The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright ©2018 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB) which is in the public domain.

Chapter 44

Authority in the Assembly

No popes, chief apostles, archbishops, or even church pastors —

In the earliest ekklesia, there was no authority at all!

Wrong.

There was authority given to men to shepherd the ekklesia. But it was never given to just one man. The authority was to serve the flock, not to exalt the man.

There was no one-man rule anywhere. However, since there were no monocrats either overall or locally — that’s not to say there was no authority in the local assemblies.

Sometimes the claim is made that since all brethren are the spiritual priesthood, there is no authority at all in the New Covenant assemblies.

1 Pet 2
5) You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Yeshua Christ.

9) But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:

Peter referred to all believers as a holy priesthood and a royal priesthood. And in Acts 15, the decision against circumcision was made by the apostles and elders and the whole assembly.

Acts 15
22) Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole assembly, to choose men out of their company, and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas: Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, chief men among the brothers.
23) They wrote these things by their hand: “The apostles, the elders, and the brothers, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia: greetings.

From that, some may conclude that there was no human authority at all in the church — that all were priests with no one having ecclesiastical authority over anyone else. That would make the ordaining of elders and shepherds meaningless, and that conclusion does not match the reality of the New Testament.

Paul wrote about half of the books of the New Testament. He was an apostle and said he had the authority of an apostle.

1 Thess 2
5) For neither were we at any time found using words of flattery, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness (God is witness),
6) nor seeking glory from men (neither from you nor from others), when we might have claimed authority as apostles of Christ.

9) For you remember, brothers, our labor and travail; for working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, we preached to you the Good News of God.

Since he was preaching the Good News, those who believed the Good News had the obligation to supply Paul’s daily needs. He said he had the authority to claim that, but instead he worked night and day to support himself while he preached.

He also made the same point to the Corinthians.

1 Cor 9
1) Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Haven’t I seen Yeshua Christ, our Lord? Aren’t you my work in the Lord?
2) If to others I am not an apostle, yet at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
3) My defense to those who examine me is this.
4) Have we no right to eat and to drink?

This right to be supported doing Christ’s work was not a right to be well to do but just the right to stay alive, not as a corporate CEO but only as a another mouth to feed — the “right to eat and drink.”

1 Cor 9 (cont.)
5) Have we no right to take along a wife who is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?
6) Or have only Barnabas and I no right to not work?

Paul shows there that the rest of the apostles, and James and Jude the brothers of the Lord, and Peter did use that right to be fed while they served. They did not work at earthly jobs when they did heavenly work. They didn’t get rich from that. They and their wives only got fed.

1 Cor 9 (cont.)
7) What soldier ever serves at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard, and doesn’t eat of its fruit? Or who feeds a flock, and doesn’t drink from the flock’s milk?
8) Do I speak these things according to the ways of men? Or doesn’t the law also say the same thing?
9) For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.” Is it for the oxen that God cares,
10) or does he say it assuredly for our sake? Yes, it was written for our sake, because he who plows ought to plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should partake of his hope.
11) If we sowed to you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we reap your fleshly things?
12) If others partake of this right over you, don’t we yet more? Nevertheless we did not use this right, but we bear all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the Good News of Christ.
13) Don’t you know that those who serve around sacred things eat from the things of the temple, and those who wait on the altar have their portion with the altar?
14) Even so the Lord ordained that those who proclaim the Good News should live from the Good News.
15) But I have used none of these things, and I don’t write these things that it may be done so in my case; for I would rather die, than that anyone should make my boasting void.

Notice how Paul keeps referring to their “right”; Young’s Literal Translation uses the word “authority.” Paul’s point was that he, the rest of the apostles, and others who proclaimed the Good News had the right or authority to be kept alive while they did that. Paul often chose not to use that authority but he did have it.

So there was authority in the assemblies.

The most striking use of authority was when Paul told the assembly at Corinth to put an adulterer out of the flock.

1 Cor 5
1) It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that one has his father’s wife.
2) You are puffed up, and didn’t rather mourn, that he who had done this deed might be removed from among you.
3) For I most certainly, as being absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as though I were present, judged him who has done this thing.
4) In the name of our Lord Yeshua Christ, you being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Yeshua Christ,
5) are to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Yeshua.

Paul bluntly told the Corinthians to put the adulterer out of their midst, for their good and for the sinner’s.

The shepherds or elders in Corinth should have done that already. A shepherd protects a flock by keeping away danger, either of false teaching or allowing sinful practices. Apparently both the elders and the assembly as a whole were overwhelmed by the ‘love the sinner by letting him sin attitude’ that often appears. The elders and shepherds there had not protected that flock, so Paul used his spiritual authority to command the Corinthians to put out the adulterer.

In his second letter to Corinth, Paul mentioned that both the group and the adulterer had repented. The adulterer stopped his sinning and the assembly stopped approving his sin. And in that letter, Paul mentioned that he had the authority to do what he had done.

2 Cor 13
2) I have said beforehand, and I do say beforehand, as when I was present the second time, so now, being absent, I write to those who have sinned before now, and to all the rest, that, if I come again, I will not spare;
10) For this cause I write these things while absent, that I may not deal sharply when present, according to the authority which the Lord gave me for building up, and not for tearing down.

