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Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Does Rome teach a correct understanding of 1 Timothy 3:15, Part 1

What is Paul trying to say in 1 Timothy 3:15? And what is Rome trying to tell you with its use of this verse? Are they the same thing?

Look at the sentence, “Walking down the hall, I saw a statue”. Now, if I were the one walking down the hall, and saw a statue, that would be one thing. But if it were the case, “I saw a statue walking down the hall,” that would be a different thing!

In understanding this verse, the grammatical concept of an “appositive” needs to be introduced. An “appositive” is a noun or nominative phrase that is “placed next to” another phrase or concept, “usually occurring directly after” the earlier noun or phrase, “and standing for the same thing”. Here are some examples, with the appositive phrase in italics:
At camp we met Mr. Willett, the scoutmaster.

Our first dog, a spaniel, was very fond of the baby.

The two senior members, James and I, are in charge of public relations.

The guide, a man of great courage and skill, was mainly responsible for our rescue.

His trouble was money, the notorious root of all evil.
(Source, Gucker’s “Essential English Grammar”)

“Appositives” come into play, because this verse from Paul seems to have several of them. And the topic comes up in one or more of the commentaries that deal with the verse.

Pete Holter and I have been having a discussion that began in the comments of this thread, and it continued here and in some private emails.

My topic, at any rate, was the question of either “teaching correctly about the word of God” [Martin Luther’s words] or, as I later pointed out, doing what Rome does, rather than trying to understand the text and then allowing it to speak its word, the Roman Catholic starts with modern Roman doctrine, and then uses Biblical texts in such a way that they can seemingly provide support for those [Roman] doctrines. In that regard, I provided a link to a blog post I had written about Rome’s use of 1 Timothy 3:15, where I said:
My contention in this posting is that Rome’s official usage of this verse is wrong at best. But what’s worse is that in popular apologetics, Roman apologists are going far beyond what even Rome says in this verse.

One popular Catholic writer said this: “As Saint Paul taught, the church is ‘the pillar and ground of the truth’ – she does not err. (1 Tim 3:15)” [This was a Taylor Marshall-ism.]
Rome’s misuse of the verse is bad enough [especially from an “infallible church” in an official, conciliar document]. But what’s worse is that Rome’s usage fosters a “scattering” of what this verse really says among know-nothing Roman Apologists (and others) who continue to spread these false meanings far beyond Rome’s already-bad usage of it. Here is another example from a popular Roman Catholic website:
1 Tim. 3:15 - Paul says the apostolic Church (not Scripture) is the pillar and foundation of the truth. But for the Church to be the pinnacle and foundation of truth, she must be protected from teaching error, or infallible. She also must be the Catholic Church, whose teachings on faith and morals have not changed for 2,000 years. God loves us so much that He gave us a Church that infallibly teaches the truth so that we have the fullness of the means of salvation in His only begotten Son.
To be sure, this has nothing to do with what Paul was saying to Timothy in 1 Tim 3:15. And keep in mind, again, the topic was Martin Luther’s comment about “teaching correctly about the word of God”. Rome wasn’t doing this at the time of the Reformation, and it’s not doing it now.


2.

In order to “teach correctly” this verse, we first need to understand what Paul is actually saying.

For background purposes, here is the passage in Greek: Ταῦτά σοι γράφω ἐλπίζων ἐλθεῖν πρὸς σὲ ἐν τάχει ἐὰν δὲ βραδύνω, ἵνα εἰδῇς πῶς δεῖ ἐν οἴκῳ θεοῦ ἀναστρέφεσθαι, ἥτις ἐστὶν ἐκκλησία θεοῦ ζῶντος, στῦλος καὶ ἑδραίωμα τῆς ἀληθείας.

Here it is in the ESV: I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.

NIV: Although I hope to come to you soon, I am writing you these instructions so that, if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.

