Happy Sunday beloved of God

Let's look deeper into the 1st and 2nd century pastoral system before we move on to the 3rd century.

"To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons." (Phil. 1:1).
“A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate... Likewise deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued. (1Tim. 2:2, .

You can see that their ecclesia leadership structure had only the bishops (which is the same as the elder and pastor) and then the deacons. Those were the only two leadership positions that was available in the first century. And you will find the same thing in the second century.

"Therefore, appoint for yourselves bishops and deacons worthy of the Lord." Didache (c. 80-140, E).

"Preaching throughout countries and cities, the apostles appointed the first-fruits of their labors to be bishops and deacons of those who would believe afterwards. However, they first tested them by the Spirit. This was no new thing. Indeed, many ages before, it had been written concerning *bishops and deacons. For the Scriptures say in a certain place, "I will appoint their bishops in righteousness and their deacons in faim" [Isa. 60:17, Lxx]." Clement of Rome (c. 96, W).

"It is necessary to abstain from all of these
things, being subject to the presbyters and deacons, as unto God and Christ." Polycarp (c. 135, E).


You can see the dates, they are all quotes from 2nd century letters. And each of them mentioned only two leadership positions; the bishop or presbytery (which means elder) and deacons. There were no other positions except these two. It was during the 3rd century that another position emerged, separating bishop from elder and setting it on a higher hierarchy above the elders.

I don't think I will be able to go through the whole story but the change was as a result of politics. Yes, the elders started playing politics among themselves, and one succeeded in exerting himself as leader over the rest. Aristotle said man is a political animal, and that man has this innate desire to exalt himself and rule over his brother. That is the nature of carnal man, he wants to govern his brother, he wants to sit on a throne and watch his brother bow before his feet. It is a perverse desire, the same desire that led Lucifer to attempt to dethrone God. He wants to rule.

God knows about this carnal nature of man, he knows how power corrupts a man, and as a result he set a structure in his ecclesia to ensure check and balance. A democratic system ensures that all the power does not go into one man's hand. It prevents anybody from becoming corrupt with power. The whole of the people share the power among themselves and help to ensure check and balance in the community, preventing excesses and the abuse of power. However, the devil entered into our midst and removed the structure of God leaving us with this thing that most of us still practice today.

The change began to take place in the late 2nd century into the 3rd.

"Innumerable commands like these are written in the Holy Scriptures, pertaining to chosen persons: some to presbyters, some to bishops, some to deacons." Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E).

"According to my opinion, the grades here in the church, of bishops, presbyters, and deacons... following the footsteps of the apostles, have lived in perfection of righteousness according to the Gospel." Clement of Alexandria (c. 195, E).

"To all our fellows in the ministry throughout the world — bishops, presbyters, and deacons — and to the whole catholic church under heaven." Malchion (c. 270, E).

"All these bishops, presbyters, and deacons had suffered martyrdom in the prison at Alexandria." Phileas (c. 307, E).

"Paul himself has laid our foundation, that is, the foundation of the church. And he has put us in trust of the law—ordaining deacons, presbyters, and bishops." Disputation of Archelaus and Manes (c. 320, E).

"For [the bishops] are your high priests, as the presbyters are your priests. You have the deacons in place of the Levites... But He who is above all these is the High Priest [Christ]."
Apostolic Constitutions (compiled c. 390, E).

From two offices of leadership in the 2nd century, it turn into three in the 3rd. And the 3rd century people would argue that it has always been three, when it clearly wasn't. You see the way they twisted the teaching of the apostles, and used the Old Testament to support their perverted structure.

They started claiming that people like Timothy and Titus were appointed bishops of certain churches, and they were ordered by the apostles to appoint elders that would serve under them. They twisted the teaching and tradition of the first century Christianity and remolded it into the image of that perverse thing they were practicing. Today's theology school has adopted this twisted doctrine, they will tell you that Timothy was a bishop and the single overseer of the church in Ephesus. However, you will see no trace of such thing in the New Testament Bible.

