Sunday 27 October 2013

#7 OUR OWN PASTOR?

IOPNA shares the 7th article in our 9-part ‘Exclusive Brethren’ series:


Never-mind the Exclusive Brethren for the moment and getting away from this clerical hierarchy idea, why not just let the congregation choose their own pastor?  What’s wrong with that?  
Don’t forget, we live in a different culture - this isn’t the 1st century.                                                                                    
That's him/her on top!

Is that really a good excuse for now doing whatever we like in God’s house?   The apostle Paul gives us clear instructions in his letters to Timothy and Titus:

"These things I write to thee, hoping to come to thee more quickly; but if I delay, in order that thou mayest know how one ought to conduct oneself in God's house, which is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth."  1 Timothy 3:14-15

Besides there being no biblical authority for this modern idea, we get a hint in the last Revelation address to Laodicea, from laos meaning ‘people’ and dike meaning ‘decision’ – the people get to choose!
Really??...in a church that’s wealthy but lukewarm for Christ, hey.  Sickening!

So where is the pastor’s allegiance?...to Christ or to staying popular with his congregation?
Yeah, I suppose he has to be careful not to upset people or he’s out of a job but I still think you’re being a bit of a pedantic fundamentalist.

Let me show you how it works by relating what I heard a pastor teaching recently, but first of all here’s what early Christians were meant to avoid:

“…abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what is strangled, and from fornication…” Acts 15:29
Fair enough….you can keep your idols and blood puddings but fornication is still an issue for us today - although modern translations seem to mostly leave that word out.                 

Just by the way, the word 'fornication' is translated from Greek: porneia which refers to not only fornication but prostitution, adultery and even incest: all sexual perversions...it’s the root word for pornography….
…and with the internet, that is a BIG problem!....even among Christians.

Now this well-respected conservative pastor was teaching that, if for example a guy in the congregation is known for being a womaniser we’re not to judge him because Jesus said:

"Judge not, that ye may not be judged..."      Matthew 7:1-2
….he just needs some private counselling, based on:    

"Brethren, if even a man be taken in some fault (paraptoma: a sideslip), ye who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of meekness, considering thyself lest thou also be tempted."  Galatians 6:1
This guy sure needs counselling but he hasn’t just slipped up, he’s got a public reputation as a womaniser!

You said it!...as a result you’ll often find people like this present at communion, while here is what the apostle Paul taught on that:

“…if any one called brother be fornicator...not to mix with him; with such a one not even to eat…do not ye judge them that are within?...Remove the wicked person from amongst yourselves." 1 Corinthians 5:9-13
Whoa!!...this pastor was using the teachings of Jesus for individuals to contradict Paul’s teachings for the church!

Yep!...to immature Christians who didn’t know any better and liked what they were hearing.  If you read that chapter carefully you’ll see that rather than avoiding upsetting anybody in the congregation, Paul’s concern is that honour of the name of our Lord Jesus Christ be upheld:

"For I, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged as present, to deliver, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ….him that has so wrought this…”   1 Corinthians 5:3-4
I see what you mean…it’s all downhill once you get away from the authority of Scripture.


Image credit: firstbaptistchurcharchdale.com

Thursday 24 October 2013

#6 PRESBUTEROS, EPISKOPOS, DIAKONOS...

IOPNA shares the 6th article in our 9-part 'Exclusive Brethren’ series:

           
Okay, the early Church was hardly a cult, seeing the Holy Spirit was really the Boss of the show…

…yes and notice how there is no further mention in Acts of the Holy Spirit’s current activity after being ignored in chapter 21.
Oh!...so if there was no apostolic succession what about guys like John Darby who must have been inspired by the Holy Spirit to recover the truth about the Rapture?

Well, you’ve answered yourself – even in these last days of apostasy we’re not left without the help of the Holy Spirit, together with genuine pastors and teachers:

"…and he has given some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers..."               Ephesians 4:11
Okay, teachers can’t be everywhere at the same time and they eventually depart this scene so how are congregations meant to be led or governed?  
Should they appoint their own pastor?

