From Jim McGuiggan... Church Unity And Our Confession of Faith

Church Unity And Our Confession of Faith

Church unity is a confession. It probably isn't helpful to supply the phrase "there is" at the beginning of 4:4. It seems to me it has more impact and is more in keeping with the flow of things to have, "keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace: One body, one Spirit.one God and Father" That way it strikes us as a glorious banner unfolded and waving in the wind. Like a cry as people running into battle against all the forces of chaos and fragmentation. The sort of thing Shakespeare has the English ring out as they fly into battle: "For God, for England and for Harry." Keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace: One body...one Father!

The confession at this point functions (at minimum) to deliver our virtues from the status of mere morality. (In saying "mere morality" I've no wish to sneer at the lovely lives of those who haven't yet given their lives to Christ. Their moral goodness is as real as that of Christians. We're not morally superior but we have, as the elect of God, a peculiar agenda that others have not.) Our confession functions to deliver our virtues from the status of mere morality and shows them to be "gospeling"; shows them to be the way the crucified God himself has lived in Jesus of Nazareth. These are very human virtues, of course, because God lived them out here as one of us (see Matthew 12:28-30) but they reveal the character of the pre-incarnate Lord. The character, which had such virtues, didn't begin at the incarnation.

The confession functions to give point and complexity to the virtues and the virtues function to protect and nurture the meaning and implications of the confession. There is truth we all say "Amen" to. There are ordinances we will not meddle with but will humbly obey rather than debate. There's a liturgy we won't allow to fossilize or petrify on the one hand or to be trivialized on the other. We won't allow it to be made a political football to be kicked from one end of a field to another. There's a Spirit in whom we all live and on whom we all depend, there's a hope we all cherish, a Lord we all bow to and a Father we confess is above all. All that we are given in a faith that we receive in a spirit of faith so that our life as a holy nation expresses our faith, our gospel..

We need to keep this in mind. Suppose Israel is behaving appropriately. That appropriate behaviour is not simply a generalized ethical response to some God or other giving them a code of behaviour. Their national life is an expression of their faith, of their experience and understanding of Yahweh. Their moral life is a proclamation of "gospel". Ask them why they behave this way or that, ask them why their liturgy is this way or that and they would have told you, "Because Yahweh is our God and he........." Our Confession is lived out as well as rehearsed and our life embodies our Confession.

There's knowledge without which unity isn't possible but if it's to save us then it can't exist outside and independent of us. There are truths to which we must give our hearts and minds when we are confronted with them. Our relation to that knowledge is not the relation of a valedictorian to his grade averages nor do we study so we can store up answers for the big final exam in the sky. But a relationship with God without receiving some things as true isn't possible. There must be knowledge (notitia) and an assent (assensus) to that knowledge.
Paul knew very well that knowledge puffs up but he never despised truth. For sinners knowledge and correctness of opinion is a very heady wine and at various points in our lives we're enamoured by our intellect and store of information. But if we're blessed, a day comes when we recognize that the Tree of Knowledge is not the Tree of Life. Can you imagine a dying hour more awful, asked F.W. Robertson of Brighton, than that of one who has aspired to know rather than to love, and finds him/herself at last surrounded by a mountain of correct information, having loved nobody and adored nothing?

©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.

Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, theabidingword.com.