Search throughout the Bible, you will not see one single place where Timothy was called a bishop, or was specifically asked to "oversee" the ecclesia in Ephesus. Rather he was asked to appoint bishops, and he was given to do certain apostolic ministry among the Ephesian ecclesia. But these theology schools are looking at the Bible through the lenses of the tradition of men — a tradition that developed from the 3rd century. That is why they feel Timothy was the Bishop (overseer) of the ecclesia in Ephesus. However, the truth is that Timothy was just a minister.

Follow my profile to check for the rest of the series. Or visit:
https://exodus-ecclesia..com

Check my profile for the rest of the series

Check my profile for the rest of the series

Check my profile for the rest of the series

Hiswordxray:
Happy weekend

...

Happy weekend

This post is a series, in order for you not to misunderstand what is shared here, it is best for you to read the previous posts on my profile.

Church (a hall-like building) is the place for ministry and can have whatever title they want except elder/bishop/pastor. Those designations are not designed for the church system — they are not ministry terms, they are ecclesia terms. Pastoring is based on relationship, intimacy, and the ecclesia is the structure designed for such kind of intimacy. Bishops are overseers of ecclesia, they are not heads of ministry. Their business is not with ministry but ecclesia. Elders too is an ecclesia term, and has no place in ministry.

I am not sure if you will be able to understand these things. The present structure of Christianity is casting so much darkness that it makes it difficult to understand the true pattern. In the first century Paul would teach in the synagogue, which was a hall. And in Ephesus Paul rented a hall to teach. Those were not ecclesia, it is more like what we call church today, it is a preaching/teaching station. All they do there is preach. But ecclesia is held in the homes, and it involves mutual fellowship; iron is sharpening iron, intimacy is taking place, and they are helping to shape each other into the image of Christ.

Notice that the hall where Paul taught was not called the house of God. In Ephesus it was a secular place, an ordinary lecture hall. Yes, ministry are done in ordinary places, it is very unchristian to call a building the "house of God". This is not a joking matter, it was a taboo during the first and second century. Stephen died defending this truths. Even down to the second century, they were mocked and criticized for not having a church (a building dedicated to their God) and yet they refused to do such. Yes, church literary means "that which is dedicated to a god", and it is usually used to refer to a building, a temple.

The first complete English translation of the Bible (Tyndale Bible) only used the word church twice in the New Testament. And in both instances it was referring to a pagan temple. The idea of having a church was vehemently fought against in early Christianity. I will show you evidence. Just as we have the letters of the New Testament, the early Christians continued the tradition of writing letters. The letters of the NT gives us a window into the first century Christianity. The second century Christians also wrote letters, and these letters gives us a window into the second century Christianity

"The Word, prohibiting all sacrifices and the
building of temples, indicates that the Almighty is not contained in anything." Clement of Alexandria (c 195, E).

"We refuse to build lifeless temples to the
Giver of all life.... Our bodies are the temple of God... When they reproach us for not deeming it necessary to worship the divine Being by raising lifeless temples, we set before them our temples. Origen (c. 248, E).

You can see that they were even criticizing them for not building a church, yet they vehemently refused to do so. That last quote was from the mid third century, but as at this time Christians have gradually began to move from worshipping at their houses to worshipping in catacombs. They claimed that the grave of the apostles were holy grounds. Then in the fourth century they began building churches on those graves. St. Peter Basilica was built on what was assumed to be Peter's grave. In fact, they became so perverse that they moved from the apostles' to the grave of any famous Christian saint.

If they can't build on those saints grave they would transfer the remains of the dead saints and bury them under the church altar. That church altar was actually a grave of dead saints. They developed this ideology that the grave of saints are one of the most holy places on earth. This was how we started calling the church altar a holy ground. Some churches today don't even allow the Choirs to climb the church altar because they feel it is too holy for such kind of people. All these are perverse pagan mentality

In fact, that period of the Church history was a very terrible period. They were so obsessed with the remains of the apostles and holy saints. They would search for them like gold, then they will break the bones into small pieces and put a rope into it. That was how rosery started, it was a rope of relics (bones and remains) of the apostles and holy saints. Christianity started turning into a pagan thing, they were literally worshipping dead bodies. Anyway, our topic is on the pastoral system, I only said all that to show you the level of degradation and perversion of the Christian community as at that period.

