles and their leadership.
Speaker A:And so Ignatius insisted that the unity of the Church, and I mean by that the church organization was based on submission to the local bishops.
Speaker A:That was one of his main theses.
Speaker A:The presbyters and the bishops became two separate offices of the Church.
Speaker A:Instead of them referring to the same work that we see in the Scriptures, they became two separate works.
Speaker A:Clement had not yet made that shift by the time he wrote first.
Speaker A:Clement Polycarp didn't insist on monarchical bishops either, like Ignatius.
Speaker A:Nor does there appear to be any real evidence that they existed at that time.
Speaker A:And while there is some evidence that the ideas were propagated, it wasn't until the 170s or thereabout that there is a clear proof that they were established.
Speaker A:I suppose they were established even before then, but well established by this time.
Speaker A:Irenaeus favored the concept of Roman succession because he claimed that the apostolic traditions has to be preserved and was preserved in Rome.
Speaker A:By the middle of the second century, the primacy or the primacy of Rome was established.
Speaker A:And so Justin in his writings referred to a single president.
Speaker A:And by the third century, while we find references to the Petrine promise in Matthew 16 and soon, another comparison was made between the presbyter and the priest.
Speaker A:While the bishop was compared to the high priest, it was first used by Tertullian and Hippolytus until more frequent references were made by Origen and Cyprian.
Speaker A:These developments did not take place overnight.
Speaker A:But the thought of the church forming itself into an organization with power located in church officials was the starting point of that digression, because you don't read of anything like this.
Speaker A:And certainly no one would be able to take or fill the shoes of an apostle of Jesus Christ, nor would the Lord ever intend for that to take place.
Speaker A:Rather than allowing every doctrine equal presence, especially during the Gnostic claim to revelation, the authority had to be placed in the church organization that was necessary in order to establish authority.
Speaker A:And so they tried to take the place and fill the shoes of the apostles who had established such authority when they were walking on the earth.
Speaker A:The practice erecting synods of bishops arose around the latter half of the second century in Asia, and they appear to be occasioned by the philosophy known as the Montanists with the power of succession.
Speaker A:These synods found justification in the Jerusalem conference recorded in Acts 15, a text that really doesn't support the practice of having church conferences.
Speaker A:It was just an effort to confirm that the revelation granted to all the men, the apostles Jesus Christ, were teaching the same thing, and that there was no teaching, no authority from any apostle that supported the idea that the Gentiles must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses.
Speaker A:It really wasn't a decision about church doctrine.
Speaker A:The Bible knows nothing of such succession and such power, nor the presence of special priestly offices.
Speaker A:Even in the context of spiritual gifts and gifted men.
Speaker A:The body is built up as each individual supplies a needed service toward its growth.
Speaker A:We see that established early in Ephesians 4:16.
Speaker A:Neither apostles, prophets, evangelists, nor elders can do all the ministering that needs to be done, nor does such accomplish the will of God.
Speaker A:The function of a body is the thought and is the image that's presented in the New Testament Scriptures.
Speaker A:It is not an organization, it is an organism, a living active in the sense that every member of it is active and living.
Speaker A:The habit of gathering together where such gifts were present provides the occasion for the necessary teaching and preaching.
Speaker A:They were all involved in the same work?
Speaker A:Well, there were apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.
Speaker A:And so far as the work of teaching is concerned, they were involved, one being just an extension of the other.
Speaker A:And whether it's an apostle or shepherd or an evangelist like Timothy, they share the work of teaching to equip others to teach also.
Speaker A:Unfortunately, some have a very narrow vision in applying the pattern of leadership.
Speaker A:Some see that God gave the gifts of men to a local church organization, through which then the individual Christians should function with such an Arrangement individuals may physically come to an institution and receive a blessing and the sanction of the organization, but such an arrangement would defeat the entire purpose of individual service.
Speaker A:Just as the elders qualification to be apt to teach, as Paul gives it to Timothy, it implies teaching as their function.
Speaker A:They were skilled in that function, in that work.
Speaker A:And so equipping for the work of service implies that the ekklesia, that is this called out class of people or to function as servants, that is their role and thus a working membership with each member of the body contributing to each other, it supplies the need of the body.
