Quote:
Do I believe that God ordained dictators to rule the body of Christ? NO, absolutely not. Hidden within the meaning of the word rule is the responsibility to govern. Those who are chosen by God to be placed in the position of ministry need to do so according to God's purpose for their callings, among which are:
- Preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ
- Facilitating the reconciliation of lost humanity to God
- Teaching sound doctrine
- Perfecting the saints
- Ministering to the Church
- Edifying the body of Christ
- Watching lest any should slip
- Being examples to the flock of God
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Here is what I see, in the list you put forth above you want to state that these positions are for an elite group only and the rest of the people of God are intended to always stay saints.
And that is boulderdash, every single thing you listed is commanded of every child of God. Not just a select few.
I did not see the line I posted on another group so I will post it again here, If I already posted it well sorry.
When one goes from leading to driving they are no longer a leader. Or when one puts a fence around a herd of sheep they are no longer a sheephard but a hireling. And this is where the christian world has come.
You ask about the different verses that the word rule are used the primary verse I am refering to is
Hebrews 13:17 Where the word we use the word "obey" those that have the rule". Where the word "obey" here means "by pursuasion" in other words as Paul teaches we are to "follow him as he follows Christ."
In most Christian churches we have gone beyond the scope of where God inteded the eldership or leadership to go. There are always elders and or leaders, just as there is always a father in the family. But when the father no longer fulfilles his proper role as father he is only a father by title.
The religious leaders of Christ day had done just this they had legalized the law then set themselves up as judges over everyone else. Again this is never what God intended of his people. God never put a separation between himself and those he was reaching in his earthly ministry why should we, call ourselves ministers and set ourselves separate from those we are to be ministering to.
Further just by example God did not set one to be pastor over his church in Jerusalem he set or gave 12. We have allowed by virtue of our example a dictatorship form of governemt to arise in the Kingdom of God whether one wants to admit it or not. We call him a pastor a word only used in anything like that in context once in the word, and that is
Ephesians 4 we have given this "pastor" the authority consitant within all of the gifts God gave to the body wraped into one man. And then we say this is what God intended?
I state this again "if you want a king like the children of Isreal, when they told Samual, "give us a king so we can be like all the nations around us". Fine I choose to continue a personal relationship with my God. with his gifts working within me and others to equip each and every one of us.
But to say this is the way God intended things to be from the begining and if you don't follow this way of thinking you will be lost Im not buying it.
I won't drink the Kool-aid.
This idea that the few must oversee the masses comes not from the word of God but rather the teachings and traditions of the RCC. If you don't beleive me search it our yourself. They are the ones that said "only the church can interpret scripture" Why do you think that for several hundred years only the church had bibles? It was the only way they could control the masses, they knew if the masses ever started to read the word for themselves they would find all the lies.
Ah well to each his/her own God can work within the confines of our religous groups just not as well as he can outside those traditions.
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