In my original post, I provided extensive selections from three commentators, and each of those is reproduced here for anyone who wants to look at them:

The Text of 1 Tim 3:15, including the entire chapter for context.

Philip Towner on 1 Tim 3:15, The Letters to Timothy and Titus, New International Commentary on the New Testament (NICNT) series, Grand Rapids, MI and Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, ©2006.

L.T. Johnson on 1 Tim 3:15, The First and Second Letters to Timothy: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries, New York, NY: The Anchor Bible Doubleday, ©2001.

George Knight on 1 Tim 3:15, The Pastoral Epistles: A Commentary on the Greek Text (New International Greek Testament Commentary (NIGTC) series, Grand Rapids, MI, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, ©1992.

Note: Clicking on the “[Name] on 1 Tim 3:15” links will take you to a blog post at my own blog that shows the scanned pages from the commentary; the links behind the commas, showing the name of the work, takes you to the Amazon.com page for that work.


3.

Now, here is Rome’s official use of this verse in Lumen Gentium 8:
Christ, the one Mediator, established and continually sustains here on earth His holy Church, the community of faith, hope and charity, as an entity with visible delineation through which He communicated truth and grace to all. But, the society structured with hierarchical organs and the Mystical Body of Christ, are not to be considered as two realities, nor are the visible assembly and the spiritual community, nor the earthly Church and the Church enriched with heavenly things; rather they form one complex reality which coalesces from a divine and a human element. For this reason, by no weak analogy, it is compared to the mystery of the incarnate Word. As the assumed nature inseparably united to Him, serves the divine Word as a living organ of salvation, so, in a similar way, does the visible social structure of the Church serve the Spirit of Christ, who vivifies it, in the building up of the body.

This is the one Church of Christ which in the Creed is professed as one, holy, catholic and apostolic, which our Saviour, after His Resurrection, commissioned Peter to shepherd, and him and the other apostles to extend and direct with authority, which He erected for all ages as “the pillar and mainstay of the truth”. This Church constituted and organized in the world as a society, subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him…

Taking the bold-face portions from Lumen Gentium, here is what Rome is saying without all the densely-packed modifiers:

Christ, the one Mediator, established and continually sustains here on earth His holy Church, [the society structured with hierarchical organs and the Mystical Body of Christ]. This is the one Church of Christ which He erected for all ages as “the pillar and mainstay of the truth”.

Rome’s language is dense, which makes it difficult to follow the main thought that’s presented here. But taking out all the modifiers, this is what we are left with. This is what we are to understand what Rome, officially, is saying. This is how Rome understands, and teaches 1 Tim 3:15. In Rome’s usage, Rome does in fact appear to be saying that Christ’s whole purpose in founding the church in its current Roman manifestation, in fact, the whole purpose of the hierarchical structure of the church is to function as a “pillar and mainstay of the truth”. But is that what Paul means? Is this anything close to what Paul is saying?

Since this is already long, I’ll pause for now, and pick up the discussion in a future blog post.

13 comments:

  1. John,

    to answer the question, no.

    There are not that many verses where the word "pillar" is used.

    I would take from that cluster three of them, two from the Old Testament, from the Law and a peculiar verse about the pillar Absalom erected and then the one from the book of the Revelation.

    I would also observe that most of the Old Testament verses where the word pillar is used focus on Christ being the pillar of cloud and fire leading a stiffnecked people from Egypt to the land of promise they were to assume as the posterity of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

    Here, Lev_26:1 "You shall not make idols for yourselves or erect an image or pillar, and you shall not set up a figured stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the LORD your God.


    ...

    2Sa_18:18 Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and set up for himself the pillar that is in the King's Valley, for he said, "I have no son to keep my name in remembrance." He called the pillar after his own name, and it is called Absalom's monument to this day.

    ...

    Rev_3:12 The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.


    Having answered your question in the negative ("no") I would only observe those two verses, their intent and prohibition found in connection between Leviticus and the peculiar nature for Absalom's erected pillar.

