Quote:
Originally Posted by CC1
Seekerman, your obsession with "Romanism" is a little sad. It is also absurd to insinuate that pastors in the church systems in America are "lording" over their churches.
In any system, including any that you would propose, there will be sucesses, failures, good men, bad men, good men who go bad, etc, etc, etc.
You are naive to think that your chosen type of church government would solve the failures of men.
You are also wrong to think that they bible advocates one particular church government or system over another. We are given some general information about how they did it in the New Testament church age but no specific commandments or instructions that things had to be one certain way.
As I have stated before I believe that God in his wisdom knew that the church would persevere though the ages with many changes in culture, etc that would or could dictate different ways of doing church.
You my friend are off in a ditch flailing at windmills.
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Moral failures by men will happen. Not much we can do about that. We can blame the devil, but he gets way too much credit. Men make choices. Some good, some not so good. But this discussion brings up some valid arguments. Just how was the early Apostolic Church set up? What was their form of Church Gov't and what exactly does scripture say concerning it? I am of the same opinion as CC1, it really doesn't seem to be specific. God, indeed, knew there would be failures, but somehow we've managed to perpetuate truth throughout the ages in spite of our failures.
Maybe it's all about the perfection process? I know I have certainly learned a lot over the past few months as to how I feel church government should function. But where does scripture point us in this discussion? I think it would be beneficial if we could discuss it civilly without all the grandstanding going on, if that is possible. Which I seriously doubt. But maybe we can look past the rhetoric and personal agendas and seek common ground on the subject.