Before going back to the pastoral system, I will quickly state this. The idea of doing church (worshipping in a physical building designated as the house of God) is not Christian, it is pagan. It is a paganize Christianity. The only way that churches can redeem themselves back into true Christianity is if they recant such ideology and teaching. And if they begin to see themselves as just ministries, and the buildings are just halls for ministry like the hall that Paul rented in Ephesus or like the Jewish civic hall called synagogue.

But as long as they continue to call that thing the house of God and treat it as a place of worship, then what they are doing is paganism. It is an impure thing, a perversion of God's original intention for the New Covenant people. Anyway, I will employ you to do your own research, we are in the age of information. We have Google, you can go research on everything I have written here. Research about the early Christian practice, confirm the quotes I made here if they are authentic. Don't sit in ignorance and be practicing paganism, find out the truth and make the necessary adjustments.

This post belongs to a series. To read the rest of the series check by profile or visit:
https://exodus-ecclesia..com

An elder is one who is spiritually mature. Bishop literary means overseer, he is a leader in a local ecclesia. The word "pastor" is gotten from "pasture" which is connected to shepherding. A pastor is a shepherd, his responsibility is to feed the sheep i.e preach, teach and mentor the young ones in faith. In the first century to the second century these three words were used interchangeably to refer to the same person. Yes, the elders are the pastors and the bishops of the local ecclesia.

"The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed: Shepherd [pastor] the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers [bishops], not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly;" (1Per 5:1,2).

Here Peter is asking the elders to pastor the sheep (not their own sheep but God's sheep) which is in their locality, and serve as bishops willingly (nobody is forcing them to be bishops, they are just taking up responsibilities as elders). As you can see, the elders were to pastor and serve as bishops.

"From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church. And when they had come to him, he said to them: “You know, from the first day that I came to Asia, in what manner I always lived among you... Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers [bishops], to shepherd [pastor] the church of God which He purchased with His own blood." (Acts 20:17,18,28).

Now, notice that scripture was referring to elders (plural), these elders are the bishops (plural), and they are to pastor the church. In the first and second century there were more than one elder/bishop/pastor in an ecclesia.

"Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust." (Acts 14:23).

This verse made it very clear that in each church there were many elders. An ecclesia is a direct democratic government. The people are the government, they rule by themselves. The ecclesia is a council, however in every council there are the central caucus. Among the twelve disciples we have the three (John, Peter and James). Back in school when I was a member of the fellowship executive, there was the central executive which was made up of a very few members of the executive. The reason there have to be a central caucus is in order to make certain decisions faster

The democratic system allows decision making to be very slow. It is slow because everybody is involved and every opinion must be considered. Now, there are some situations that require quick decision making. This is where the central caucus is used. In an ecclesia, there are some sensitive situations that will not be suitable to bring to the whole congregation, so the council of elders takes care of it. The work of the elders is not to take government from the hands of the people. The people have a right to government and they must be allowed to exercise that right.

Being the overseers does not mean you'll make all the decisions for them. If you do that then you are stripping them of the right that God gave them as his people. Who are you to take away the right that God, in is transcendent wisdom, gave his people? No Christian leader, no matter how anointed, has the right to take away government from the people. You cannot take their money and make all the decisions on how it should be spent, you don't have such a right. God didn't give any Christian leader that right, it is an ecclesia matter.

Anyway, sponsoring a ministry is different from welfare issues in a local ecclesia. Like I use to say, church as practiced today is just ministry. They are ministries of individual ministers. So when you give to them you are contributing to their ministry and they can do whatever they like with the money. But in an ecclesia (a real assembly or Christian community), the people discuss everything together — it's a direct democracy. So the bishops are the central executive, they are not the whole of the executive, and whatever decision they make they will still answer to the general executive (the whole members of the ecclesia). They must be transparent to the people and the people must respect them as their elders.