The Origin of the Papacy by Moisés Pinedo

http://apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=11&article=2386

The Origin of the Papacy

by	Moisés Pinedo

The Bible clearly teaches that Peter was not the first pope and that he was simply one of the apostles of Jesus (see Pinedo, 2008a; 2008b). The question remains: “When did the papacy begin?” Since the Bible authorizes no hierarchy like the papacy, we will focus our attention on history to learn how it came into existence.
When Christ established His church in the first century (A.D. 30; cf. Acts 2), “He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors [i.e., bishops or elders] and teachers” (Ephesians 4:11). Jesus never elevated one bishop over others, but rather established an equable office for service. Sadly, man deviated from the original biblical pattern in search of power, honor, and deification. The first indication of this deviation was the distinction among the terms “bishops,” “elders,” and “pastors”—titles which the New Testament writers used interchangeably (e.g., Acts 20:17,28; Titus 1:5,7; 1 Peter 5:1-4). The title “Bishop” was given more significance and applied to only one man who was given sole authority over a local congregation, unlike bishops during apostolic times (cf. Acts 14:23; 15:4; 20:17; Titus 1:5; James 5:14). Soon, the “Bishop” ruled over not only one congregation, but over a “diocese,” several congregations in a city or an entire district (see Miller and Stevens, 1969, 44).
With the influence of Constantine (A.D. 280-337), who made Christianity a “religion of power,” the bishops strengthened and increased their privileges. During this time there were five metropolises: Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople, and Jerusalem. Rome in the West and Constantinople in the East gained greater prominence because of their locations (Mattox, 1961, p. 137). While the power of the episcopacy grew in these cities, so did the controversy over which of these two cities, and their representative churches and bishops, should have supremacy.
On October 10, 366, a man named Damasus was elected Bishop of Rome. He was an energetic man who fought for the pontificate against his opponent Ursinus, another bishop elected by a small number of followers (see “Damasus I,” 1997, 3:865-866). During his pontificate, Damasus fought to confirm his position in the Church of Rome. He also fought to compel the other cities to recognize the supremacy of the Bishop of Rome over all other bishops. Damasus even went as far as to assert that the “Church of Rome was supreme over all others, not because of what the council [of Rome in 369 and of Antioch in 378—MP] decided, but rather because Jesus placed Peter above the rest, elevating him as the cornerstone of the church itself” (“Saint Damasus,” 2005).
In spite of Damasus’ efforts to establish the preeminence of Rome and his pontificate, he did not finish his work. After his death in December 384, Siricius was elected as the Pontiff of Rome. He was less educated than Damasus, but empowered himself with a higher level of authority than other bishops had demanded. Siricius claimed inherent authority without consideration of the Scriptures. He demanded, and threatened others, in order to gain more and more power. He was the first to refer to himself as Peter’s heir (see Merdinger, 1997, p. 26). Siricius died on November 26, 399. Without a doubt, he and Damasus were principal forces behind the development of a universal ecclesiastical hierarchy.
In 440, Leo I became the pontiff. He was an ardent defender of the supremacy of the Roman bishop over the bishops in the East. In a declaration to the Bishop of Constantinople, he stated:

Constantinople has its own glory and by the mercy of God has become the seat of the empire. But secular matters are based on one thing, and ecclesiastical matters on another. Nothing will stand which is not built on the Rock which the Lord laid in the foundation.... Your city is royal but you cannot make it Apostolic (quoted in Mattox, 1961, pp. 139-140).

The supremacy referred to by Leo I was based on the assumption that the Lord exalted Rome, including its church and pontiff, over other major cities because of traditions about Peter. By that time it was accepted as “fact” that Peter had been the first Bishop of Rome and that he had been martyred there. Those traditions, along with Rome’s legacy as an evangelistic influence in the first century, gave the city a “divine aura” that supposedly connected it to the apostolic age and distinguished it from other cities. These beliefs greatly influenced the development of a hierarchy in the church.
On September 13, 590, Gregory the Great was named Bishop of Rome. He was another advocate of Petrine tradition, and named himself “Pope” and the “Head of the Universal Church.” By the end of his pontificate, the theory of Peter’s primacy and that of the Bishop of Rome was firmly established. Finally, with the appearance of Boniface III on the papal throne on February 19, 607, Roman papacy became universally accepted. Boniface III lived only a few months after his election. Many other bishops followed his legacy of “runners for supremacy.”
The apostle Paul told the Ephesians, “For the husband is the head of the wife, and Christ also is the head of the church, being Himself the savior of the body” (5:23, emp. added). Just as there should be only one husband with authority over one wife, there is only one Person with authority over the one church. That Person is Jesus Christ!

REFERENCES

“Damasus I” (1997), The New Encyclopædia Britannica (London: Encyclopaedia Britannica).
Mattox, F.W. (1961), The Eternal Kingdom (Delight, AR: Gospel Light).
Merdinger, J.E. (1997), Rome & the African Church in the Time of Augustine (London: Yale University Press).
Miller, Jule and Texas Stevens (1969), Visualized Bible Study Series: History of the Lord’s Church (Houston, TX: Gospel Services).
Pinedo, Moisés (2008a), “Is the Papacy a Divine Institution?” [On-line], URL: http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/3780.
Pinedo, Moisés (2008b), “Was Peter the First Pope?,” [On-line], URL: http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/3811.
“Saint Damasus” [“San Dámaso”] (2005), [On-line], URL: http://66.​34.225.177/documento.php?f_doc=2477&f_tipo_doc=9.

