It is obvious that God has ordained the ministry of the Church of God and has given them authority over the Church. They need this authority to do their jobs.
What exactly is this authority? And importantly, what are its limits?
When I speak of the ministry, I mean the whole ministry: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and local elders - all ordained ministers whether paid or unpaid, whether serving the Church of God full time or part time, including top leaders of fellowships, whether they be called pastor generals, presiding evangelists, or any other title.
Here is a list in the Bible of offices that the ministry may hold and roles that ministers and members may fulfill.
"And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues" (1 Corinthians 12:28).
"And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head - Christ - from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love" (Ephesians 4:11-16).
It is obvious from the context that one of the jobs of the ministry is to establish and teach sound doctrine and prevent the Church of God and its members from falling into doctrinal error.
The ministry as a whole has a job to do, which consists of many detailed functions. Those functions can be found in various places in the Bible.
They have the function to establish and teach doctrine, which is made clear by what I have just quoted and by the examples of Paul in his letters and by other examples in the Bible. The ministry has the authority to teach (Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 5:25-29, Acts 5:40-42).
God has not given the lay members the authority to teach other lay members things contrary to the teachings of the ministry. Criticizing or contradicting the teachings of the ministry in conversation with other members undermines the God-given authority and role of the ministry and makes their job of teaching more difficult. We may have different opinions about things, but trying to undermine the teaching work of God's ministry is a form of rebellion against God and His government, except in extreme cases in which the ministry is clearly teaching major heresy, in which case a member would not likely want to stay in that fellowship.
They have the authority to decide disputes between brethren. In this, they have binding and loosening authority (Matthew 16:19, Matthew 18:15-18).
They have authority over the brethren in matters of the organized work of the Church. In this we are commanded to obey them (Hebrews 13:7, 17). However, we should never obey them if they command us to break God's law. Obedience to God comes first (Acts 5:29). Also, I believe that obedience to the ministry is always in the context of the organized work of the Church and relations between brethren. I do not think that God's intent in telling us to obey the ministry is to give the ministry authority to micro-manage our lives. I don't think the authority extends to telling us what color car to drive or whether to have chicken or beef for dinner. In any case, a definite limitation to the authority of the ministry is that we must always obey God first.
The ministry has the authority to disfellowship and mark anyone who causes division (Romans 16:17, Titus 3:10-11). They have the authority to disfellowship someone for open and unrepentant sin as a disciplinary measure (1 Corinthians 5:1-13).
But do they have the authority to command what you believe? I am not talking about authority to teach. I am talking about belief, that is, faith. Do they have authority over your faith? They can teach you something, and they should show you the evidence from the Bible, but what if you disagree? What if you think they are misunderstanding the scriptures, or leaving out some important scriptures that could change the conclusion, or incorrectly putting the scriptures together? What if you disagree on their conclusion? Are you sinning for just disagreeing in your mind even if you are quiet about it and do not cause division? Can the ministry command you to believe them?
Do they have rule over your faith?
Here is the plain answer from the Bible: "Not that we have dominion over your faith, but are fellow workers for your joy; for by faith you stand" (2 Corinthians 1:24).
Paul says plainly that he and the other apostles did not have dominion over the faith of the members.
Dominion means authority or rule. Faith is what you believe. Paul says that he, and by extension the other apostles and ministers, did not have authority and rule over what the members believe. So the ministry cannot command you to believe something. They can command you not to cause division, which means openly discussing your disagreement with other members. But not what you believe in your own mind.
This makes perfect sense when you compare it with other passages in the Bible.
Our faith must be towards God. Faith is a form of worship, and only God should be worshipped. It is wrong, and sin, to have faith in man.
And any man or leader or minister who presumes to command you to believe something, not because he has proved it to you in the Bible and you understand and agree with the proof, but based on his authority as a minister, or based on his faithfulness and trustworthiness as a faithful man, perhaps saying you should have faith that Christ is the head of the Church, implying that the minister must be right because he is following Christ's lead, is making an idol of himself and teaching the members to commit idolatry by worshipping him by giving him the faith that belongs only to God.
He could be causing members to sin, and there are serious penalties for that. "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea" (Matthew 18:6).
We have faith to believe God's word because we trust God that He is infinite and perfect in knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, and we trust Him to never lie to us (Titus 1:1-2, Hebrews 6:17-18). That is why scripture cannot be broken (John 10:34).
But that is not true about men, even righteous men. Every human is capable of both error and sin. The Bible shows the faults of many of God's servants. No human being is perfect as God is perfect. That is why the whole emphasis throughout the Bible is that we should trust God, not men.
"It is better to trust in the LORD Than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the LORD Than to put confidence in princes" (Psalm 118:8-9).
"The fear of man brings a snare, But whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe" (Proverbs 29:25).
"Thus says the LORD: 'Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the LORD. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, And shall not see when good comes, But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, In a salt land which is not inhabited. Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, And whose hope is the LORD. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, Which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, And will not be anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease from yielding fruit" (Jeremiah 17:5-8).