Now, church as ministry (not assembly) is not supposed to have elders, bishops or pastors. That structure is not designed for church, the structure is meant for the ecclesia. The only thing that church is supposed to have are ministers. Yes, teachers, minstrels, prophets, evangelists, apostles, exhorters etc. Notice, these people are not found in ecclesia. The ecclesia is not the place for teachers, minsters, prophets, evangelists and apostles. In an ecclesia everybody are brothers and sister. If you are a teacher, the moment you walk into an ecclesia to fellowship, you become a brother/sister.

It doesn't matter who you are — your ministry or your title — the moment you enter an ecclesia for the sake of fellowship, you are nothing but a brother/sister. However, one can come into a ecclesia to minister (I have explained this before, like when Apollo came and minister to the ecclesia in Corinth). Such ministry is in transit because the ecclesia is not the home of ministry, it is the home of fellowship. When ministry is through, normal ecclesia commence, and everything goes back to fellowship mode where everyone is allowed to share as brothers and sisters. Then there are elder brothers and elder sisters who play special roles as bishops and pastors.

https://exodus-ecclesia..com/2020/10/the-pastoral-office-2-elder-bishop.html?m=1

Hiswordxray:

Yes......

Still on

I am going to write on the pastoral office, but this might be different from anything you have ever learnt. As such it might be quite shocking. Firstly we must lay down the basic foundation about the reality of Christ. This thing we call Christianity is not about doing religion. No, it is not a religion in the way the world perceive religion. It is a reality, a realm, a domain, a land, a kingdom. We must first of all understand this before we can proceed in anything Christian.

In Christ we have a reality that is based on life. Yes, everything in Christ is based on life. It all spring out of life, it follows the rules of life, it is organic. The way the body of Christ is designed is based on life, everything springs up organically. The moment we accept Jesus into our lives we were born into this reality as babies. Then we began to grow. The more you abide in Christ the faster you grow. Some people maybe born again for years but they don't abide in Christ, they are mostly living in the flesh, as such they remain babies.

There are some Christians that once they become born again they diligently try to abide in Christ and then they grow speedingly in the spirit. So it is not a matter of how long you have been born again. We have people at different stages in spiritual growth the same way we have people at different stages in physical growth. There are some that have grown mature and old, they are the elderly. So also, we have people who have attain such level of spiritual maturity that they become elders.

Elder is not a religious title that you give to honour certain people. It has nothing to even do with religion, it is a spiritual reality. You don't appoint people eldership, they grow into elders. They thrive in Christ and become mature, as such they are elders. Whether you recognize them as elders or not, it doesn't change the fact that they are elders. That is how it is in the natural world, whether you believe that someone is old or not, it doesn't change the fact that they are old.

According to the order of life, the more you grow old the more responsibility you take up. So in every ecclesia these elders will naturally become very responsible. They will naturally take upon themselves more responsibilities in the ecclesia. Now you become a pastor when the younger ones in faith begin to look up to you. Let's put in mind that all of these happens organically. The same way in the natural world the younger ones who desire the 'wisdom of the grey hair' will gather around the elders.

So these younger ones sees how graceful, righteous, humble, full of love, wise, etc. these elders are and they desire these things so they gather around them. They want to learn, they want to be mentored by these elders. As an elder (one who is already spiritually mature) you become a pastor when certain younger Christian begin to submit themselves to you in order to be mentored. Being a pastor is not about having a church or going to theology school. It is about having certain fruit of maturity that the younger ones desire to also grow into.

You see how a Christian organically grows into an elder, and as an elder he begins to take up responsibilities. The younger believers begins to submit to him, he earns a reputation and others naturally ascribe honour and respect to him as a result of his spiritual maturity and virtue. Yes, the process is all organic, no human hands involved uttering thing. It has to be organic, that is the law of life.

