Asia Leaving Paul

[Hope]

Good Morning YPO534 and Mike OBW,

I am ever snowed under these days with my business and the economy, care for believers with whom I am related and many others who are abroad who need prayer and support, and family and many personal projects which are languishing. Thus, I had decided to let the forum go for a while. But there is so much to dig into in this particular topic. Just before I left Dallas in 1986, I spent over six months researching the first 600 years of church history regarding the development of the practice of hierarchy in the Body of Christ and the focus on the universal church. It seemed that we had been on an express train in the local churches covering much of the same ground I saw in church history. Once I moved to North Carolina, my own Arabia, I continued to pray and research the whole matter of “the Work,” “Deputy Authority” and Hierarchy,and the local church assembly and churches vs the Universal Church.

Mike you have well stated part of our delima. We must separate the errors that developed in church history and in the local churches from the simple and direct teachings of the Bible. Many things referred to in the New Testament are descriptive not prescriptive yet I hold that all is of the Holy Spirit. But it is critical not to bring superstitious notions and preconceived agendas to the descriptive items.

I mentioned that I had long considered what the consequences could have been for Paul’s actions in Jerusalem. Maybe this is why some turned away from him. Perhaps this is why the Lord allowed him to be imprisoned from which he wrote the most wonderful epistles. Perhaps this is an example of 1 Cor. Chapter nine being all things to all people that I might win some. Perhaps this was a big misstep and the Holy Spirit had it recorded as a warning to all and to undermine any hero worship among the believers. We can come up with many “perhaps this.” But it is just too easy to have our own shade of sun glasses on. We need others to give a little push back. This biggest danger to real fellowship in the word and truth is coming to the exchange with an agenda or a promotional attitude for a particular point of view.

I have appreciated many of the posters here who have the grace and measure of maturity to push back when any dogmatic one size fits all proposition is laid out. Likewise I have seen many of the posters take grace when they have been rebutted and changed their view or stand firm as the Lord leads their conscience.

Here are a few of Mike’s admonitions which to me were very good.

Originally Posted by OBW

As usual, I come to be the fly in the ointment. Not because I think I have it right, but because I see something that I think is worthy of discussion.

First, while there is ample room to argue that the abandonment of Paul by Asia had something to do with the “error” that Paul fell into in Jerusalem, I do not see it delineated in anything that has been recorded for our consumption and consideration. Until someone can establish more than a correlative link, it is presumptive to say that one caused the other.

Having said that, I do not disagree that a reasonable study in proper conduct of the Christian life might include a study of Paul’s “error,” an analysis of whether it was an error, and also of the abandonment by Asia under the assumption they are linked. There is much in the dynamics of what happened to both as a result of their success and or failure in fellowship, forgiveness, exhortation, and a number of the so-called “one anothers” that are found in the NT.

The other point is that if we are determined that everything in scripture is universally and for all time prescriptive, then there will be many problems with scripture

I also find it interesting that we are discussing error in Paul’s teachings about elders simply because others took the terms and created something not supported by anything in scripture. Are we trying to excise the part of scripture that we have seen used wrongly as the cure to that wrong?

Beware. Tossing scripture because of other’s misapplication is worse than tossing the baby with the bathwater. It is willful tossing of the baby.

Dear brother YPO534,
This is an excellent topic. I would like to address some items you have brought up in another post. By the way, is your moniker YPO and then numeric or YP and then numeric. What is the significance of the alley cats?

Hope, Don Rutledge
A believer in Christ Jesus who is seeking to become a true disciple.