"The entirety of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever" (Psalm 119:160).
"Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth" (John 17:17).
"The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple" (Psalm 19:7).
To be fair, there is one verse (I have not found any other) that tells us to believe men, but it is in the context of God's prophets who wrote the Old Testament and spoke to Israel in the name of God. "So they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, 'Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the LORD your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper' " (2 Chronicles 20:20).
Here we are told to believe God's prophets. This is a statement by Jehoshaphat, not a "Thus says the LORD" from God. Nevertheless, it is a good principle to follow provided we use it in the context in which it is used in this passage. This is referring primarily to the prophets who spoke to Israel in the name of the LORD and who wrote the Old Testament. Their word must be true because the Old Testament is part of the word of God, and scripture cannot be broken. But this context does not apply to any man in the Church of God who calls himself a prophet or apostle.
The history of God's servants in the Bible and the history of the Church of God in our times shows that the Church leadership and ministry can make mistakes and can sin.
No one today is higher in rank than Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong, and he made mistakes, which he admitted, and he corrected his mistakes. He also said to the public, don't believe me, believe the Bible.
So what leadership and ministry teach and say is not always true.
But what God says in the Bible is always true, one hundred percent of the time.
So we should never give the faith that is God's due to any man or group of men. That faith, that one hundred percent belief and trust, belongs to God alone.
To disbelieve God, or to believe man more than God, is sin. Faith is a matter of law, one of the three weightier matters of the law (Matthew 23:23). That means that to disbelieve God, to fail to have faith in His word, is a violation of the law and therefore sin (1 John 3:4).
So no, the human leadership and ministry of the Church of God never have authority to command you or any member of the Church to believe what they teach. They have authority over the organized work of the Church. They have authority to teach, and they should back up what they teach with the Bible. They have the authority to command that you not cause division by undermining and contradicting the teachings of the Church in conversation with other members, and they have the authority to put you out of the Church if you cause division by contradicting them. And in general, they have authority to command you concerning the organized work of the Church provided they do not command you to disobey God - you must always obey God rather than man.
But your faith in God and His word the Bible, your absolute belief and trust that what God says is true, is a personal matter between you and God alone, and the ministry has no authority over that.
No man or minister has the authority to command you what to believe. Only God has that authority, through the Bible.
A faithful ministry should always teach doctrine by the Bible, and they should teach the members to believe God and His word the Bible more than they believe the ministry, and to do so without causing division by contradicting the ministry in conversation with other church members.
It is obvious that God has ordained the ministry of the Church of God and has given them authority over the Church. They need this authority to do their jobs.
What exactly is this authority? And importantly, what are its limits?
When I speak of the ministry, I mean the whole ministry: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and local elders - all ordained ministers whether paid or unpaid, whether serving the Church of God full time or part time, including top leaders of fellowships, whether they be called pastor generals, presiding evangelists, or any other title.
Here is a list in the Bible of offices that the ministry may hold and roles that ministers and members may fulfill.
"And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues" (1 Corinthians 12:28).
"And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head - Christ - from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love" (Ephesians 4:11-16).
It is obvious from the context that one of the jobs of the ministry is to establish and teach sound doctrine and prevent the Church of God and its members from falling into doctrinal error.
The ministry as a whole has a job to do, which consists of many detailed functions. Those functions can be found in various places in the Bible.
They have the function to establish and teach doctrine, which is made clear by what I have just quoted and by the examples of Paul in his letters and by other examples in the Bible. The ministry has the authority to teach (Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 5:25-29, Acts 5:40-42).
God has not given the lay members the authority to teach other lay members things contrary to the teachings of the ministry. Criticizing or contradicting the teachings of the ministry in conversation with other members undermines the God-given authority and role of the ministry and makes their job of teaching more difficult. We may have different opinions about things, but trying to undermine the teaching work of God's ministry is a form of rebellion against God and His government, except in extreme cases in which the ministry is clearly teaching major heresy, in which case a member would not likely want to stay in that fellowship.
They have the authority to decide disputes between brethren. In this, they have binding and loosening authority (Matthew 16:19, Matthew 18:15-18).
They have authority over the brethren in matters of the organized work of the Church. In this we are commanded to obey them (Hebrews 13:7, 17). However, we should never obey them if they command us to break God's law. Obedience to God comes first (Acts 5:29). Also, I believe that obedience to the ministry is always in the context of the organized work of the Church and relations between brethren. I do not think that God's intent in telling us to obey the ministry is to give the ministry authority to micro-manage our lives. I don't think the authority extends to telling us what color car to drive or whether to have chicken or beef for dinner. In any case, a definite limitation to the authority of the ministry is that we must always obey God first.
The ministry has the authority to disfellowship and mark anyone who causes division (Romans 16:17, Titus 3:10-11). They have the authority to disfellowship someone for open and unrepentant sin as a disciplinary measure (1 Corinthians 5:1-13).
