What I Have Learned About The Biblical Local New Testament Church

(Part Two)

Problems With Modern Churches

I think I have well explained in my previous post (Getting Out Of The Baptist Camp) why I chose to quit referring to myself as a Baptist. I believe that I also thoroughly explained the problem of opening up the fellowship of Jesus Christ our Lord to unsaved people and therefore causing a mixt multitude.

Another problem is the Sunday School System. In most churches as far as I know when you go to Sunday School, you and your spouse go to one Sunday School class, your teenagers go to another Sunday School class, and your younger children go to even other Sunday School classes. So what I now see in the Sunday School System is the splitting up of the family. I think this is unbiblical and unnecessary.

So far I have listed three things in modern churches that are unbiblical, unnecessary, and I think also detrimental to the body of Christ. They are as follows.

1) A Mixt multitude of believers with unbelievers

2) ‘Joining’ the local church

3) The splitting of Christian families in the assembly

Another problem with modern churches is the way that they are ruled. I now believe that the Biblical New Testament local church should be ruled by a group of elders instead of by one or two pastors. In support of this, I will give some Bible verses and comments from C. I. Scofield and Peter S. Ruckman.

Elders and Bishops.

“And when they had ordained them elders in every church” (Acts 14:23). “The ordination is for an office exactly as it is found in 1 Peter 5:1,2 and 1 Timothy 5:17; and there is more than one elder per church (Acts 20:17).” [Peter S. Ruckman, Bible Believers Commentary on The Book of Acts (1974; 1984), page 415.]

“Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:” (Philippians 1:1)

“The “bishop” is a guardian or inspector. This is apparent from the passages where the word “elder” occurs. The bishop is plainly an ordained elder (Acts 20) in charge of “feeding the flock” and acting as “overseer” of the vineyard (1 Corinthians 9:7-10). All “bishops” and “elders” help oversee LOCAL CONGREGATIONS, and there are several of them in each locality (Acts 20). The bishop is the “pastor” of Ephesians 4; and the pastor is to be “apt to teach” and a “teacher” (Ephesians 4:11). [Peter S. Ruckman, Bible Believers Commentary on The Book of Philippians (1973; revised 1997), page 394.]

“This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;” (1 Timothy 3:1-2)

“The passage deals with the qualifications of a “bishop”, called an overseer in Acts 20:28, and called a pastor by modern Baptists. All three titles apply to an undershepherd of a flock. A pastor or bishop is an ordained “elder” (Philippians 1:1; Acts 14:23; 1 Timothy 14:23) whose rulership is spiritual (1 Timothy 5:17; Hebrews 13:17). [Peter S. Ruckman, Bible Believers Commentary on the Pastoral Epistles (1989), page 55.]

“Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:” (Philippians 1:1)

“A local church is an assembly of professed believers on the Lord Jesus Christ, living for the most part in one locality, who assemble themselves together in his name for the breaking of bread, worship, praise, prayer, testimony, the ministry of the word, discipline, and the furtherance of the gospel. Such a church exists where two or three are thus gathered. Every such local church has Jesus Christ in the midst, is a temple of God, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. When perfected in organization a local church consists of “saints, with the bishops [elders] and deacons.” [Scofield Reference Bible (1909; 1917), footnote for Philippians 1:1.]

“For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee:” (Titus 1:5)

“Elder and bishop designate the same office, the former referring to the man, the latter to a function of the office. The eldership in the apostolic local churches was always plural. There is no instance of one elder in a local church. The functions of elders are: to rule, to guard the body of revealed truth from perversion and error, to “oversee” the church as a shepherd his flock. Elders are made or “set” in the churches by the Holy Spirit (Acts 20:28), but great stress is laid upon their due appointment (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5). At first they were ordained by an apostle, but in Titus and 1 Timothy the qualifications of an elder become part of the Scriptures for the guidance of the churches in such appointment (1 Timothy 3:1-7).” [Scofield Reference Bible (1909; 1917), footnote for Titus 1:5.]

“I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.” (3 John 1:9)

“The aged Apostle had written to a church which allowed one Diotrephes to exercise an authority common enough in later ages, but wholly new in the primitive churches. Diotrephes had rejected the apostolic letters and authority. It appears also that he had refused the ministry of visiting brethren (v. 10), and cast out those who received them. Historically, this letter marks the beginning of that clerical and priestly assumption over the churches in which the primitive church order disappeared. This Epistle reveals, as well, the believer’s resource in such a day.” [Scofield Reference Bible (1909, 1917), from the Introduction to Third John.]

To Be Continued ....