Speaker A:And so if you have a city of saints that depend upon just a few members of a body, how dysfunctional would that be?
Speaker A:It would be as dysfunctional as a human body depending upon just a few members of its body.
Speaker A:Not only does every member function toward the edifying of the body, but every member has the potential to harm the body.
Speaker A:Every member is subject to disciplinary action when sin is practiced.
Speaker A:We see an example of this teaching when a man was living with his father's wife, and how that had a negative influence on the people of God in Corinth.
Speaker A:Like leaven and a lump of bread, Paul writes in verse six of chapter five, you glorying is not good.
Speaker A:Know ye not that a little leaven leavens the whole lump.
Speaker A:Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened.
Speaker A:This wicked person, as he describes him in verse 13, was to be put away from them.
Speaker A:He was to be delivered over to Satan when they gathered together.
Speaker A:And so the elders were not exempt from that any more than any other member.
Speaker A:They were exempt from the withdrawal of fellowship.
Speaker A:In fact, when Paul wrote writes to Timothy in first Timothy 5:20, he holds them accountable.
Speaker A:He says them that sin rebuke before all that others may also fear.
Speaker A:Now this doesn't cause them to lose their position of authority.
Speaker A:They have no position of authority to begin with their teachers and if anything, they should initiate the proper response.
Speaker A:And in dealing with sin in their own lives.
Speaker A:All men are subject to sin, friends.
Speaker A:All men are subject to error and poor judgment.
Speaker A:Even an apostle in the person of Peter in Galatians 2 played the hypocrite and encouraged others to go along, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy.
Speaker A:Paul withstood him to the face, the Bible says, because he stood condemned.
Speaker A:But those who are headstrong and refuse divine counsel are not to be in fellowship with others.
Speaker A:They are to withdraw that fellowship so as to hold them accountable and respond properly to their error.
Speaker A:Now it will be assumed among the evangelists that the laying on of the apostles hands gave Timothy and others no doubt some advantage over evangelists today, making training altogether unnecessary and circumventing the time required to complete it.
Speaker A:Paul regarded the parresia as being so near and conceived of the charismata, the gifts as continuing until then, until that which is perfect has come.
Speaker A:And I believe that was the perfect age.
Speaker A:That which is that age was a time of completion.
Speaker A:Well, it had not yet been completed or therefore fulfilled.
Speaker A:And so the thought that teachers had to be trained was far from their thinking.
Speaker A:But equipping the saints involved the dispersion of the Holy Spirit and the use of the gifts the apostles conferred the ability to perform immediately.
Speaker A:When the Catholic Church, though regarded itself as the successors of Christ, or at least at one point with the Pope, especially as the sole vicar of Christ on earth, they would then claim the power of the Holy Spirit and that would enable them to teach and guide and instruct the church.
Speaker A:They were taking the place of the apostles and the authority that they had without apostles and therefore no special gifts, through the laying on of their hands.
Speaker A:A class of educated elders eventually arose among the people whose motivation shifted away from teaching and admonishing saints in the word of God to drawing away disciples after them.
Speaker A:If they were the successors and they just merely continued the same guidance and the same spiritual leadership that existed in the first century, then the spiritual gifts would be dispersed to each one in the body, so that there would be one body but many members.
Speaker A:There would be no office as it existed later.
Speaker A:Each member would function for the good of the body and there would be multiple teachers guided by the Holy Spirit.
Speaker A:The biblical style of priesthood was a blessing to that was to be shared by all.
Speaker A:Unlike the special class of priesthood in Roman Catholicism and many of the traditional churches today, this special class of priesthood illustrates the shift away from the called out body of all the saved to this special class that began to shape and define the concept of a church as we know it today.
Speaker A:It is in fact what I call institutionalism.
Speaker A:We've replaced the biblical pattern with an organization.
Speaker A:By contrast, you can look at Luther and Calvin.
Speaker A:They began to emphasize, at least though there was still strong tradition that would not enable them to fully adapt.
Speaker A:But they emphasized nonetheless the preached word, which they believed became effective through the Spirit, placing the hearer in a condition of faith.