Paul spoke of dealing sharply with a congregation when necessary. He had the authority to do that.

He also instructed Timothy and Titus to reprove.

2 Tim 4
1) I command you therefore before God and the Lord Yeshua Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom:
2) preach the word; be urgent in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with all patience and teaching.

Titus 1
10) For there are also many unruly men, vain talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,
11) whose mouths must be stopped; men who overthrow whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for dishonest gain’s sake.
12) One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and idle gluttons.”
13) This testimony is true. For this cause, reprove them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith,

The purpose of reproving is to keep the faith sound. Without that reproving or correcting, sound faith is lost, as if Corinth had never put out the adulterer.

Paul told Titus to exhort and to reprove with all authority.

Titus 2
15) Say these things and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no man despise you.

Since Paul told Timothy and Titus to reprove, that shows that authority to correct did not rest just with the apostles. Others were ordained to have authority, too.

Authority to do what?

Exhort, reprove and rebuke.

That is — to exhort to obedience, to reprove or speak out against sin, and to rebuke or publicly confront those practicing sin, as Paul did with Corinth and with Peter in Galatians. Shepherds naturally have authority to protect the sheep. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be shepherds.

Elders were to teach Godly conduct and to ensure that was taught and practiced among the flock. Their authority never went beyond teaching right and wrong and enforcing that in the assembly. When Paul wrote to Philemon, he had no authority to tell Philemon what to do with his slave Onesimus. And in a local assembly, the authority was a shared authority among elders, working together in the spirit of Christ, to exhort, reprove and rebuke.

However, all in the assembly were also responsible for rebuking sin. That shows how liberal Corinth had become, where the whole flock, shepherds and sheep, accepted the practice of adultery in their midst. Each of them had the responsibility to rebuke that sin. This was an extension of Yahweh’s instructions to Israel.

Lev 19
17) “‘You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him.

To not rebuke sin is to approve it, as the Corinthians did with the adulterer. To not rebuke a sinner is to hate him in your heart because his sin will do him in.

Paul told the Thessalonians to exhort and correct each other.

1Thess 5
11) Therefore exhort one another, and build each other up, even as you also do.
12) But we beg you, brothers, to know those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you,
13) and to respect and honor them in love for their work’s sake. Be at peace among yourselves.
14) We exhort you, brothers, admonish the disorderly, encourage the fainthearted, support the weak, be patient toward all.

So there Paul mentioned those who are “over you in the Lord,” yet he told them all to admonish each other.

He also told the Ephesians to reprove each other.

Eph 5:11
11) Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them.

Again, authority in the flock is to exhort believers to do what’s right and to reprove and possibly expel those who do wrong, for the good of all. This authority is not to force people to obey, convert, or conform by doing them harm. Obedience must be done of free will, from the heart, not the eyes. Satan uses harmful force to force obedience. Christ uses spirit to lead to obedience. Authority is used to teach what is right, not to try to force people to do what is right. The choice of right and wrong is presented, and each person chooses his path. Those who choose sin are removed from the flock. They don’t belong there.

In a passage about elders, Paul instructed Timothy to reprove in the sight of all those who were sinning.

WEB 1 Tim 5
19) Don’t receive an accusation against an elder, except at the word of two or three witnesses.
20) Those who sin, reprove in the sight of all, that the rest also may be in fear.

As recorded in Galatians, Paul reproved Peter in the sight of all. That principle of public correcting seems to apply not just to elders, because in Corinth the whole assembly knew why the adulterer was put out. And if such a person as Peter could be publicly reproved, certainly any other errant believer could, too.

In today’s litigious, government watchdog society, to reprove a sinner in the sight of all brings all sorts of legal problems. Lawsuits! So some might think that today we simply cannot follow Paul’s instructions to reprove in the sight of all because of the legal risks. Satan’s end time society considers such an action as cruel and hateful. Consequently open rebuke against sin today is seldom heard.

The problem, though, is not with Paul’s instructions to reprove in the sight of all. The Bible is not a cultural document that becomes irrelevant in a different time and society. If what Paul said was good then, it’s good now.

The problem is with churches’ organization. They are structured like worldly corporations instead of like the original ekklesia, which was a brotherhood of believers and not a worldly organization, subject to the rules of the world. When a church is a worldly corporation instead of a brotherhood, the legal wolves of the world — euphemistically known as lawyers — can then take the property and resources of a church. The earliest ekklesia did not corporately own property — they met in houses, and had no reason to accumulate assets. Their assets were spiritual, not financial.

Most people will reason that a church cannot do the work of God without accumulating worldly resources. In reality the reverse is true. A church cannot do the real work of God while accumulating worldly resources. The work that they accomplish that way may look good but causes little change in human hearts.

Authority in the flock is for those who do have changed hearts. Any who would sue at law for being correctly rebuked for sin are not part of the spiritual flock, anyway. They’re just part of the world.

The extent of church authority is only to teach right and wrong. Believers do not have to bow before or exalt that authority. They do not have to go through that authority to get to God. That authority does not stand in front of Christ but points people to Christ. And that authority is not one person, but a plurality of men, as were the apostles, shepherds and elders. Always plural.

