Results 1 - 4 of 4
|
|
|||||
Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | How do you ordain someone? | Bible general Archive 2 | FreeSpiritFaith | 136789 | ||
How do you ordain someone? | ||||||
2 | How do you ordain someone? | Bible general Archive 2 | srbaegon | 136790 | ||
Hello FreeSpiritFaith, According to New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge: "According to Acts 6:6; 13:3, the appointment to office in the church is conferred by prayer and the laying on of hands, which here again is nothing more than a natural symbol for the transmission of the power of the Holy Spirit necessary to their exercise...Paul warns [Timothy] (1 Tim 5:22) to lay hands suddenly on no man." |
||||||
3 | How do you ordain someone? | Bible general Archive 2 | junmeskie | 136849 | ||
THE first Christians had no doubts about how to determine which claimant, among the many contending for the title, was the true Church, and which doctrines the true teachings of Christ. The test was simple: Just trace the apostolic succession of the claimants. In its concrete form, apostolic succession is the line of bishops stretching back to the apostles. All over the world, all Catholic bishops can have their lineage of predecessors traced back to the time of the apostles, something which is impossible in Protestant denominations (most of whom do not even claim to have bishops). The role of apostolic succession in preserving true doctrine is illustrated in the Bible. To make sure that the teachings of the apostles would be passed down after the deaths of the apostles, Paul told Timothy: "[W]hat you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also" (2 Tim. 2:2). In this passage he refers to the first four generations of apostolic succession--his own generation, Timothy's generation, the generation Timothy will teach, and the generation they in turn will teach. The Church Fathers, who were links in that chain of succession, regularly appealed to apostolic succession as a test for whether Catholics or heretics had correct doctrine. This was necessary because heretics simply put their own interpretations, even bizarre ones, on the Scriptures. Clearly, something other than Scripture had to be used as an ultimate test of doctrine in these cases. Thus the early Church historian, J.N.D. Kelly, a Protestant, writes: "[W]here in practice was [the] apostolic testimony or tradition to be found? . . . The most obvious answer was that the apostles had committed it orally to the Church, where it had been handed down from generation to generation. . . . Unlike the alleged secret tradition of the Gnostics, it was entirely public and open, having been entrusted by the apostles to their successors, and by these in turn to those who followed them, and was visible in the Church for all who cared to look for it" (Early Christian Doctrines, 37). For the early Fathers, "the identity of the oral tradition with the original revelation is guaranteed by the unbroken succession of bishops in the great sees going back lineally to the apostles. . . . [A]n additional safeguard is supplied by the Holy Spirit, for the message committed was to the Church, and the Church is the home of the Spirit. Indeed, the Church's bishops are . . . Spirit-endowed men who have been vouchsafed 'an infallible charism of truth'" (ibid.). Thus on the basis of experience the Fathers could be "profoundly convinced of the futility of arguing with heretics merely on the basis of Scripture. The skill and success with which they twisted its plain meaning made it impossible to reach any decisive conclusion in that field" (ibid., 41). |
||||||
4 | How do you ordain someone? | Bible general Archive 2 | srbaegon | 136901 | ||
Hello Al, This is an excellent post. I agree with most of it. If your idea or comprehension of apostolic succession is the faithful passing of sound doctrine from one generation to the next, then I wholeheartedly agree with you. My problem is that many things have been added as doctrine that simply are not in Scripture. BTW, I have Kelly's book but haven't had a chance to read it yet. Steve |
||||||