Check this out:

“But from Miletus having sent to Ephesus, he called over to him the elders (presbuteros) of the assembly....Take heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock, wherein the Holy Spirit has set you as overseers (episkopos), to shepherd the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own."            Acts 20: 17-
Ah!...this is Paul warning the elders of Ephesus as overseers – there’s no bishop or pastor singled out because the Holy Spirit is Boss!

Exactly! In fact you won’t even find the words ‘bishop’ or ‘pastor’ in Darby’s translation...for what it’s worth.  Furthermore, we find the same regime recognised in Philippi…                 

“Paul and Timotheus, bondmen of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the overseers (episkopos) and ministers (diakonos: deacons)…” Philippians 1:1
And this is how elders or overseers are to be respected:

“Let the elders who take the lead among the saints well be esteemed worthy of double honour, specially those labouring in word and teaching.”                   1 Timothy 5:17
Let me ask you - has anybody today got delegated apostolic authority to appoint elders like Titus did?

I guess not. That must mean that the responsibility rests on elders today to see that they qualify to act as an elder.  So where did the idea of clergy kick off?
Apparently the early Christians lost sight of biblical authority and the Holy Spirit being the Boss of the outfit so they began to recognise one ‘bishop’ in each place, eventually culminating in the bishop of Rome becoming ‘pope’ with assumed authority. Just by the way here is where ‘clergy’ came from:

"The elders which are among you I exhort, who am their fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of the Christ, who also am partaker of the glory about to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God which is among you, exercising oversight, not by necessity, but willingly; not for base gain, but readily; not as lording it over your possessions (Gk: kleros), but being models for the flock..."     1 Peter 5:1-
No more boring sermons, Vicar?

Darby has used ‘possessions’ where the King James Bible used ‘God’s heritage’. The Greek: kleros is cleris in Latin, clergie in French, and clergy in English.

So the clergy assume to be God’s heritage, hey??

Unfortunately reformers like Martin Luther didn’t take issue with this division between clergy and laity, otherwise they would have been out of a job, so John Darby and others did. 
It all gets back to: ‘Who’s running the show?’ 
Is the Holy Spirit the Boss or is it Man without biblical authority, tending to divide the flock?
Mmm…special ‘prophets’, ‘popes’, ‘ordained clergy’,…and now this ‘elect vessel’ guy…it all seems like Catholic baggage to me.     
Man has well and truly taken over….or Woman for that matter!

NEXT: Our own pastor?
Click on: http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/our-own-pastor.html



Photo credit: nickduffdavies.blogspot

Monday 21 October 2013

#5 WHO'S BOSS AROUND HERE?

IOPNA shares the 5th article in our 9-part ‘Exclusive Brethren’ series…

 
So is this ‘Plymouth Brethren Christian Church’ really a cult too?
Well, let’s start with: what is a cult?

- a system of religious worship                                                     
- great admiration for a person, thing or idea                                         
- a group showing such admiration (World Book)                              
How about you make your own judgment call on that one…but get this!...two of their elders said to me recently that Darby’s teachings have ‘almost’ the same authority as Holy Scripture.                                                              


Whoa!...that’s sounds like the Catholic Catechism!  
All these cults seem to want to add to God’s Word.
Holy Spirit?...nah, just holy smoke
Whether it’s the Catholics’ Pope Francis or the Mormons’ Joseph Smith or the Seventh Day Adventists with their Ellen White or even the Brethren with their ‘elect vessel’ – let’s face it – they’re all flawed human beings…

…just like you and me!                              
So why don’t we overlook personalities and see if the early Church was a cult...    
Who was running the show then?...the apostle Paul??
If you study the book of Acts you will find the early Church was more or less a Jewish sect centred in Jerusalem. Once the gospel was offered to the Gentiles in Antioch it was the Holy Spirit personally directing the spread of the gospel, even to Europe.