Most of all, authority in the flock is used to serve Christ and the flock. Paul had authority to be fed while he preached, but while he fed them spiritually, he fed himself physically. He served them at great cost to himself. He was not their lord but their co-worker.

2 Cor 1
24) Not that we have lordship over your faith, but are fellow workers with you for your joy. For you stand firm in faith.

Or as The King James so eloquently puts that verse —

KJV 2 Cor 1
24) Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand.

What a great phrase — “helpers of your joy!”

As cited before, Peter shows the purpose of authority — not lording, but leading.

1 Pet 5
1) I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and who will also share in the glory that will be revealed.
2) Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily, not for dishonest gain, but willingly;
3) neither as lording it over those entrusted to you, but making yourselves examples to the flock.

Again there, Peter did mention oversight. Yet those in authority in the flock are not lords but leaders, themselves held to the highest standard of personal obedience and dedication. If they personally abandon that high standard, then they are no longer leaders and must be removed from their position of authority. As one writer said of a philandering evangelist, “How many times can an elder commit adultery and still be an elder?”

His implied answer to that math question is “Zero.”

We have seen by these scriptures that those in authority in the flock are not back patters, as pastors routinely are, but butt busters — exhorting, reproving and rebuking.

In doing that, such elders will continually face hostility.

First, from the world they are preaching to.

The world always demands that Christ not be taught, and that His teachings on sexual chastity, family structure and salvation or damnation be abandoned. Those who persist in teaching the true Christ will be personally attacked. That is the way Satan and his world works — revenge.

Second, elders will often be attacked by some of those associated with the flock. The worldly spirit is absorbed by people in the assemblies who are too involved in the world. When they are rebuked, they attack the shepherds. The usual attack, both by the world and the worldly in the flock, is to call the reprovers haters and say they lack love. For the love of the Lord and of His flock, the shepherds must absorb these accusations of being loveless haters, all the while showing love for the attackers.

That is church authority.

No popes, no archbishops, no pastors — but there is authority — oversight — in the assemblies. Yet it is a natural function of human nature to despise authority. Sinners definitely do not like to be reproved with authority. Paul told Titus to “Let no man despise you,” Titus 2:15. He told Timothy to “Let no man despise your youth.” 1 Timothy 4:12. And Paul instructed the Corinth flock not to despise Timothy.

1 Cor 16
10) Now if Timothy comes, see that he is with you without fear, for he does the work of the Lord, as I also do.
11) Therefore let no one despise him. But set him forward on his journey in peace, that he may come to me; for I expect him with the brothers.

Why those warnings against being despised?

Obviously, because some Christians did despise those who were serving them. And in the 1 Corinthians 9 passage cited in this chapter, the apostle Paul himself had to defend his authority as an apostle, even after all he had endured.

However, when people despise authority, they don’t say, “I’m causing a big stink only because I’m a carnal, rebellious stinker.” No, instead of admitting their sin, they often personally attack the rebuker and despise the authority that pointed out their sin.

Ah, human nature!

People under authority despise it and people in authority abuse it.

Nowhere is this better shown that in the Diotrophesian Dictate.

The apostle John – a personal buddy of the Messiah! — was rejected by Diotrophes.

3 John 1
9) I wrote to the assembly, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, doesn’t accept what we say.
10) Therefore, if I come, I will call attention to his deeds which he does, unjustly accusing us with wicked words. Not content with this, neither does he himself receive the brothers, and those who would, he forbids and throws out of the assembly.

Diotrophes rejected the authority of John, who may have been the only disciple of Christ’s twelve still living at that time. Even though John leaned up against Yeshua at the Passover meal, and spent years listening to Him teach, and was that apostle whom Christ loved, Diotrophes would not receive John! That was not a group of elders who decided that — that was Diotrophes alone.

So why did Diotrophes not receive John and the brothers?

Because they did not accept his preeminence.

What does “loves to have the preeminence” mean?

‘Y’all get in line, behind me.’

What, then, is Diotrophes’ implied dictate?

To follow God, you must follow me!

Apparently Diotrophes was one man ruling that assembly all by himself. He was not just one of the elders shepherding the flock. He was the local pope, the bigwig bishop, the ecclesiastical emperor. Diotrophes had become the one true church! Even John wasn’t in it, simply because he would not place himself under Diotrophes.

That’s not the authority of Christ’s ekklesia. That’s the authority of Rome. That’s unchecked human nature, under the cloak of religion. That’s misuse of authority, under the disguise of God’s authority.

To follow God, you must follow me!

And the problem was not just the person of Diotrophes, but also the position of Diotrophes —

One man ruling his congregation.

Christ did put authority in His ekklesia. That authority was to serve, and not to be served. Those ordained to that authority were often despised, both by the world and by the flock they served.

Ironically, the way of the earliest ekklesia, which was shared authority among elders working together in Christ’s spirit to exalt Christ the King, is seldom seen after that earliest period. On the other hand, the Diotrophesian Dictate — to follow God you must follow me — appears again and again and again.