church authority

With the rise of an emphasis on the local church, membership and the authority of elders, some have concluded that a church member needs permission from the elders to leave a church. This was the teaching of congregationalism in contrast to presbyterianism during the puritan era. This new page...

Is Paul’s injunction for women to cover their heads in worship binding today (1 Cor. 11:2-16)? Most of the Reformed, the Scottish covenanters and the Westminster divines in the Reformation and puritan era said ‘No,’ that Paul’s ordinance was relative to his culture, which used this custom. I...

If the Church is not neglected today, it is often idolized; if Church authority is not disregarded, it is frequently turned absolute. The Biblical and historically presbyterian position is that Church authority is conditional, and can only confirm the truth and what is good; it binds only...

Friends, One of the great forces of downgrade in American Presbyterianism has been the erosion of the Church's adherence to her constitutional documents and maneuvers to change the very constitution of the church which the officers had previously sworn to uphold. Hence, I have made a webpage...

So, I was reading Ignatius today so that I can say (over time, of course) that I have read the works of the Church Fathers (I know that Ignatius isn't the only Church Father, but I'm starting with the Apostolic Fathers and moving forward), and I was shocked at what Ignatius, who was supposedly...