Subject: need for a bible-anyone |
Bible Note: You wrote: "Like it or not, they aren?t wearing a Scriptural name and a little digging will reveal they aren?t practicing what was taught in the NT. Where do we find choirs, pianists, soloists? Other creeds? Lord?s Supper served how often? etc." Where do we find all that musical stuff? In the Bible, where it was not only permitted, but ENCOURAGED. I see no prohibition placed on it by Jesus Christ nor the apostles, and yet the Churches of Christ want to add their commandments to those of Scripture. Other creeds? The Churches of Christ have a creed, whether it is written down or not. What is the official position on the role and mode of baptism? What do you believe concerning the Trinity? What about worship? When should the Lord's Supper be administered and how? Is the Lord's Supper the actual body and blood of Christ, a bare and symbolic memorial, or a sacrament that seals and confirms the partaker's place in God's household? What does the church consist of? What is the proper form of church government? What did Jesus' death and resurrection accomplish? Does Jesus possess two natures or one? Answer me these questions, and you will be telling me your creed. You wrote concerning Titus: "He was to ensure that wherever he went, IF men fell under those qualifications, that they are serving as elders" No, Paul told Titus (not a member of the church) to APPOINT elders, not to confirm that the existing elders possessed the proper qualifications. And even if he was just confirming, we still have an outside party exercising oversight of a songregation's leadership. Church councils? 'Some men came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." And when Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with them, the brethren determined that Paul and Barnabas and some others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue. Therefore, being sent on their way by the church, they were passing through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and were bringing great joy to all the brethren. When they arrived at Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. But some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, "It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them to observe the Law of Moses." The apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter.' --Acts 15:1-6 What we have here is dissention between two parties regarding the government of the churches springing up among the Gentiles. Paul and Barnabas, apostles to the Gentiles, bring the matter before apostles and elders in JERUSALEM. Both sides apparently are heard, and James establishes a binding judgment in Jerusalem for the Gentiles and Jewish Christians both to adhere to. A delegation is sent to see to it that the Gentiles knew of the judgment in Jerusalem: "For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials: that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication; if you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well. Farewell." --Acts 15:28-29 |