Yes, and they will answer to God. He has always had an earthly organization. His people answered to Moses, and then Joshua, and then a line of judges. Jehovah would communicate with these men and they would instruct the people on what God had said.
In the beginning God walked with Adam and Eve. In Exodus 19 it was the desire of the Lord to show Himself to all the people and let them hear Him talk with Moses, but in Exodus 20, out of fear, they ask Moses to mediate between them so they would not have to behold God. Israel was not given priests and judges because God wanted separation, but because of the hardness of their hearts.
As history progressed, men sought more and more layers of mediators, asking for a King in place of the judges, establishing traditions as a hedge around the law.
But Jesus' birth, death, resurrection, and sending of His Spirit put an end to all of that once for all, and He became our sole mediator before the Father and moved the law from letter on stone into our hearts.
God is not a God of chaos and confusion, but He is a God of peace (I Corinthians 14:33). How can there be order and a lack of confusion with no humans taking the lead in Christ's church? Do you think every Christian can direct himself in an orderly manner in unison with every other Christian? How would that be done?
By the Spirit working through the entire Body of Christ. Pastor, elder, and bishop are interchangeable descriptions of a role for mature believers in the body to lead, instruct, and correct the members of the body. The words are used for different emphases (shepherding, maturity, governance), not to set up a hierarchy.
We have scripture and the Holy Spirit resident inside us to lead us individually, but we also know our not-yet-fully-sanctified hearts can be deceitful, so we submit to the consensus among the plurality of elders. No one mortal man was ever intended to be the final authority in the Church.
We identify the Church in our local area by those who uphold scripture as the final authority on doctrine.
The witness of scripture is that there will not be a clear unity with every other person who identifies as Christian until the end of this age. The wheat and tares are left to ripen together until the final harvest, and attempts to identify one person, apart from Christ Himself, to bring unity to the Church is of the spirit of antichrist.
Unity happens when people are focused on Jesus in Spirit and Truth. We go where we are looking, and in fixing our gaze on Him, we'll find ourselves walking in unison with others who are doing likewise.