Let's call the Christian Ben. So when Ben grow to some level of maturity he organically becomes an elder whether he is recognized as such or not. And when Ben, because of his level of maturity, begins to take up responsibilities in the ecclesia, he becomes a bishop. When others begin to see him as a mentor and they submit to him, respect and honour him, then Ben becomes a pastor. The whole process is organic, it has to be organic, for that is the order of life. We need to remove this religious mentality and start treating the things of Christ as life, for Christ is the life, and anything pertaining to Christ is life so it follows the organic process.

No matter how skilled a farmer is, you cannot plant a seed today and use your hands to organize it and make it bear harvest that same day. You will just have to wait for the natural process of life. You cannot deep a log of wood into the ground, nail branches on it and then ordain it as a tree. All you will have is a dead thing, that is why our Christianity today is so dead. We don't want to wait for the natural process of life, we bring our dirty hands and meddle with everything. We are just busy doing this religious thing that is so dead.

The truth is that the ecclesias in the first century didn't have elders, bishops or pastors for years. Paul planted ecclesias and leave them like that for years only to come back later to check if anybody have developed into an elder. If nobody has developed into an elder he will leave it like that, and maybe later send Timothy to go check and appoint elders. The whole idea of appointing elders/bishops/pastors is just in order to make it official. It happens organically, and then it is officially recognized so that everyone can be aware

Another reason why the elders have to be officially appointed is because apart from good virtues, another thing that could make one attractive and prominent is charisma. Yes, an immature believer can come with a lot of charisma and then the younger ones are just so blown away by his charisma that they begin to gather around him, making him their mentor and learning bad things from him. In order to prevent this from happening the true elders, the true model of maturity, must be recognized so that the younger ones will not be misled.

The charismatic movement today is mostly about an immature believer with charisma, coming to wow the people, and the people become so enchanted that they begin to follow him and imitate his immaturity. They will honour and support their pastors despite all his obvious flaws. They even begin to worship the man, and as such become blind and deaf to truth. It's just the sad reality of our Christianity today.

To be continued. But you can follow the link below and search for the rest of the series on my blog.

https://exodus-ecclesia..com/2020/10/the-pastoral-office-1-organic-process.html?m=1

Hiswordxray:
It's another Sunday

Yes......

It's another Sunday

Hiswordxray:
Happy weekend

Yes a great weekend

Happy weekend

Hiswordxray:
Hello everyone. The class is still on

Yes

Hiswordxray:
Good morning and happy Sunday

....

Good morning and happy Sunday

Hello everyone. The class is still on

Happy Sunday beloved of God

It's a wonderful weekend

There is still much room, you are welcome to join

Happy Sunday beloved of God

Hiswordxray:
We are in a very sensitive time in Christianity. This is the time to learn to be your own prophet. You continue to depend on men who have hidden agendas.

...

We are in a very sensitive time in Christianity. This is the time to learn to be your own prophet. You continue to depend on men who have hidden agendas.

Happy Sunday beloved of God

Hiswordxray:
Facebook is only interested in engagement, it doesn't matter the content or product you have, as long as there is no engagement you remain hidden. But when there is a lot of engagement (likes) within a short period Facebook will support you by recommending your page to others and ensuring that your page is seen. Reach out now and let me help you grow your page.

Still on

Hiswordxray:
Facebook is only interested in engagement, it doesn't matter the content or product you have, as long as there is no engagement you remain hidden. But when there is a lot of engagement (likes) within a short period Facebook will support you by recommending your page to others and ensuring that your page is seen. Reach out now and let me help you grow your page.

Still on

Hiswordxray:
Facebook is only interested in engagement, it doesn't matter the content or product you have, as long as there is no engagement you remain hidden. But when there is a lot of engagement (likes) within a short period Facebook will support you by recommending your page to others and ensuring that your page is seen. Reach out now and let me help you grow your page.

Still on

Happy weekend

Hiswordxray:
The Lord is doing a great thing in his body

....

The Lord is doing a great thing in his body