#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