I came across a "defense of the rule of Elders" recently, in which the author set up the framework for this inquiry thus:
"The Bible is the rule of faith and practice. This fact constitutes a reason to accept its descriptions of certain features of church organization as normative unless there are compelling reasons to feel that they are not. The burden of proof rests on those who hold that the patterns are merely descriptive."
I don't have a problem with the burden of proof being on me to put forth "compelling reasons" to feel that church organization, as described in the Bible, is not normative. The first is not an historical or factual one, but rather a logical one:
Formal church structure, it seems to me, is logically
contrary to the New Covenant.
You cannot say there is a prescription of obedience to anyone other than Christ and still maintain that there is, in fact, a New Covenant wherein the only Head of the Body is Christ - who indwells every believer and makes them into the new priesthood.
That does not mean that Christ, within each believer, will not lead a believer - even potentially all believers - to enter into a particular structural arrangement - but that is a
description of someone obeying Christ within - not a
prescription of obeying a normative structure. Some may say this is "mere semantics" - I say it is absolutely not.
SOme, who are convinced that "eldership" is prescriptive, use the prior practice of "eldership" in the Jewish tradition as
positive evidence (not negative evidence, as I would) that eldership in the church is prescribed. Here is one such example:
"It can be plausibly argued that the reason why the New Testament is not more explicit in regard to church government is that it presupposes, as prescriptive, familiar principles of organization in use in the Old Testament, the synagogue, and perhaps in Hellenistic institutions. "
This approach, it seems to me, gives short-shrift to the massive paradigm-shift that was Christ's incarnation, death and resurrection.
Thoughts?
Peter
P.S. the two above quotes are from
The Biblical Case for Elder Rule by
Dan Dumas, Executive Pastor of Southern Baptist Church. This article (outline actually) can be found
here