Wow! God was the Boss - with hands-on management!  
But wasn’t the apostle Paul really the Dear Leader of the Church?
No. The disciples in Jerusalem were initially very wary of him, some like the church in Corinth tended to despise his authority and eventually the Christians in Asia Minor ignored him.                                                       
To be called an apostle you needed to have seen the Lord Jesus after his resurrection:

"...one of these should be a witness with us of his resurrection."                         Acts 1:22
…so here is Paul defending his authority to the Corinthians:

"Am I not free? am I not an apostle? have I not seen Jesus our Lord?..."             1 Corinthians 9:1-
…while here is what Ananias was told about Paul’s commission:

"And the Lord said to him, Go, for this man is an elect vessel to me, to bear my name before both nations and kings and the sons of Israel..."    Acts 9:15
…and Paul relates what Ananias told him:

“…The God of our fathers has chosen thee beforehand to know his will, and see the just one, and to hear a voice out of his mouth; for thou shalt be a witness for him to all men of what thou hast seen and heard.” Acts 22:14-15
So Paul was a special apostle, hey…and didn’t he write most of the Christian doctrine?

Yes, he was given unique insight into ‘the mystery’ of the Church.*  
Finally Peter identified these letters of Paul’s has having the same authority as the Old Testament scriptures, in 2 Peter 3.
Mmm…mess with them at your peril!  So was anybody appointed to take over as ‘elect vessel’ after Paul?...was there any ‘apostolic succession’?

No. The most likely candidate was Timothy but he is never given any title in the Scriptures, just a ‘bondman of Jesus Christ’ or a ‘son in the faith’, and told: “do the work of an evangelist”.
Well, so much for all this hoo-hah over someone today being ‘the elect vessel’ or a special prophet or even the pope!  Let them produce the evidence of the Lord Jesus Christ appearing to them personally and commissioning them.                            
Let’s see their biblical authority!

NEXT: Presbuteros, episkopos, diakonos... 
Click on:
http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/presbuteros-episkopos-diakonos.html

*Ephesians 3: 1-      Colossians 1:25-27             Galatians 2:9

 Photo credit: bbc.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday 16 October 2013

#4 'CHURCH SPEAK'

IOPNA shares this 4th article in our 9-part 'Exclusive Brethren' series:

 
When we started this conversation I called the Exclusive Brethren a secret cult but you said they deny being a sect, let alone a cult.

Yes, I remember they would strongly reject those labels, claiming to uphold the truth for all mankind even if they couldn't fellowship with everybody. The label of 'denomination' was also denied.
Well…that sounds kind of noble, I guess.  If it’s not said in pride it could be like saying: "We’re privileged to belong to the only real Church that includes all Christians and that we wish everybody else would belong to".   
Let's just check out these labels, starting with 'denomination'...

A 'denomination' is a religious group or sect.                                                              
A 'sect' is:  
- a group of persons having the same principles, beliefs or opinions   
- a religious group separated from an established church
(World Book)                                                                                       
I can't see what their problem is. The Brethren are a religious group with common beliefs, separated from established church - aren't they?
That’s for sure and by the way, here is what the Jews said to Paul:     
"...for as concerning this sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken against." Acts 28:22...where sect comes from the Greek: hairesis, meaning 'party of choice' - which gave us the word 'heresy'!                                                                            
Heresy??  How did Paul take to that?

He didn't bother to argue the point - he just carried on witnessing about Jesus from morning ’til night!
Mmm…so much for labels.  Okay, what about this word 'church'?

‘Church’ has about 11 different meanings but broadly we understand it to refer to the House of the Lord and it is used as a translation of the Greek word ekklesia, meaning 'those called out to assemble'.                                                         
Now get this!.....
The Brethren claim to uphold the teachings of John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) but you won't even find the word 'church' once in the Darby translation that they use!  
Darby said*: "I have a pious horror of the word 'church', because no one knows what it means."

You’re kidding me aren’t you??  How inconsistent is that!...claim to uphold Darby's teachings and use his translation and yet reinvent yourselves as the 'Plymouth Brethren Christian Church' - after bad publicity.
...with 46,000 members claimed world-wide.                                       
Well here is what the Bible says about ‘church membership’:

"Now ye are Christ's body, and members in particular."               1 Corinthians 12:27

"...for we are members of his body, we are of his flesh, and of his bones."       Ephesians 5:30
So that means Christians are members only of Christ's body and I'm sure you won't find ‘Plymouth Brethren Christian Church’ in the Bible just like you won't find any other denominations either.                                                 
That means 'church membership’ as we know it today has no biblical authority!  
Why do churches go in for this membership business?

