Bob:

I have been reading [u:a0bcef45d5]The Apostolic Church[/u:a0bcef45d5], by Thomas Witherow. In that book he shows how the Presbyterian system is built upon the early church, including Jerusalem, as it is found in Scripture.

In basic, what he examines is the actions of the church, how they went about things. For example, it was the membership that chose the twelfth apostle, not the Apostles; it was the group of elders meeting with the Apostles that decided the Antioch controversy, meeting before the membership who approved it. The Apostles, including Paul, did not think that their very special office endowed them with dictatorial powers, even though they were entrusted with the very gospel itself.

Witherow was initially, I think, an Anglican who was set on showing that the hierarchy of offices was biblical. In the end he found that the presbyterial system he had sought to debunk was in fact the Biblical system.

[Edited on 6-23-2004 by JohnV]

__________________
JohnV :detective:

John Vandervliet
Ontario, Canada
member of: Canadian Reformed Church
"In coming to understand anything we are rejecting the facts as they are for us in favour of the facts as they are" C.S Lewis, An Experiment in Criticism