Required reading
Discussions (Vol 2) by Robert L. Dabney (Available from Amazon or free here) - Commence 'Theories of the eldership' by reading up to the paragraph beginning '4. But there are proofs in Scripture'.
My summary
This week Dabney begins to teach us about church eldership.
Initially he introduces the subject and establishes that the Bible does indeed provide teaching on church government.
Then Dabney proceeds to establish that ruling elders as well as preachers are the proper official elders in the Scripture sense.
Firstly Dabney explains that ruling elders as well as preachers are proper elders in the Scripture sense because the whole institution was borrowed from the government of the Hebrew church.
Secondly Dabney shows that the meaning and usage of the two words (presbyter and bishop) show that they must apply to the ruling elder at least as strictly as they do to the preacher.
Thirdly Dabney teaches us that not all New Testament elders could have been preachers because, no matter how small the church, we always read of a plurality of them.
The rest of the arguments will be covered in next week's reading.
What grabbed me
Although I'm a Baptist, I am in complete agreement with much of Dabney's thoughts in this reading.
For example, I liked this statement: '...Jesus Christ, as King in his visible kingdom, the church, has positively fixed, by his divine authority, some general principles of church government, so that, with regard to those principles, no body of Christians under heaven ought to claim any discretion of their own, on any pretext of policy, to depart from Christ's legislation ; and those bodies which thus depart from him do therein commit disobedience and sin, and make themselves, so far, less scriptural and perfect churches of Christ.'
The Bible does indeed teach us how to constitute ourselves as his body.
Next week's reading
Conclude 'Theories of the eldership'.
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
No comments:
Post a Comment