Speaker A: he augsburg Confession around: Speaker A:There were times in which people got real close to certain concepts of truth, but tradition held them back from accepting it fully.
Speaker A:This work was given much attention, I think, to the miraculous power of the first century that was unique in the last days.
Speaker A:We have, over the several years actually in our studies together have shown that a disconnect occurs in conversation with other people.
Speaker A:They hear someone who claim that the promise of the Spirit had an end and purpose that was fulfilled in the first century and is therefore no longer active.
Speaker A:And usually someone accuses at least two things.
Speaker A:Well, you just don't believe in the Holy Spirit.
Speaker A:I've had that said to me, which is a far fetched and misleading claim.
Speaker A:Or number two, that God is no longer active among his people in the absence of miracles.
Speaker A:And neither one are true.
Speaker A:We have illustrated that God is very active in the affairs of his people and can be even in the absence of miracles.
Speaker A:God doesn't need a miracle to perform and any action of God doesn't necessitate a miracle.
Speaker A:I suggest to you that there is a thing what we call and what I call providence, that God is active in the affairs of men.
Speaker A:And though we may not always begin to see it immediately as we would if a miracle had occurred, God's hand is very much involved in today's affairs regarding God's discipline.
Speaker A:It never includes the temptation to sin, as that comes from Satan and his evil representatives here on the earth.
Speaker A:We know this from James 1.
Speaker A:God is a giver of every good and perfect gift, and we can't blame temptation coming from God.
Speaker A:Furthermore, God doesn't send sickness, he doesn't send disease and misfortune and persecution.
Speaker A:He's not the author of those things.
Speaker A:He doesn't send death.
Speaker A:He doesn't take your loved ones away as a form of his discipline.
Speaker A:The option, once his children experience these things is whether he allows them to continue for our benefit or that he might remove them for our benefit.
Speaker A:I mean, God has boundaries that he places that he will not allow certain things to be done.
Speaker A:In fact, Paul would write to the Corinthians that he would not allow us to be tempted above what we are able to bear, but that he will, with the temptation, also make a way of escape that tells me that I'm not going to be tempted any more than anyone else.
Speaker A:And well, I may be tempted, but if I am, he knows I can handle it.
Speaker A:And he alone is all knowing.
Speaker A:And he is the only one able to determine the outcome of such trials.
Speaker A:James would tell us in James One, two, count it.
Speaker A:All joy when ye fall into divers temptations.
Speaker A:Why, James, knowing the trying of your faith?
Speaker A:Faith works.
Speaker A:Patience.
Speaker A:Now, this may include the sorrow for mistreatment of others who would wrongfully abuse us and say all manner of evil against us falsely.
Speaker A:It may come from ongoing temptations to which we refuse to yield, or to sickness or physical disabilities over which we have little control.
Speaker A:But pain and sickness and death are neither a gift from God's hand nor a form of punishment from God's hand.
Speaker A:Think about the physical cares.
Speaker A:God still cares about our needs and he intervenes to provide healing.
Speaker A:As often noted, however, life in the Son is not about making us physically comfortable here on earth.
Speaker A:And though he's not the author of sin and sickness and death and finds no satisfaction in that suffering, he doesn't always remove the physical suffering, although he provides the strength for us to endure so that the blessings that are derived are spiritual.
Speaker A:Most of the time we are made stronger, you see, from the trials.
Speaker A:And that's what we've presented from James.
Speaker A:Statement in James 1.
Speaker A:Hardships, all these things, even temptations, can make us stronger.
Speaker A:And all of them were not left defenseless.
Speaker A:Though we're not left without resources to overcome them.
Speaker A:And those in Christ are overcomers, they are overcomers through Him.
Speaker A:And as long as we're in the flesh and are subject to that which can touch the body that is destined to return to the dust from which it came, that may happen, but the spirit or the soul of our our souls can be strengthened.
Speaker A:The inner man is renewed, as Paul would say it, day by day.
Speaker A:Our prayers therefore don't reflect a heart that longs for things of this life.
Speaker A:I listen and have over the many years gone to church and hear an innumerous amount of emphasis placed in our prayers that God heal the sick.
Speaker A:Long prayer list of people who are sick and a great deal of emphasis is placed that God would heal them from sickness.
