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There have been two basic views within the Christian church regarding ecclesiastical authority. The one view is that a man's
standing with God is personal and has nothing to do with any ecclesiastical authority. Currently, it is a common view in the
"Born Again" movement that the Church of Jesus Christ is a heavenly body with no earthly authorities; that membership is obtained
by accepting Jesus who develops a personal relationship with the individual; and that only Jesus knows who the members are.
There is no identifiable earthly church. A similar view was common among certain early Christians known as "gnostic Christians."
The discovery of the gnostic Christian library at Nag Hammadi in 1945 and its translation has resulted in a great deal of
scholarly interest in the early gnostics. Their view of Christianity was intensely personal. That is,
The gnostics were charged with heresy by other Christians who claimed that they had departed from the teachings handed down
from the apostles.
The records which have survived of Christianity in the first quarter of the 2nd Century argue against the gnostics. They support
another view, Christianity is communal. To be in good standing with God requires obedience to church leaders. To be out of
harmony with the earthly authorities is to be out of harmony with God. These writings pre-date the compilation of the New
Testament and probably represent the views most similar to those of the apostolic era. The following quotations are from the
popular translation of J.B. Lightfoot The Apostolic Fathers.
Clement
…ye walked after the ordinances of God, submitting yourselves to your rulers and rendering to the older men among you
the honour which is their due…(par. 1)
Let us reverence our rulers; let us honour our elders; let us instruct our young men in the lesson of the fear of God. (par.
21)
But if certain persons should be disobedient unto the words spoken by Him through us, let them understand that they will
entangle themselves in no slight transgression and danger. (par. 59)
Give concord and peace to us and to all that dwell on earth, as Thou gavest to our fathers, when they called on Thee in faith
and truth with holiness [that we may be saved,] while we render obedience to Thine almighty and most excellent Name, and to
our rulers and governors upon the earth. (par 60)
Thou, Lord and Master, hast given them the power of sovereignty through Thine excellent and unspeakable might, that we knowing
the glory and honour which Thou hast given them may submit ourselves unto them, in nothing resisting Thy will. Grant unto
them therefore, O Lord, health, peace, concord, stability, that they may administer the government which Thou hast given them
without failure. (par. 61)
IGNATIUS
[Epistle to the Ephesians]
So then it becometh you to run in harmony with the mind of the bishop; which thing also ye do. (par. 4)
For every one whom the Master of the household sendeth to be steward over His own house, we ought so to receive as Him that
sent him. Plainly therefore we ought to regard the bishop as the Lord Himself. (par. 6)
Assemble yourselves together in common, every one of you severally, man by man, in grace, in one faith and one Jesus Christ,
who after the flesh was of David's race, who is Son of Man and Son of God, to the end that ye may obey the bishop and the
presbytery without distraction of mind; breaking on bread, which is the medicine of immortality and the antidote that we should
not die but live for ever in Jesus Christ. (par 20)
[Epistle to the Magnesians]
Forasmuch then as I was permitted to see you in the person of Damas your godly bishop and your worthy presbyters Bassus and
Apollonius and my fellow-servant the deacon Zotion, of whom I would fain have joy, for that he is subject to the bishop as
unto the grace of God and to the presbytery as unto the law of Jesus Christ:-
Yea, and it becometh you also not to presume upon the youth of your bishop, but according to the power of God the Father to
render unto him all reverence, even as I have learned that the holy presbyters also have not taken advantage of his outwardly
youthful estate, but give place to him as to one prudent in God; yet not to him, but to the Father of Jesus Christ, even to
the Bishop of all. For the honour therefore of Him that desired you, it is meet that ye should be obedient without dissimulation.
For a man doth not so much deceive this bishop who is seen, as cheat the other who is invisible; and in such a case he must
reckon not with flesh but with God who knoweth the hidden things. (par. 2,3)
Seeing then that in the aforementioned persons I beheld your whole people in faith and embraced them, I advise you, be ye
zealous to do all things in godly concord, the bishop presiding after the likeness of God and the presbyters after the likeness
of the council of the Apostles, with the deacons also who are most dear to me, having been entrusted with the diaconte of
Jesus Christ, who was with the Father before the worlds and appeared at the end of time. Therefore do ye all study conformity
to God and pay reverence one to another; and let no man regard his neighbour afte the flesh, but love ye one another in Jesus
Christ always. Let there be nothing among you which shall have power to divide you, but be ye united with the bishop and with
them that preside over you as an ensample and a lesson of incorruptibility.