But do they have the authority to command what you believe? I am not talking about authority to teach. I am talking about belief, that is, faith. Do they have authority over your faith? They can teach you something, and they should show you the evidence from the Bible, but what if you disagree? What if you think they are misunderstanding the scriptures, or leaving out some important scriptures that could change the conclusion, or incorrectly putting the scriptures together? What if you disagree on their conclusion? Are you sinning for just disagreeing in your mind even if you are quiet about it and do not cause division? Can the ministry command you to believe them?
Do they have rule over your faith?
Here is the plain answer from the Bible: "Not that we have dominion over your faith, but are fellow workers for your joy; for by faith you stand" (2 Corinthians 1:24).
Paul says plainly that he and the other apostles did not have dominion over the faith of the members.
Dominion means authority or rule. Faith is what you believe. Paul says that he, and by extension the other apostles and ministers, did not have authority and rule over what the members believe. So the ministry cannot command you to believe something. They can command you not to cause division, which means openly discussing your disagreement with other members. But not what you believe in your own mind.
This makes perfect sense when you compare it with other passages in the Bible.
Our faith must be towards God. Faith is a form of worship, and only God should be worshipped. It is wrong, and sin, to have faith in man.
And any man or leader or minister who presumes to command you to believe something, not because he has proved it to you in the Bible and you understand and agree with the proof, but based on his authority as a minister, or based on his faithfulness and trustworthiness as a faithful man, perhaps saying you should have faith that Christ is the head of the Church, implying that the minister must be right because he is following Christ's lead, is making an idol of himself and teaching the members to commit idolatry by worshipping him by giving him the faith that belongs only to God.
He could be causing members to sin, and there are serious penalties for that. "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea" (Matthew 18:6).
We have faith to believe God's word because we trust God that He is infinite and perfect in knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, and we trust Him to never lie to us (Titus 1:1-2, Hebrews 6:17-18). That is why scripture cannot be broken (John 10:34).
But that is not true about men, even righteous men. Every human is capable of both error and sin. The Bible shows the faults of many of God's servants. No human being is perfect as God is perfect. That is why the whole emphasis throughout the Bible is that we should trust God, not men.
"It is better to trust in the LORD Than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the LORD Than to put confidence in princes" (Psalm 118:8-9).
"The fear of man brings a snare, But whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe" (Proverbs 29:25).
"Thus says the LORD: 'Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the LORD. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, And shall not see when good comes, But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, In a salt land which is not inhabited. Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, And whose hope is the LORD. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, Which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, And will not be anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease from yielding fruit" (Jeremiah 17:5-8).
"The entirety of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever" (Psalm 119:160).
"Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth" (John 17:17).
"The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple" (Psalm 19:7).
To be fair, there is one verse (I have not found any other) that tells us to believe men, but it is in the context of God's prophets who wrote the Old Testament and spoke to Israel in the name of God. "So they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, 'Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the LORD your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper' " (2 Chronicles 20:20).
Here we are told to believe God's prophets. This is a statement by Jehoshaphat, not a "Thus says the LORD" from God. Nevertheless, it is a good principle to follow provided we use it in the context in which it is used in this passage. This is referring primarily to the prophets who spoke to Israel in the name of the LORD and who wrote the Old Testament. Their word must be true because the Old Testament is part of the word of God, and scripture cannot be broken. But this context does not apply to any man in the Church of God who calls himself a prophet or apostle.
The history of God's servants in the Bible and the history of the Church of God in our times shows that the Church leadership and ministry can make mistakes and can sin.
No one today is higher in rank than Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong, and he made mistakes, which he admitted, and he corrected his mistakes. He also said to the public, don't believe me, believe the Bible.
So what leadership and ministry teach and say is not always true.
But what God says in the Bible is always true, one hundred percent of the time.
So we should never give the faith that is God's due to any man or group of men. That faith, that one hundred percent belief and trust, belongs to God alone.
To disbelieve God, or to believe man more than God, is sin. Faith is a matter of law, one of the three weightier matters of the law (Matthew 23:23). That means that to disbelieve God, to fail to have faith in His word, is a violation of the law and therefore sin (1 John 3:4).
So no, the human leadership and ministry of the Church of God never have authority to command you or any member of the Church to believe what they teach. They have authority over the organized work of the Church. They have authority to teach, and they should back up what they teach with the Bible. They have the authority to command that you not cause division by undermining and contradicting the teachings of the Church in conversation with other members, and they have the authority to put you out of the Church if you cause division by contradicting them. And in general, they have authority to command you concerning the organized work of the Church provided they do not command you to disobey God - you must always obey God rather than man.
But your faith in God and His word the Bible, your absolute belief and trust that what God says is true, is a personal matter between you and God alone, and the ministry has no authority over that.
No man or minister has the authority to command you what to believe. Only God has that authority, through the Bible.
A faithful ministry should always teach doctrine by the Bible, and they should teach the members to believe God and His word the Bible more than they believe the ministry, and to do so without causing division by contradicting the ministry in conversation with other church members.
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