Where are the Apostles?

[m1thrand1r]

I Cor 3:10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.

In the midst of this discussion of working to build the church, Paul refers to himself as a ‘wise masterbuilder.’ As I began to meditate on the job of a masterbuilder my mind began to wander over the state of Christianity as we find it today.

Before the completion of the canon of Scripture there was a great danger of heresy being spread about the teaching of Jesus. Apostles were commissioned by Christ to represent the authority of God in dealing with matters of heresy as well as matters of sin in the early church.

Now, in our modern church, we have a more sure word (2 Peter 1:19) in dealing with sin and heresy. But what we lack in our day is the accountability.

In I Corinthians we see Paul in verse 4:18-19 warning the church that he will be coming to set things straight. He’s going to rebuke those who are wrong. We even see the image of a ‘rod’ being used — chastisement is going to fall on those who will not repent of their error.

But who carries out this task in our modern Independent Baptist Church movement? We so highly prize the priesthood of the believer, and the individual soul liberty of our churches — as we should. But in doing so, have we sacrificed the ability to be corrected by those see our error?

The news is full of stories of pastors in sin and error. When a church ceases to judge itself, where is the court of appeal? When a preacher sets himself up as a pope, where do his people turn for redress of grievances? Although we would bristle at the though that an outsider would presume to come into our congregation and ‘clean house’ of error or sin, is there a place for an ‘independent counsel’ for our churches? Do we in Baptist circles have need of a higher human authority to which we can appeal?

It’s just my thought for the day.

http://www.darrelldow.com/blog/?p=126