Q. I am a member of the true church of Christ. The Church of Christ. We are made up of tens of thousands of congregations world wide, each of which are completely independent from and yet one with the others,
BFHU: Do you believe this is good or attractive when Jesus said, “that all of them may be one?” Jn 17:21 Independent from is not one with the others. A married couple who act completely independently from each other are not unified or one with each other.
Q. …and with a structure according to the Scriptures.
BFHU:We also are organized according to the Scriptures Where is the Heirarchy in Scripture? but are not confined to them since our organization began and evolved for 400 years before the NT was canonized. Popes and Bishops in the Early Church
Q. We are able to speak the same things and be of the same mind because the New Testament is our only authority. We do not use creed books or “church traditions”.
BFHU:“Church Traditions” I will say again are NOT the mere tradtions of men, but the very teaching of the apostles received from Christ. You have no way of actually KNOWING that you are of the same mind as the authors of the NT because Protestantism came along 1500 years after Christ. You are only of the same mind as your own mind or the mind of your pastor or some other Protestant teacher you trust. But Protestant theology is unhinged from many of the ancient teachings of Apostolic Christianity and the only authority, ultimately is yourself. Every Protestant is his own pope. That is why it is NOT ONE as desired by Christ in John 17 but fractured into thousands of denominations.
We do not follow the Law of Moses. Jesus is the head, and there is only one head.
BFHU: We totally agree that Jesus is the head of His body the Church.
Q. As the Scriptures commands us to speak as the oracles of God, we speak where the Bible speaks and are silent where the Bible is silent.
BFHU:This is a delusion, because you believe in the doctrine of sola scriptura and yet it is nowhere to be found in the pages of scripture. It is a tradition of men and therefore condemned by St. Paul.
Filed under: Priests, The Church
Perhaps I was not clear, my mistake. If you will double check, you will see that I did say we are one. However, we do not bow to a hierarchy of men as Catholics do. Above a particular congregation’s Elders is the Word of God and God Himself, not a hierarchy of men. The Apostle commanded that elders (bishops in plural) be ordained in each congregation. There was not just one bishop over a congregation. Furthermore, he said to pastor the flock among you, not in the next congregation. So the picture God paints by His Word is one in which each congregation had more than one bishop, and none of those bishops had authority to lead a congregation they themselves were not a member of.
The Apostles had authority over the churches of Christ because they were the ones who received the promise that the Holy Spirit would bring to their remembrance all things that Jesus had said to them, and that He would guide them into all truth. The Elders did not have this same authority. It is also worth remembering that only a witness of Jesus’ Earthly sojourn could fill Judas’ office as an Apostle. There are no Apostles today, seeing as how none of the witnesses of Jesus’ Earthly sojourn remain unto this present. The notion that the Apostles had successors is simply a fabrication. They were a part of the foundation, which no other foundation can be laid than that which has been laid.
Therefore, each congregation has their own Elders, and above that is God. Yes, we are one by Christ Jesus through His Holy Spirit, but if one congregation goes astray, the others are not directly affected. In a hierarchy, with all power concentrated with a few men, if the leaders go astray, they are all done-in, as has happened with the Catholic Church. I understand that it is difficult for you to see this, but do you really expect the ones who fell away in fulfillment of Paul’s warning to make it obvious, or does it make more sense that they would take great pains to devise crafty schemes?