    Both of those, it seems to me, betray the RCC's fundamental faith about herself being the "pillar" requiring the pillar to be a "she" not the "He" to be embraced, which parenthetically supports Martin Luther's charge that the RCC is really anti-Christ in sum and substance having a visceral reaction against her as the Spirit of Grace and Truth got a hold of him and led him out of her.

    When you couple the two places the Apostle Paul uses the Greek Word συζωοποιέω/suzōopoieō with that verse from the book of the Revelation, you get a sense why we, too, ought to consider more forcefully Martin Luther's idea about RCC and continue to bring into the light the error as you do with this thread?

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  2. Hi John Bugay!

    Thanks for keeping this thread alive!

    You wrote, “Rome does in fact appear to be saying that Christ’s whole purpose in founding the church in its current Roman manifestation, in fact, the whole purpose of the hierarchical structure of the church is to function as a ‘pillar and mainstay of the truth.’ But is that what Paul means? Is this anything close to what Paul is saying?”

    I think we agree that the Church of Christ is endowed with a teaching office. Paul tells Timothy to “Command and teach these things” and to “devote [him]self to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching,” to “keep a close watch on [him]self and on the teaching.” “Persist in this,” he says, “for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.” Leaders are those who need to “rightly” handle “the word of truth” and be “able to teach.” And those “who labor in preaching and teaching” are especially “worthy of double honor.” Paul hopes that “God may perhaps grant” to our opponents “repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth” through patient doctrinal correction, for God “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Conversely, he laments those who are “always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth” and predicts that “the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching,” but “will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”

    Thus, this teaching office (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:28 & Ephesians 4:11) is the primary instrument of making the truth known both in and through the Church. Making Jesus known takes place through the verbal proclamation of His Gospel and of “the whole counsel of God […] so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” (Acts 20:27; Ephesians 3:10). The intended effect of the teaching office is “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (Ephesians 4:12-14), but so that we may instead speak “the truth in love” and always be “prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks… for a reason for the hope that is in” us (Ephesians 4:15, 1 Peter 3:15).

    This teaching office was founded by Jesus and His apostles, and was passed on in each generation – from the previous generation of teaching authority to the subsequent generation – through the laying on of hands (cf. Acts 6:6, 14:23; 1 Timothy 4:14, 5:22 ; 2 Timothy 1:6, 2:2; and Titus 1:5), Jesus giving to His Church and its teaching office at one and the same time both sacramental visibility/objectivity and historical connectivity to Himself and to His earthly ministry.

    The Church, I would say, and not the hierarchy, is the pillar and mainstay of the truth. But it is something akin to the manner just described that the teaching office or hierarchical gifts/organs of the Church, as part of the Church, enable the Church to function more effectively as a pillar and mainstay of the truth.

    I hope that you and your loved ones will find your way back home to Big Mama Church. :)

    With love in Christ,
    Pete Holter

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  3. Hi Natamllc, thanks for your comments. Those are good insights, and I believe that idolatry is the base understanding of Rome's insistence on inserting itself as the object in view between the believer and God.

    Pete: I hope that you and your loved ones will find your way back home to Big Mama Church. :)

    In spite of your cheerfulness, I'm firmly convinced that "Big Mama Rome" is the most diabolical organization on the face of the earth. And I'll hope to demonstrate my reasons for that belief as I go forward.

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  4. "I think we agree that the Church of Christ is endowed with a teaching office."

    There is no such thing as a "teaching office". The Church doesn't teach. She is to be taught.

    Nobody can install an "official teacher" in the Church. Teachers are given by Christ to His Church. Of course in the times of decay, people will pick and choose who teaches them as predicted by Paul in 2 Tim 4:3, thus setting Christ aside.

    Roman Catholics and generally the Protestants are wrong on this.

