Template:Exercise authority
The governments and rulers of the world often use force, fear, and fealty through covetous practices that makes the word of God to none effect providing the wages of unrighteousness, which degenerates[1] the people into merchandise and cursing their children with debt.
Exercise authority
We see three places where Jesus specifically instructs us to not Exercise authority one over the other:
Not exercise authority
- Matthew 20:25 "But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you:..."
- Mark 10:42 "But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you:..."
- Luke 22:25 "And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye [shall] not [be] so:..."
The early Church took care of all social welfare for Christians. Even just 150 years ago when Religion was not just what you think about God but an actual duty most all the welfare in America was provided by local community, churches and philanthropic organizations. The idea of the government providing "Legal charity" was opposed by politicians like David Crockett and historians like Alexis de Tocqueville.
Even the Historian Polybius a 150 years before Christ warned that society and the people in it would degenerate[1] if they had a appetite for benefits at the expense of their neighbor.
The early Church was persecuted because they would not sign up for the free bread of Rome but the Modern Church turns a blind eye to the covetous practices of desiring benefits at the expense of our neighbor.
Do the ministers of the Church established by Christ have the right to exercise authority over the people or rule over them in any way?
Accepting the doctrines of modern Christians and their interpretation of 1 Peter 2:13, Titus 3:1 or Hebrews 13 may lead people away from the true nature of the Gospel of the kingdom.
Do these ministers have authority to "rule over" the people as it seems to suggest in Hebrews 13:7 "Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation."
- The word "rule" is not the Greek word 'arche' meaning 'ruler' but 'hegeomai' meaning 'leader', "leading as respects influence... overseers or leaders of the churches" but they are not to be like the rulers of other people who exercise authority one over the other. Most often translated count 10 times, think 4, esteem. The ministers appointed by Christ to be His Church should be leaders who take "count" of the people they serve in the name of the Lord as his servants.
What about Hebrews 13:17 "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you."
- The word "obey" is commonly translated persuade and trust[2] which is translated trust in the very next verse... and again rule over means those that account for you in the kingdom not rule over as in exercise authority.
We see the word "submit" at least 7 times in the New Testament. The Greek word “hupotasso” translated "submit" actually appears 40 times but is seldom translated "submit".
The Greek word “hupotasso” means “to arrange” yourself according to your own conscience, to voluntary cooperate. It does not mean that we give others the right to "rule over" us as an exercising authority as some suggest in Hebrews 13.
But Jesus did command his disciples to make the people sit down or organize themselves in the tens, hundreds and thousands before they were to receive His benefits.
Diluted Church
The modern institutional church, even the modern home church, deludes itself with the idea that it is like the early Church. They either ignore or choose to be blind about what religion meant in the early days of the Christian faith dining the practice of pure religion but indulge in the covetous practices of the "world".
Their daily bread is the free bread of the governments of the "world" provided by the men who call themselves "benefactors" but exercise authority which we can see Jesus told his followers it was not to be that way with them.
Early Christians would not eat nor sign up for nor partake of those benefits of the governments of the "world". This was the Christian conflict with Rome.
To go to the governments of the world to obtain benefits from men who exercise authority is going against the teachings of Christ and it is not following The Way He taught to the early Church. It is the covetous practices which Peter warns us about that will make us human resources and curse our children as surety for debt.
The modern institutional church as well as the modern home church are under the strong delusion that it is okay with Jesus or the called out disciples He appointed to covet your neighbors' goods through the agency of government who exercise authority and not become workers of iniquity that He and the apostles warned us about. If you are engaged in the systems of the world where you have become dependent upon the unrighteous mammon and their wages of unrighteousness you are in need of repentance.
Many modern Christians will try to twist or complicate the the direct instructions and teachings of Christ with man contrived doctrines and dogmas wrought through their private interpretations and false religion which is diluting the gospel of the kingdom.
Christianity was a private Religion that sustained the early Christians through the daily ministration of love consisting of faith, hope and charity alone. Anyone reading the bible should recognize that not only the daily bread of the faithful was rightly divided from house to house by a network of Christian ministers but that during the international famines and dearths mentioned in the epistles those ministers brought relief provided by a vast network of organized and fervent charity. Christians were sustained and saved from much of the chaos and destruction to society occurring during the decline and fall of the Roman Empire and the failure of the Roman imperial cult, which provided the legal charity of their public religion.
