Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Debelak
For centuries now, believers have taken the default position that there is no problem at all with established church authority (as in offices held by human beings). And then, when the authority is taken advantage of, they have no tools with which to deal with it!
Its happened over and over and over and over again in church history, and it doesn't raise the question: maybe there's a problem with "having no problem at all with established church authority."
At every occasion of abuse by "established church authority" we seem capable of only looking at the immediate abuse and calling that specific issue the problem. And yet, when it happens over and over and over again in so many different ways and forms across church history - nobody asks "Wait, maybe the problem isn't this particular manifestation of abuse, but rather the structure we set up in the first place...."
That said, I don't necessarily have issue with an given "established church authority" as they exist in a particular iteration. But if our default is that there "should be" such mediators, then perhaps we leave ourselves vulnerable to the abuses when the do (inevitably) arise...
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To me, a requirement for mediatorial offices between the flock and the Good Shepherd is a hazard. But likewise, a moratorium against mediatorial offices is also a hazard. In both, I think, our requirement puts an impingement upon the freedom of the Holy Spirit to guide us all home to the Father.
Let me give an example. One day I got a "bad feeling" about the whole scene in Acts 6. Some decided that they were above waiting on tables. While I don't see Jesus being above waiting on tables, I cannot forbid some who think they are. And while I don't see Jesus creating permanent offices like "table waiter" or "scripture searcher", I cannot see Him explicitly forbidding such either.
So while I currently believe that many of the problems we see in subsequent church history are found in seeds sown as early as Acts and the epistles, all I can say is "let them be." If I should try to re-make church in my image, what a disaster that would be! You think Watchman Nee's "normal church" was bad; wait till you see my solution(s)! No, best just to let it be.