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Originally Posted by IXOYE
Ummm fact check, it was CHRYS that posed the question to him and he avoided it. I merely policed his avoidance of Chrys' question.
Oh yeah. :doh:
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Originally Posted by IXOYE
Theh lack of authority isn't addressed. You presume... vs 10 shows he will address the issue, but it stops short of saying if he will rule against him or not. You can't conclude from the scriptural evidence what you claim. None the less, we can tell that JOHN felt he had an obligation to address the issue. So, apparently at least JOHN felt he had some authority.
You are right in saying we don’t know if he acted or not. But by the same token we don’t know if he felt he had authority or not. Someone can make a lot of noise who has no official authority. I do it all the time. What we can say is he though it a good idea to expose Diotrephes for who he was and let the chips fall as they may. If he had done as Paul where after founding a church he would have turned it over to the elders and “commended them to God,” meaning let God take care of them, then he would trust God to take of the situation while providing any input as people were willing to receive. His only real obligation was to the truth. Had he had the authority you think he had he could have just fired him from Patmos. He wouldn’t need to wait.
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The buck stopped with the elders of the church.
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Originally Posted by IXOYE
Why was Clement more than an elder, addressing the Bishop of Corinth? Interesting, the History of the same time as the writing of 3 john seems to contradict your claims.
1 Clement was not written to the bishop at Corinth. There was no bishop at Corinth. The letter was written to the church as a whole.
Unlike Ignatius (if memory serves), Clement equates bishop and elder, that is, they are the same ministry, which agrees with the New Testament, but is contrary to Catholic doctrine.
Clement affirms congregational affirmation of elders, which HisServant and I believe in, which is also seen in scripture at Acts 14:23 (as a potential interpretation, at least).
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No one was over them governmentally, just over them in terms of providing correction if they could receive it.
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Originally Posted by IXOYE
Who was timothy and titus over. :| Seems pretty disingenuous to me. Timothy was charged with getting the right elders. Hard to have that charge without some command over the situation.
Sure, but their job was over when the church had its elders. They brought up, then stepped aside.
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It was theirs to follow Paul's admonitions or not, and if the elders didn't take responsibility to correct issues it was up to the body to appoint elders (pastors) after God's own heart. So in that regard the buck really stopped with the congregation.
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Originally Posted by IXOYE
Ok, lets forego the semantic argument on who actually pulled the trigger. Do you want to tell me that Paul's influence stopped after planting the church?
AND THEN, that he didn't train someone to keep it running as directed???
You’re saying exactly what I’ve been trying to tell you. A church planter has lots of influence, even after he leaves and commends the eldership to God. The Holy Spirit uses people to speak to people and those with certain gifts are more effective. Beyond the gifting, a church planter has built trust and laid down his life for the sheep. You don’t need to have any official authority over a church to be able to influence them. Even if you do have official authority you are going to be a lot more effective if you rely on relationship building rather than position to influence.
Yes, Paul trained people and told those he trained to train others. Again, this supports my (biblical) model of church polity.
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It's the same with our civil gov. When I worked in the state legislature I would get calls from people mad at their county commissioners for allowing cell towers in their neighborhood and thought a state legislator could "pull rank" on the county commissioner and tell him what to do. When I informed them the state legislature can only do something by getting a majority of the state legislators and the governor to pass a bill and they weren't going to do that just to keep someone from having to look at an ugly cell tower out their back window. They would ask, "Who then has authority over these stupid county commissioners?" I would tell them, "You do. You are a voter. If you don't like your leader find someone you like and work to get him elected. The buck stops with the voters. That's why we live in a constitutional democratic republic so you can fire those leaders who aren't looking out for the people.
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Originally Posted by IXOYE
nice analogy. Not sure I can agree church leadership is like govt, for the above reasons, but explained very nicely!
:e4e: My point is a constitutional democratic republic is more biblical than a lot of church governments.
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In the Catholic Church, however, the people have no recourse to fire leaders who don't really give a damn about the sheep or are even fleecing the sheep, or screwing their young boys.
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Originally Posted by IXOYE
Or the protestant pedophiles that don't make the news hardly at all, or that run off with the congregational member's wife, or or or or or....
You must be referring to authoritarian hierarchical churches because in elder led churches the people do have recourse.