From Mark Copeland... Responding To Evil (Romans 12:17-21)

                      "THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS"

                     Responding To Evil (12:17-21)

INTRODUCTION

1. The twelfth chapter of Romans has much to say about what is expected
   of Christians...
   a. In general terms - Ro 12:1-2
      1) They are to present themselves as living sacrifices to God
      2) They are not to be conformed to this world
      3) They are to be transformed by the renewing of their minds
      4) They are to prove what is God's good, acceptable, and perfect
         will
   b. In more specific terms - Ro 12:3-16
      1) They are to fulfill their function in the body of Christ - Ro 12:3-8
      2) They are to love without hypocrisy, abhorring what is evil - Ro 12:9
      3) They are to love brethren as family, esteeming one another
         highly - Ro 12:10
      4) They are to serve the Lord diligently, with fervency of spirit
         - Ro 12:11
      5) They are to rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation,
         steadfast in prayer - Ro 12:12
      6) They are to share in the needs of saints, pursue hospitality
         toward strangers - Ro 12:13
      7) They are to bless those who persecute them - Ro 12:14
      8) They are to rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those
         who weep - Ro 12:15
      9) They are to be of the same mind, with humility and lowliness of
         mind - Ro 12:16
   -- Such behavior is certainly an indication of a transformation!

2. But perhaps one of the greatest signs of transformation...
   a. Is how one responds to evil
   b. Is how one treats their enemy
   -- Human nature responds in kind, with vengeance; is this how
      Christians are to respond?

3. In our text (Ro 12:17-21), we find what Barnes describes as...
   a. "...probably one of the most difficult precepts of Christianity,
      but the law of Christ on the subject is unyielding."
   b. "It is a solemn demand made on all His followers, and it must be
      obeyed."

[This "difficult precept" pertains to how one reacts when mistreated by
those who are evil...]

I. HOW WE ARE TO RESPOND TO EVIL

   A. REPAY NO ONE EVIL FOR EVIL...
      1. Thus Paul writes in Ro 12:17a and elsewhere - 1Th 5:15
      2. He is not alone in this prohibition
         a. Solomon's counsel in Proverbs - Pr 20:22
         b. Jesus' teaching in the sermon on the mount - Mt 5:39
         c. Peter's writing in his epistle - 1Pe 3:9
      -- Thus we are prohibited against responding to evil in kind

   B. REPLY TO EVIL WITH GOOD...
      1. Note first what our concern is to be - Ro 12:17b,18
         a. To have regard for good things in the sight of others
         b. To live peaceably with others if at all possible
      2. Therefore, our response to evil is to reply with good - Ro 12:
         20
         a. As the Law of Moses instructed - Exo 23:4-5
         b. As David exemplified in his dealings with King Saul - 1 Sam 24:17
         c. As Solomon counseled, and Paul quoted - Pr 25:21,22
         d. As Jesus taught in His sermon on the mount - Mt 5:38-44
      -- Note carefully that the response is to be one of aggressive
         good will and kindness

[People normally respond differently, depending upon their ability
(e.g., vengeance, self-defense, passive resistance, running away,
helpless victim).  Yet Christians are taught to respond with love.  Why?
Paul explains...]

II. WHY WE ARE TO RESPOND WITH GOOD

   A. VENGEANCE BELONGS TO GOD...
      1. Vengeance is a Divine prerogative - Ro 12:19
         a. He certainly possesses the ability to administer it justly
            - cf. Nah 1:1-8
            1) He is slow to anger
            2) He knows the hearts of men
         b. He has the tools to administer vengeance
            1) E.g., governing authorities - cf. Ro 13:1-4; 1Pe 2:13-14
            2) E.g., giving man up to the depravity of his sins - cf. Ro 1:18-32
            3) E.g., the coming of the Lord in flaming fire - cf. 2 Th 1:7-9
      2. Therefore we are to give place to wrath
         a. The wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God
            - Jm 1:19-20
         b. The wrath of man is more often a work of the flesh - Ga 5:
            19-21; Ep 4:31; Col 3:8
      -- It is a mistake to presume that every example of Divine conduct
         means we can do the same!