    RCC'ers claim that the gifts are tied to authority. It is not so. Everyone is to judge what others utter in the assembly of the believers (church), see 1 Cor 14:29 and everyone has something (1 Cor 14:26). In addition, all are priests, 1 Pet 2:9.
    Protestants confuse the gifts with the charges and so limit the efficacy of what Christ gives to His Church. But elders taking the lead are not necessarily teachers as 1 Tim 5:17 shows. The closed pulpit system, precludes all correction and diversity of nourishment of what Christ provides to His Church, Eph 5. How is Timothy otherwise to correct and instruct? 1 Tim 1:3

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  5. Greetings in the LORD, Holdon!

    What is your Christian tradition? I’m sorry if you’ve already told me and I forgot.

    One shouldn’t be appointed to be an elder unless he is “able to teach” (1 Timothy 3:2; cf. 2 Timothy 2:2), “able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also [able] to rebuke those who contradict it” (Titus 1:9). Consequently, an elder is a teacher by office. But there are some elders who labor as a teacher and preacher, i.e., they work really hard at it; and it is these hard-working elders that Paul is commending in 1 Timothy 5:17. This isn’t to say that others don’t teach within the Body of Christ, or aren’t gifted by the Holy Spirit to do so; but it is to say that this task of teaching and preaching the faith falls most heavily upon our leaders, who, as teachers, “will be judged with greater strictness” (James 3:1), and to whose teaching authority we are commanded to submit (cf. Hebrews 13:17).

    “[T]he preaching of the Gospel… is the principal duty of bishops” (The Council of Trent, Session V, Decree on Reformation, Ch. 2).

    “The bishop should be first and foremost a herald of the Faith, who leads new disciples to Christ” (Vatican II, Ad Gentes, 20).

    “It is necessary, first of all to teach this to the people: The body of Christ was similar to ours, with the exception of sin. It is not only but also sanctifying, capable of suffering, exposed to death, and able to stand in the stead of all of us. Christ offered His body, and us at the same time, to satisfy divine justice (cf. 1 Peter 3:18). He handed Himself — and us at the same time — to all the torments which our crimes merited. He was condemned to the sorrows of death and suffered the curse given to sinners by the law: death under the harshest tortures. He satisfied the law, for the death and burial of Jesus Christ abolished all sin. The Lord Jesus rose from the grave with the same flesh but it was stripped of its mortality and adorned with glory of eternity. In order that they may be justified, it is necessary for sinners to die with Christ, Who died in their place and in their name. Then they must enter the grave with Christ, in order to leave behind the flesh defiled by sin. They must hand over the old man to the wrath of God and to the death of the sinner, so that by baptism a new man might return to life in us and live again with Christ in immortality and eternal glory…

    “The principal duty of the bishop is to preach the word of God, for the apostle cried: ‘Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel. It is a duty which has been laid on me’ (1 Corinthians 9:16). The Lord Jesus Christ did not send him primarily to baptize — even though this is a holy action — but especially to preach the gospel (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:17). We know that the ministry of the word held first place in the minds of the apostles and that these holy men did not neglect this duty (cf. Acts 6:2, 4). For this reason they thought it fitting to entrust to deacons the rest of the charitable works toward their neighbors. St. Paul writes to Timothy: ‘Make use of the time until I arrive by reading to the people, preaching, and teaching’ (1 Tm 4:13)…

    “Therefore, trusting not in ourselves but in the God who raises the dead to life (cf. 2 Corinthians 1:9), we despise human affairs and cry out to the Lord: ‘You are my hope in the day of disaster’ (Jeremiah 17:17). Let us never be exhausted in body or in spirit, for we are fellow workers with God (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:9). The Lord Jesus is with us always even to the end of time (cf. Matthew 28:20). Therefore let us not be weakened by scandal or persecution, lest we seem ungrateful for God’s favor, since His assistance is as strong as His promises are true” (Pope Clement XIII, A Quo Die).

    “His assistance is as strong as His promises are true.” I love this quote!

    Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

    With love in Christ,
    Pete

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  6. Pete,

    "One shouldn’t be appointed to be an elder unless he is “able to teach” (1 Timothy 3:2; cf. 2 Timothy 2:2), “able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also [able] to rebuke those who contradict it” (Titus 1:9). Consequently, an elder is a teacher by office. But there are some elders who labor as a teacher and preacher, i.e., they work really hard at it; and it is these hard-working elders that Paul is commending in 1 Timothy 5:17. This isn’t to say that others don’t teach within the Body of Christ, or aren’t gifted by the Holy Spirit to do so; but it is to say that this task of teaching and preaching the faith falls most heavily upon our leaders, who, as teachers, “will be judged with greater strictness” (James 3:1), and to whose teaching authority we are commanded to submit (cf. Hebrews 13:17)."

    You may want to read 1 Tim 3:2 as "teachable", meaning the bishops (plural! in Ephesus, see Acts 20) were supposed to absorb the teachings so as to be able to exhort (Titus 1:9) the others in their local assembly (church).
    The issue is that since the departure of the apostles, there is no official leadership, only moral leadership, as can be clearly seen in Hebr. 13. The warnings of the apostles were clear: after their departure ravenous wolves, hirelings, misleaders, would not spare the flock.
    The whole idea of "officially appointed" clergy set aside the sovereign workings and gifts of the Holy Spirit in each and every member of Christ.

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  7. Hi Holdon!

    If we take a look at what elders do, it might help us better determine what elders need to be able to do.

    That elders have a calling to teach is seen where Timothy is told to entrust his doctrine to “men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:2), being sure not to “be hasty in the laying on of hands” (1 Timothy 5:22). Timothy is again told to “[c]ommand and teach these things,” “to teach and urge these things,” and to devote himself “to teaching” (1 Timothy 4:11, 6:2, 4:13). He is to “reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:2). And Titus was charged to “show integrity” in his “teaching” (Titus 2:7): “Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you” (Titus 2:15). And again, the elders who are especially worthy of “double honor” are “those who labor in preaching and teaching” (1 Timothy 5:17).

    These observations of the duties being carried out by Timothy and Titus, as catechizers of those who are catechized (cf. Galatians 6:6), help us to see that “able to teach” is a fitting translation of the requirement for the job, the word being seen here in 1 Timothy 3:2 and in 2 Timothy 2:24.

    I guess I’ll see you guys next week, if the LORD wills.

    By the grace and love towards man of our Lord Jesus Christ,
    Pete

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  8. Pete,

    "These observations of the duties being carried out by Timothy and Titus, as catechizers of those who are catechized (cf. Galatians 6:6), help us to see that “able to teach” is a fitting translation of the requirement for the job, the word being seen here in 1 Timothy 3:2 and in 2 Timothy 2:24."

    It (Gal 6:6) goes to show that "teachers" and "taught" are different people. From those to be elders, it was required that they be "teachable" or "taught the (good) doctrine", as "didaktikon" is derived from the past participle form "taught", not the active "teach" and therein lies the whole difference.

    The christian doctrine was taught once and for all by the Apostles. No one was to go beyond that: 2 Jn 1:9. The right way is always to go back to the source: not the Church Fathers (already in the days of the apostles many deceivers had come and more were to follow); not the Roman system built by deceivers; but the written words inspired by the Holy Spirit.
    The Church (the one that is the assembly of the Living God), does not teach, but is taught.

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  9. The most i see the Greek words for "pillar and ground" supporting is that the church supports the truth, but the church that does is the "church of the living God," which precludes Rome as being the OTC, and like institutionalized bodies.

    Only insofar as a church preaches the gospel which effects conviction of sin, righteousness and judgment, and thus conversion with manifest regeneration (which in Scripture usually occurred in the same hours as they heard the word), can it claim to be of the living God, not one in a museum.

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  10. Hello again, Holdon!

    I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving.

