Elders
The Elders of Liberty are the Altars of Earth
The congregation of the people is composed of what Abraham called the altars of earth, or “adamah”. Each of us are living sacrificial altars of clay, sons of Adam whose Father was God. We are both priest and king of our own freewill choice. Our offering within the family and to the community is by charity.[1]
A minister of the congregation is first chosen by the people as we see being done in Acts 6:3.[2] Each individual family is represented by the head or elder of the family who freely chooses their own minister. In the documents and form offered in service by His Church individuals may be called the electorate.[3]
The electorate have been referred to individually as “elders” of families or collectively as the laity, from the Greek laos, meaning people. In terms of the world they may appear to be a constituency,[4] but they are simply the people who choose from moment to moment, and day to day, to support the leadership of those who continue to be perceived by the people as the ministers of God and the servants of His people.
Those who are freely chosen as by an electorate of elders in a free association are the living “stone” altars of our sacred sacrifice to God for the people. They are the public minister of the congregation.
These chosen ministers are the unhewn stones of God’s sacred altars. Unhewn is a metaphor for being unregulated. In their ministration of this system of faith, hope, and charity the good will of the people for the people is administered by the choice of the people. The people maintain their right to decide to whom and how much they shall contribute. What ever they choose to give is paid in full.[5] There is no coercion in the kingdom of God but their own God given conscience. The ministers have power over how those contributions shall be managed because once given they are burned up to the people.
The ministers of the Church have an unregulated authority on how they use that offering, but if they are not a fruitful government that provides for the people with love and mercy and strengthens the poor, then the offerings will go to other ministers. This system of thanksgiving will be like Christ or perish. Together, the ministers and the people form the temple of God, made of living earth and stones, formed in their hearts by God. This is the kingdom of His righteousness.
Footnotes
- ↑ 1 Corinthians 13:13 “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these [is] charity.”
- ↑ Acts 6:3 “Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.”
- ↑ Acts 6:5 “And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch:” The word chose is from eklegomai meaning to pick out, choose, to pick or choose out for one’s self1a) choosing one out of many, i.e. Jesus choosing his disciples1b) choosing one for an office.
- ↑ “a body of citizens entitled to elect a representative” Merriam-Webster Dictionary of Law, © 1996
- ↑ Luke 16:8 “And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.”