Speaker A:And it's often been made me wonder just where our emphasis is.
Speaker A:This is not our home.
Speaker A:We're not intended to stay here forever.
Speaker A:And yet we act like that's what we ought to be, that we intend to be and that we want to be.
Speaker A:And yet I'm not suggesting by any means that God doesn't hear that prayer and that he can't heal those pains and those sicknesses.
Speaker A:I'm just saying where is our emphasis?
Speaker A:These are inevitable, and to pray that we are kept from them is to pray amiss.
Speaker A:And though tears may trickle down our frail cheeks from human loss and Death and pain.
Speaker A:There is great rejoicing from within in addition to this.
Speaker A:Division and sinful pride surround our environment.
Speaker A:But yet those that are in Christ, those who focus on the heavenlies, we are the rich recipients of peace and unity with fellow citizens in the kingdom.
Speaker A:You see, it's not about church growth.
Speaker A:It's not about big bank accounts and prosperity in churches and getting more people to come to the church building.
Speaker A:It's about the blessedness that exists in a spiritual realm untouched by the physical dimension.
Speaker A:For what then should God's people pray?
Speaker A:The common response to the description that we've just given is discouraging because it's assumed that we need not pray for anything related to the physical body and needs.
Speaker A:And I don't want you to get that from what I have said.
Speaker A:Though the spiritual requests seem to take precedence over the physical.
Speaker A:In the New Testament, many examples can be cited of prayers for the physical well being of saints.
Speaker A:But it wasn't, it wasn't the emphasis.
Speaker A:We may pray for comfort from the fears and the concerns of the body, as long as they're not our priority.
Speaker A:Our bodies are to be holy unto the Lord as a living sacrifice.
Speaker A:Paul gives us the example to imitate being in a straight betwixt the two of dying or living in the flesh.
Speaker A:He explains that his only reason for remaining in the flesh is to serve his fellow Christians.
Speaker A:Otherwise there would be no desire to stay in this pilgrim land.
Speaker A:If this motivation is not behind the request of our hearts, then we question the truth of our reign with Christ in the heavenlies.
Speaker A:We question whether we actually are, I guess, accepting the rule of Christ in our lives that we are in this spiritual relationship.
Speaker A:We can admire the weary and burdened with cancer.
Speaker A:We can see the pain of one who was raked with disease.
Speaker A:And we can pray that God would extend the life to raise their children or to be given opportunities to reach a soul outside of Christ.
Speaker A:We're not doubting that God intervenes by giving healing and life to those who ask Him.
Speaker A:But the cause must be nobler than just enjoying one's physical blessings here on earth just as long as we can.
Speaker A:I mean, if we don't have a longing to be with the Lord more than that, and we'd rather stay here than join him, then there's something wrong with our affections.
Speaker A:This focus on things below doesn't describe the reign of Christ within that soul, because their affection of heart is not in heaven, it's here on this earth.
Speaker A:And that God would just extend life just for the sake of giving more earth time is not consistent with the attitude and the mind of Christ.
Speaker A:To grant such physical blessings to advance the praise and glory of God is very different and may give cause to grant requests for healing and financial resources and support and any number of other blessings.
Speaker A:Let's talk a little bit about this idea of intervention.
Speaker A:God knows all things.
Speaker A:We know that.
Speaker A:And he knows the end from the beginning.
Speaker A:He knows whether or not a person just lacks the opportunity to hear and be touched by the message of the Gospel.
Speaker A:He knows whether or not your children will listen to your words of wisdom.
Speaker A:And therefore the answers to our request certainly must be dependent on the value of our request to accomplish the desires of of God's heart, of his desires.
Speaker A:In addition, whether a faithful servant can be in a better situation to accomplish the task of our hearts than us, God knows.
Speaker A:And the fact that we may want the time and we may want the health to serve in some way gives the proper motivation, but can't give us the knowledge of the outcome to which he is privy.
Speaker A:God is privy.
Speaker A:In other words, God knows more than we can possibly know.
Speaker A:And for that reason we must just trust God to know that he will intervene if it is his will to do so.
Speaker A:And sometimes it's not in our best interest.