    You wrote that “[i]t (Gal 6:6) goes to show that ‘teachers’ and ‘taught’ are different people.” We agree. What we disagree on is (1) whether all elders are also teachers, and, I suppose, (2) whether both types of people are even found in the Church. I’ll come back to the first one, but as to the second one: on the one hand you say that “Teachers are given by Christ to His Church,” and on the other hand you say that “[t]he Church doesn’t teach. She is to be taught,” and that “[t]he Church (the one that is the assembly of the Living God), does not teach, but is taught.” While we agree that the Church is taught, what we want you to allow us to say is that teachers teach; that, furthermore, teachers are part of the Church; and that, therefore, the Church teaches.

    You then wrote,

    “From those to be elders, it was required that they be ‘teachable’ or ‘taught the (good) doctrine’, as ‘didaktikon’ is derived from the past participle form ‘taught’, not the active ‘teach’ and therein lies the whole difference.”

    Although I am unpersuaded that it should be translated, “teachable,” the only interpretation I would dogmatically oppose is one that refused to connect this “teachableness” with its ultimate purpose in finding expression in an ability to teach that which has been learned. Keeping in mind my previous comment about the duties that Timothy and Titus were required to carry out as part of their ministry as elders, I would see this “teachable-ness” as at least necessarily implying a “teach-ableness.” But the reason that I am not persuaded to adopt the “teachable” translation is that I am convinced that we find this quality (what Paul is speaking of here in 1 Timothy 3:2) being decisively expressed in the active voice in 2 Timothy 2:2, and that Paul has elders in mind when he instructs Timothy to entrust his doctrine to those who are ἱκανοὶ διδάξαι, i.e., competent to teach. If you do not agree that what we find in 2 Timothy 2:2 is strictly denoted by 1 Timothy 3:2, I would like to ask of you that we agree on this: that what we find in 2 Timothy 2:2 needs to be at least necessarily implied by our translation of 1 Timothy 3:2.

    You wrote that “[t]he Christian doctrine was taught once and for all by the Apostles,” and that “[n]o one was to go beyond that.” We agree. Lumen Gentium asserts that the bishops of the Catholic Church “do not accept [a new public revelation] as pertaining to the divine deposit of faith.” Henceforth, we are looking for teachers who will “diligently strive to inquire properly into that revelation [once delivered] and to give apt expression to its contents” (Lumen Gentium, 25).

    In Christ,
    Pete

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  11. Pete,

    "While we agree that the Church is taught, what we want you to allow us to say is that teachers teach; that, furthermore, teachers are part of the Church; and that, therefore, the Church teaches."

    Don't you feel this is kind of tortuous reasoning? The Church teaches the Church? How does that make sense? But don't the Scriptures teach that Christ gave teachers to His Body, the Church? Eph 4:11,12. Stick to that word and you will be well.

    As far as 2 Tim 2:2, no word of elders there, so at a loss why you bring that up.
    Again, why not stick with the translation of one of your doctors for 2 Tim 2:24
    "servum autem Domini non oportet litigare sed mansuetum esse ad omnes docibilem patientem" (Latin Vulgate)

    By the way, no context of elders there either. But a definite protestant context where one who is faithful to the Lord demonstrates it by separating ("lit: purifying himself away from") the dishonorable vessels in the great house (no longer called the house of God).

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    Hi Holdon!

    We seem to be at opposite ends of the spectrum! :) I hope that these thoughts can help bring us closer together.

    You wrote, “Don't you feel this is kind of tortuous reasoning? The Church teaches the Church? How does that make sense? But don't the Scriptures teach that Christ gave teachers to His Body, the Church? Eph 4:11,12. Stick to that word and you will be well.”

    Yes, the Church teaches the Church because we are all members of the one Body of Christ, which can, at least in one sense, be divided into the two groups of those who teach and those who are taught (cf. Galatians 6:6). All Christians are part of the Church, and “all Christians” includes some who are teachers.