Therefore as the Lord did nothing without the Father, [being united with Him], either by Himself or by the Apostles, so neither
do ye anything without the bishops and the presbyters. And attempt no to think anything right for yourselves apart from others:
but let there be one prayer in common, one supplication, one mind, one hope, in love and in jot unblameable, which is Jesus
Christ, than whom there is nothing better. (par. 6,7)
Do your diligence therefore that ye be confirmed in the ordinances of the Lord of the Apostles, that ye may prosper in all
things whatsoever ye do in flesh and spirit, by faith and by love, in the Son and Father and in the Spirit, in the beginning
and in the end, with your revered bishop, and with the fitly wrested spiritual circlet of your presbytery, and with the deacons
who walk after God. Be obedient to the bishop and to one another, as Jesus Christ was to the Father [according to the flesh],
and as the Apostles were to Christ and to the Father, that there may be union both of flesh and of spirit. (par. 13)
[Epistle to the Trallians]
Be ye therefore on your guard against such men. And this will surely be, if ye be not puffed up and ye be inseparable from
[God] Jesus Christ and from the bishop and the ordinances of the Apostles. He that is within the sanctuary is clean; but
he that is without the sanctuary is not clean, that is, he that doeth aught without the bishop and presbytery and deacons,
this man is not clean in his conscience. (par. 7)
...Fare ye well in Jesus Christ, submitting yourselves to the bishop as to the commandment, and likewise also to the presbytery;
and each of you severally love one another with undivided heart. (par. 13)
[Epistle to the Philadelphians]
...For as many as are of God and of Jesus Christ, they are with the bishop, and as many as shall repent and enter into the
unity of the Church, these also shall be of God, that they may be living after Jesus Christ. (par. 3)
...I cried out, when I was among you; I spake with a loud voice, with God's own voice, Give ye heed to the bishop and the
presbytery and deacons. Howbeit there were those who suspected me of saying this, because I knew beforehand of the divisions
of certain persons. But He in whom I am bound is my witness That I learned it not from flesh of man; it was the preaching
of the Spirit who spake on this wise; do nothing without the bishop… (par. 7)
…if repenting they return to the unity of God and to the council of the bishop. (par. 8)
[Epistle to the Smyrneans]
[But] shun divisions, as the beginnings of evils. Do ye all follow your bishop, as Jesus Christ followed the Father, and the
Presbytery as the Apostles; and to the deacons pay respect, as to God's commandment. Let no man do aught of things pertaining
to the Church apart from the bishop. Let that be held a valid eucharist which is under the bishop or one to whom he shall
have committed it. Wheresoever the bishop shall appear, there let the people be; even as where Jesus may be, there is the
universal Church. It is not lawful apart from the bishop either to baptize or to hold a love-feast; but whatsoever he shall
approve, this is well-pleasing also to God; sure and valid.
It is reasonable henceforth that we wake to soberness, while we have [still] time to repent and turn to God. It is good to
recognize God and the bishop. He that honoureth the bishop is honoured of God; he that doeth aught without the knowledge of
the bishop rendereth service to the devil. May all things therefore abound unto you in grace, for ye are worthy… (par.
8,9)
[Epistle to Polycarp]
Give ye heed to the bishop, that God also may give heed to you. I am devoted to those who are subject to the bishop, the presbyters,
the deacons. (par. 6)
POLYCARP
Wherefore it is right to abstain from all these things, submitting yourselves to the Presbyters and deacons as to God and
Christ. (par. 5)
DIDACHE
My child, thou shalt remember him that speaketh unto thee the word of God night and day, and shalt honour him as the Lord;
for whencesoever the Lordship speaketh, there is the Lord. (par. 4)
Whosoever therefore shall come and teach you all things that have been said before, receive him; but if the teacher himself
be perverted and teach a different doctrine to the destruction thereof, hear him not; but if to the increase of righteousness
and the knowledge of the Lord, receive him as the Lord. But concerning the apostles and prophets, so do ye according to the
ordinance of the Gospel. Let every apostle, when he cometh to you, be received as the Lord… (par. 11)
Appoint for yourselves therefore bishops and deacons worthy of the Lord, men who are meek and not lovers of money, and true
and approved; for unto you they also perform the service of the prophets and teachers. Therefore despise them not; for they
are your honourable men along with the prophets and teachers. (par. 15)
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