steadfast7
Puritan Board Junior
conclusion this digression re: Stephen ... he held an office that was specifically distinguished from that of preaching/teaching - yet he preached. Sorry for the tangent, all.
It is good that you accept he held an ordinary office. Now let's look at verse 8. As other parts of the New Testament declare, these miracles were given for the purpose of confirming the word. Hence Stephen had received an extraordinary call to preach the word.
Granted, but keeping in mind that Stephen's call to preach was never recognized officially by the church. We don't find the Apostles ordaining him as an elder upon discovering his gifts. Perhaps, then, we can distill 3 tiers of evangelistic activity:
1. Extraordinary call - Paul, Stephen, Apostles
2. Ecclesiastical office - ordained ministers
3. lay witness
There may be differences in the execution of evangelistic activity within these tiers, but the content (gospel) remains the same.
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as an aside, we need not be frustrated at the turns and bends that this thread is taking; this is natural in conversation and it's good for these important topics to get worked and reworked through. It is a tribute to the OP poster that his thread spawns multiple conversations. I don't think there's been moderation so far, so we're good.