    You say that 2 Timothy 2:2 has “no word of elders there, so at a loss why you bring that up.” There are larger concepts that I am trying to bring to bear.

    For example, Paul gathers all of the Elders of Ephesus and charges them to “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood” (Acts 20:28). Compare this thought with Paul’s charge to Timothy: “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers” (1 Timothy 4:16). I think we have mirrored sentiments here. If we make this connection, we can see that the shepherding of the flock that Paul charges the elders as responsible for in Acts, must necessarily include a verbal preaching and teaching of the Gospel. One observation that helps us make this connection is noticing that the recipients of this pastoral care are referred to as “hearers” in 1 Timothy.

    In Acts 15, all of the elders were “gathered together to consider this matter,” and the authoritative letter issued in the name of the council was sent from “the elders” (Acts 15:6, 23). This again provides a context from within which elders, without distinction, are shown to be filling the role of teacher.

    We can note that Paul divides the leadership into an episcopacy and diaconate. If we compare the roles of bishops and deacons, and we compare this with the institution of the diaconate under the apostles – which again resulted in providing the Church with a kind of twofold ministry – we can come to appreciate that deacons have a ministry focused on service through works of charity, and that they do this in order to free up the ministry of bishops, who have succeeded the apostles in their leadership role, in “preaching the word of God” (Acts 6:2), i.e., in “the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4), i.e., in “preaching and teaching” (Acts 5:42, 15:35; 1 Timothy 5:17).

    Immediately following the discussion of women not being allowed to teach and to have authority over men (cf. 1 Timothy 2:12), Paul moves into the discussion of the qualifications for elders/bishops. An explanation for this that readily presents itself to us is to recognize that Paul’s train of thought is making the natural movement from those who do not teach or have authority, to those who do teach and have authority.

    Again, Paul says to “[l]et the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching” (1 Timothy 5:17). The implication here is that elders rule best by making preaching and teaching the emphasis of their ministry. But this could only be true if preaching and teaching served as their most effective mode of rule. He goes on to say in this context that “The laborer deserves his wages” (1 Timothy 5:18), again meaning that “preaching and teaching” is the primary function that they’re being paid to perform, and that their best-laid claim to wages is based upon the extent of their labor in proclaiming the gospel through this preaching and teaching (cf. 1 Corinthians 9:14).

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  13. (2 of 2)

    If by “one of your doctors” you are referring to Jerome, he believed that bishops were the teachers of our faith and that “there is no such thing as a Church without bishops” (Dialogue Against the Luciferians, 9). Please keep in mind that I am not concerned to reject “teachable” per se; but I am concerned to reject the endeavor to disconnect this trait from its fulfillment in making someone a suitable teacher. For example, Cyprian goes with your wording and says that “the blessed Apostle Paul writes to Timothy, and warns him that a bishop must not be ‘litigious, nor contentious, but gentle and teachable.’ Now he is teachable who is meek and gentle to the patience of learning.” But Cyprian proceeds to bring out the necessary implication of your wording by continuing: “For it behooves a bishop not only to teach, but also to learn; because he also teaches better who daily increases and advances by learning better” (Cyprian, Letter 73). Again, Paul, “to show what is peculiar to the Bishops, adds, ‘apt to teach.’ For this is not required of him that is ruled, but is most essential to him who has this rule committed to him.” “Apt to teach” because the man is being “made a Teacher” (John Chrysostom, Homily 10 on 1 Timothy).

    I’m afraid I’ll have to leave it at this because I am not familiar with your faith tradition and I am not sure how to gain common ground at this point. If you are open to learning the Catholic faith, let me know if you have any questions you’d like me to answer, and I’ll try to do my best to help you. Or if you’d like to share a website that articulates the doctrines of your tradition, I could try to enter further into this dialogue.

    Have a blessed Lord’s Day!

    With love in Christ,
    Pete

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