Real Christians would not engage in nor depend upon the public religion offered through the government Temples of Rome nor the constitutional orders or systems of government of the world of men who used force to provide the resources of their welfare and free bread.
This difference was at the core of the Christian conflict.
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Who is to have authority
An Elder or presbyter was not an office of the Church but simply the eldest or head of a family group.[3] The head of each family picked a minister in small groups of Tens. These groups were free assemblies. The purpose of the minister was to connect those ten families in a network of charity with ten other congregations of families. Those ministers would pick a minister who was often called an episcopo, or bishop who was an overseer of one hundred families, not to rule but to serve them in love. They did not rule over the people but facilitated the community charity on a broader scale. These bishops did not exercise authority over the people until Constantine established his own false church.
- "Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand." 2 Corinthians 1:24
So who should have authority in the Kingdom of God?
It should be God ruling in the hearts and minds of every individual within each family.
This is a common theme from the sin of Cain and Nimrod, from Abraham to John the Baptist and Christ.
It is an instruction in relationship to government of nations.
Polybius believed all democracies fail.
"The masses continue with an appetite for benefits and the habit of receiving them by way of a rule of force and violence. The people, having grown accustomed to feed at the expense of others and to depend for their livelihood on the property of others... institute the rule of violence; [4] and now uniting their forces massacre, banish, and plunder,[5] until they degenerate again into perfect savages and find once more a master and monarch." [6]
The authoritarian state uses force and violence to become the Benefactors of the people. They force one class of citizen to provide for another. Christ forbid that type of government. He told us not to make the Fathers of the earth our Benefactors.
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Patronus
... the ruler, Ceasar, president, king, potentate or executive that exercises authority over his people, his nation, his citizens and nationals (a substitute family...)
Goats and Sheep
...the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them." ...er the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them."
Benefactors
... kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so: but he that The same reference to governments that exercise authority one over the other is found in :
Christian conflict
...government that called themselves a Benefactor but exercised authority one over the other. ... the Church to be those Benefactors who do not exercise authority one over the other but feed his sheep, provided daily bread and took care of the people through Pure Religion.
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "The masses continue with an appetite for benefits and the habit of receiving them by way of a rule of force and violence. The people, having grown accustomed to feed at the expense of others and to depend for their livelihood on the property of others... institute the rule of violence; and now uniting their forces massacre, banish, and plunder, until they degenerate again into perfect savages and find once more a master and monarch." Polybius 150 years before Christ.
- ↑ 3982 ~πείθω~ peitho \@pi’-tho\@ a primary verb;v AV-persuade 22, trust 8, obey 7, have confidence 6, believe 3, be confident 2, misc 7; 55
- 1) persuade
- 1a) to persuade, i.e. to induce one by words to believe
- 1b) to make friends of, to win one’s favour, gain one’s good will, or to seek to win one, strive to please one
- 1c) to tranquillise
- 1d) to persuade unto i.e. move or induce one to persuasion to do something
- 2) be persuaded
- 2a) to be persuaded, to suffer one’s self to be persuaded; to be induced to believe: to have faith: in a thing
- 2a1) to believe
- 2a2) to be persuaded of a thing concerning a person
- 2b) to listen to, obey, yield to, comply with
- 2a) to be persuaded, to suffer one’s self to be persuaded; to be induced to believe: to have faith: in a thing
- 3) to trust, have confidence, be confident
- 1) persuade
- ↑ 1 Peter 5:1-5 The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.
- ↑ Matthew 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.
- ↑ Luke 16:16 "The law and the prophets [were] until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it."
- ↑ "But when a new generation arises and the democracy falls into the hands of the grandchildren of its founders, they have become so accustomed to freedom and equality that they no longer value them, and begin to aim at pre-eminence; and it is chiefly those of ample fortune who fall into this error. 6 So when they begin to lust for power and cannot attain it through themselves or their own good qualities, they ruin their estates, tempting and corrupting the people in every possible way. 7 And hence when by their foolish thirst for reputation they have created among the masses an appetite for gifts and the habit of receiving them, democracy in its turn is abolished and changes into a rule of force and violence. 8 For the people, having grown accustomed to feed at the expense of others and to depend for their livelihood on the property of others, as soon as they find a leader who is enterprising but is excluded from the houses of office by his penury, institute the rule of violence; 9and now uniting their forces massacre, banish, and plunder, until they degenerate again into perfect savages and find once more a master and monarch" Polybius: The Histories (composed at Rome around 130 BC) Fragments of Book VI, p289