It’s supposed to give you a sense of belonging and discourage you from wandering off, plus big numbers not only look impressive, it means.....
…yeah, I know....more money!     So do the Brethren really do this membership thing?

They go one better…you get your family included in the international photo album!

Whoopee for them!!                                                          
Now for that ugly label – 'cult' - in:                                                                        
Who's Boss around here .....NEXT

Click on: http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/whos-boss-around-here.html
 

*Collected Writings of J.N.Darby vol 31 p281

Acknowledgements: plymouthbrethrenchristianchurch.org
Image credits: 
mikejentes.com
danieljohnson07.blogspot.com 
  
                                                                               
                                                                                  
 

Thursday 10 October 2013

#3 I HATE DIVORCE !!

IOPNA shares this 3rd article in our 9-part ‘Exclusive Brethren’ series:

 
Okay, you say that you failed to honour your dad but what actually happened to your family?...were you kids safe, provided for and happy?

Happy days.......once.
Sure! All that I noticed was we didn’t seem to be going to Brethren meetings anymore and Dad was getting frustrated with some of them turning up at our home in Stonyfell; we're talking: early 1962. 

Why weren’t you going to the Brethren meetings?

I learnt years later that it was because Dad had been ex-communicated for having a television or car-radio.

Really??  Is that all?  So then what happened?

My mother told me years later that her father had been publicly told to take action, by a Brethren leader. The first thing I knew was being walked out of Burnside School at lunchtime by Mum - my sister had been kept home that day and my brother was a 3 year old – then I was told to get in the car of an Adelaide elder who drove us straight out of the city to Murray Bridge where we met Mum’s parents who took us to Melbourne the long way via Ouyen. We went into hiding in a holiday house on the Mornington Peninsula until it seemed safe to move into my grandparents’ home, attend Brethren meetings again and enrol at the Box Hill school.
So that was the end of family life with Dad?...just like that?...over a TV or a car-radio? 
You’re kidding me aren’t you??  Tell me you just had a bad dream!

I wish.  No, that’s the truth and this was common knowledge among the Brethren in Adelaide and Melbourne….probably Geelong too, our old home town.
I can’t believe that so called Christians who seem to think they’re better than anyone else would do this to a family! Did they ever apologise for it?

No, never. No acknowledgement in public or private, in 23 years. The world leader of the Brethren, Jim Taylor of New York, actually criticised dealing with young families this way, so one of Dad’s brothers was coerced into spying on Dad to get evidence against him for a divorce.
This gets worse!  I can see she was forced into it but had your dad been unfaithful or violent with your mum to give her grounds for desertion?

Not that I know of.  She sent him a letter of apology but then divorced him after he was caught one night with a new companion.
Can you blame him??  So Dad was given access rights to you kids?

No, none. He walked into my classroom later that year but I never saw him again after a tug-of-war over me in the streets of Box Hill.
…and he died 12 years later, never setting eyes on his own kids again?

That's right. He’d remarried and fathered two little girls but had contracted throat cancer which he battled during 1973. Finally he made the effort to sell one last house in Hove over Christmas so that his widow would receive the commission but died of a heart attack at the sale property, on the day after his mother died.
I can’t believe my ears! …and they stopped you from saying good bye to Dad??

Yes and years later I was even warned against checking on his widow and her two young daughters. 
So these people are lying when they say they don’t break up families, aren’t they? This was common knowledge…and aren’t they now trying to show the world how deserving they are of ‘charitable status’?

Well, I‘m just telling you our story…….and it didn’t end there……..
I’m gob-smacked - really I am!     
Remind us please what God thinks about the busting up of marriages…

“Take heed then to your spirit, and let none deal unfaithfully against the wife of his youth, (for I hate putting away, saith Jehovah the God of Israel)…”    Malachi 2:15
…and here’s what Jesus had to say:

“…What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate ….Moses, in view of your hard-heartedness, allowed you to put away your wives; but from the beginning it was not thus. ”         Matthew 19, Mark 10
Did you get that? 

I sure did - GOD HATES DIVORCE!

NEXT: ‘Church speak’
Click on: http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/church-speak.html

Image credit: a-w-i-p.com