   B. VICTORY OVER EVIL IS MORE LIKELY...
      1. Our goal is to overcome evil - Ro 12:21
      2. How can we best hope to overcome evil and change the evil
         person?
         a. If we react as:
            1) Avenger, defender or passive resister
            2) We only convince the opposition that might makes right
         b. If we react as:
            1) Runner or helpless
            2) We may only confirm the opposition's view that we are
               cowardly or weak
      3. The most likely way to both overcome evil and change the evil
         person is by reacting with active good will!
         a. Is this not how God sought to change the world? - Ro 5:8; Jn 3:16; Ro 2:4
         b. Is this not how Jesus sought to change the world? - 1Pe 2:
            21-25
      4. Certainly Jesus' example demonstrates a better way to handle
         conflict and evil...
         a. His humility and sacrificial love has motivated many to turn
            from sin
         b. And we are called to walk in His steps!
      5. Those who do follow Jesus' example often make a powerful impact
         on others:
            Kim Joon-gon has seen 2,000 out of 20,000 people on Chunnam
         Island murdered by the Communists.  They dragged his family to
         a spot where 160 people from two villages had gathered to beat
         the Christians.  There Kim's father and wife were beaten to
         death and Kim was left for dead.  When he revived and sought
         safety at an acquaintance's house, he was turned over to the
         Communists.  Only the sudden appearance of an American ship off
         the island coast saved him this time, for the Communist
         soldiers hurried away to battle.
            He hid out in the countryside until the South Korean army
         captured the island.  The Communists who had killed his wife
         and father were arrested.  Because it was wartime, the police
         chief had authority to execute without trial.  But as the chief
         prepared to kill the men, Kim pleaded, 'Spare them.  They were
         forced to kill.'
            The police chief showed great surprise.  'It was your family
         they killed!  Why do you now ask for their lives?'
            Kim replied quietly, 'Because the Lord, whose I am and whom
         I serve, would have me show mercy to them.'
            The Communists were spared execution because of Kim's plea.
         News of his action spread among other Communist supporters in
         the area.  When Kim later ascended a mountain to preach to
         Communists hiding out, he was not killed.  Many of the
         Communists became Christians, and when Kim finally left the
         sland there was a flourishing church of 108 members.
                               - Dictionary Of Illustrations, p. 188

CONCLUSION

1. We may never be called upon to manifest the power of responding to
   evil with good in such a remarkable way, but...
   a. We can begin by how we respond to personal abuses we often receive
      from others
   b. We can react to evil treatment even on a small scale with active
      good will

2. Reacting to evil with good will does not always convert the
   evildoer...
   a. Jesus was crucified on the cross, enduring hostility by sinners
      - He 12:2-3
   b. In such cases we must commit our cause to God, as did Jesus - 1 Pe 2:21-23; 4:19

3. But there other reasons for responding to evil with good...
   a. To be different than sinners - Lk 6:32-34
   b. To be like our Heavenly Father - Lk 6:35-36
   c. To receive a blessing (more likely to love life and see good days)
      - 1Pe 3:9-12

Do you desire to "love life and see good days"?  Then be transformed by
the renewing of your mind and demonstrate that God's will for responding
to evil is indeed good, acceptable, and perfect...!

Executable Outlines, Copyright © Mark A. Copeland, 2011

From Gary... What fits, fits!

This is a picture of a Bible that I purchased a few months ago.  It is big and very heavy, so I use a reading stand. In case you are wondering... I bought it from EvangelicalBible.com and it was expensive, but worth every penny!!!  I enjoy the 11 point print,  the cross references at the bottom and the very low amount of text bleed through. The NASB 1995 is both literal and easy for me to understand. Oh, yes; it is called a Quentel (named after Peter Quentel, who was John Tyndale's Bible publisher) and published by Schuyler of Virginia. Over the years, I have owned many Bibles and this one I would rate in the top three.  It ranks right up there with Cambridge Bibles and that is saying something!!! I have said all this, not to get you to buy one (although that might be a good choice to make) but rather to encourage you to be very careful in whatever Bible you may buy in the future. Why? Because if you make the right choice for you, then you may just read more and study more.  As the Scripture says...

2 Timothy 2:15 NASB
(15)  Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.

In case you are wondering, the other two Bibles were both NASB; one was a gift that I used for over twenty years (a 1977 version, which I eventually had to have rebound) and the other one was a Cambridge note-takers Bible purchased earlier this year.  I briefly hesitated to write this post, in the fear that it might sound like a commercial, but when I see a good thing, I want to share it with others.  And who knows... the next time you pick up your Bible (whatever version, style or price range) you just might read something that will change your life!!!

PS. The first Bible I read all the way through was also a gift. Inexpensive, it was not what I would today call a good translation (it was a paraphrased one and not a real word for word translation), but it turned my life upside-down- nice gift!!!