Speaker A:This intervention may involve the Holy Spirit, I don't know.
Speaker A:But it certainly is not exclusive to his role.
Speaker A:The critical mistake today is not differentiating the fulfilled work of the Holy Spirit that's recorded in the pages of the Bible that characterized the first century period and the activity of God among men in today's world.
Speaker A:The activity of God may put some resolve or some thought in a person's heart, though not against his will, may bring someone by our side for consolation or encouragement or instruction.
Speaker A:Or it may grant you wisdom in your choice to approach or to make a decision that impacts your life and the lives of others.
Speaker A:He may guide the decisions and the ability of a doctor and the distribution and care of someone who is sick.
Speaker A:He may providentially hinder the timely action of our schedules to avoid some conflict or some accident.
Speaker A:It's just unfathomable to think, to know all the reasons why things happen the way they do.
Speaker A:But it is for this reason that we may pray for guidance and wisdom and protection and healing and financial provisions, including daily care of food and clothing and shelter and all of that.
Speaker A:But as we've shown, the divine working of God that grants the desires of our heart does not necessitate the working of a miracle.
Speaker A:Those days are past, and the guarantee of sonship.
Speaker A:The guarantee of approval which was then the gift of the Holy Spirit has been returned.
Speaker A:Since the promised payment has been received, Jesus has returned to render judgment, to consummate the marriage with the bride and commence his reign in New Jerusalem with the new Israel of God.
Speaker A:And it's composed of Jews and Gentiles today in one body.
Speaker A:We are in his kingdom, we are reigning with Him.
Speaker A:And this has all been fulfilled in the first resurrection of Revelation 20.
Speaker A:And therefore we must not expect a change in his dealings with the human race after that thousand year reign with the saints and the loosing of Satan discussed in Revelation 20.
Speaker A:Let's change a few gears and ask some questions in the next week.
Speaker A:But think about the example of Paul.
Speaker A:You'll notice from him that he gives some reason for God's choice to remove or to allow some infirmity.
Speaker A:We gain some insight, I think, from Paul's request to remove his thorn in the flesh.
Speaker A:That's recorded in 2 Corinthians 12.
Speaker A:And just think about this now.
Speaker A:There was given to him a thorn in the flesh to keep me from exalting myself.
Speaker A:The thorn in the flesh was a messenger of Satan.
Speaker A:See, God didn't send it.
Speaker A:And yet God didn't remove it either.
Speaker A:Why?
Speaker A:Because power is perfected in weakness.
Speaker A:And so Paul learned that.
Speaker A:He says, I will boast about my weaknesses.
Speaker A:Why?
Speaker A:That the power of Christ may dwell in me and that's the greater blessing when I am weak.
Speaker A:Insults and distresses and persecutions, whatever.
Speaker A:Then he says, am I strong?
Speaker A:If this thorn was a messenger of Satan, why would he want to help Paul, not exalt himself?
Speaker A:You see, the same thorn was designed for different purposes.
Speaker A:God saw it as a gift, a grace.
Speaker A:But Satan meant it for evil.
Speaker A:And since God is the giver of every good and perfect gift, James 1:17, and cannot be accused of tempting anyone to sin.
Speaker A:It did not originate with him.
Speaker A:However, once his children receive it, he often allows its continuance for the value it may have for us.
Speaker A:Once the temptation, the sickness, the persecution comes from the hand of Satan or his emissaries.
Speaker A:God hears our prayers and he answers according to what is best for us.
Speaker A:And since he knows what is better for us than we do, we just need to trust him.
Speaker A:We trust him that he will do for us what is in our best interest.
Speaker A:It was best for Paul to keep his thorn in the flesh.
Speaker A:It may or may not be advantageous for God to make the same conclusion in your case.
Speaker A:But in each case God knows.
Speaker A:And you just need to know that God will always act in our best interest if we are His.
Speaker A:Well, our time is up.
Speaker A:I would love to continue this with you.
Speaker A:I trust that you will consider these things that I've said and perhaps some of them that you won't agree with.
Speaker A:And that's fine.
Speaker A:We can agree to disagree again.
Speaker A:Thank you again.
Speaker A:Have a good day and a pleasant week.