That is NOT how God set up church government to protect the sheep. Government of the people, by the people, and for the people is a biblical principle.
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Originally Posted by IXOYE
show me.
Egalitarianism recognizes all men are created equal and the Holy Spirit resides with the people, not just appointed leaders.
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People teach the Word in HS's church so I don't think that's what he means by "liturgical."
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Originally Posted by IXOYE
RCC covers the whole bible in every what, 2.5 years??? something like that? That's more thorough than the protestants do.
You mean they read the whole bible to the people every 2.5 years . . . because the people can’t read it for themselves? That pales in comparison to the churches I’ve been in. You must be talking about the Lukewarm Lutherans.
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Originally Posted by IXOYE
RCC has a much better claim to being of the Pneuma vs of the SARX than the protestants do. That's a losing proposition.
That depends on how you define sarx or what you attribute to sarx. Not being able to receive of or from the Spirit is sarx as well.
When the church was given the Holy Spirit at Pentecost a church "service" took on a whole different dimension than what they were used to at the synagogue. But it seems the Catholic church has gone back to what they were used to.
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Originally Posted by IXOYE
That makes no sense. The Cat'lik church occured after Pentecost, so if they went back to what they were used to, it would be what was established at Pentecost. Shortly after Pentecost, they were going to synogogues, tell me, how is the synogogue service different from what you find in the RCC
They only went to the synagogue to preach the Gospel. If a church copies the synagogue service it is because they do not know how to be led of the Holy Spirit.
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Probably because they lost the Holy Spirit somehow.
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Originally Posted by IXOYE
Speaking from the side of the aisle that caused dissents and factions. Gal 5: 19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
The underlined are the evident of the protestant church on this board, and in society. Deal with those facts.
You think it’s supposed to be easy to get everybody back to the Promised Land by having them follow the cloud and pillar of fire? After camping for a time they would wake in the morning to find the cloud had moved on but some of them liked where they were so stayed behind while the rest followed the cloud. That’s a picture of God leading Christians from Luther to the end when he has restored biblical Christianity. Lots of divisions along the way. Don’t blame the Protestants, blame those who created a need for the Reformation.
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Originally Posted by IXOYE
Show me an alternative that includes the pastoral letters, that accounts for the Council of Jerusalem being ran by James as a form of authority, as the OT that foreshadowed the NT didn't set the example of the Priesthood for us later? Show me.
Don't throw mud at my face and call it icing, make it taste like icing too.
In the pastoral letters Paul never addressed a “bishop” because his churches didn’t have one or “the pastor” because that position did not exist. He established elders to whom he gave the job of pastoring and overseeing the church. That’s what the word “bishop” means, it comes from episkopos, one who oversees, that is, looks out over something and provides correction based on his expertise. This is clearly seen in his farewell address to the elders at Ephesus (Acts 20:28): Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost (notice who made them overseers) hath made you overseers (episkopos, bishops, plural), to feed (from the word to pastor) the church of God (notice who got Peter’s job to feed), which he hath purchased with his own blood.
You don’t need to have a position of authority to pastor or oversee. Let me give you an example. A church I had visited a few times bought a building and had a work party to remodel it. Since I knew they needed help with painting I volunteered. I walk in, oversee the situation, give a lot of advice as a professional painter, they follow my advice and before long, the pastor and the guy in charge of the building, and all the painters are coming to me asking what to do and what to do next. Did I have to be appointed as Bishop of Paint in order to do that? No, it just happens because of ability, wisdom, etc. Same for the Council of Jerusalem. People listen to those they trust, admire, and believe have the Holy Spirit working through them. Those kind of people can say, “My decision is this . . .” My broker is E.F. Hutton and when E.F. Hutton speaks, everybody listens. Why? Because he’s good at what he does. Notice also at the Council of Jerusalem the decisions where approved by the Holy Spirit, the elders, AND THE PEOPLE. It just wasn’t one man making a decree and that’s that. And no, the OT form of government was fine for that covenant since they (generally) didn’t have the Holy Spirit but once the Holy Spirit is given to the church at Pentecost they are in a New Covenant which requires a new way to govern. You can’t put new wine in old wineskins. The old wineskin can’t hold it very well.