Elders
The Elders of Liberty are the Altars of Earth.
An Elder is the head of a family.
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]
The priests are first the people. They were often called kohens or priests. Priest, is derived from Greek, via Latin presbyter, the term for "elder" or eldest head of a family.
A priest in a national sense is “a person authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion” but religion use to be defined as “the performance of your duty to God and your fellowman”.
That duty has been pursued either through systems of free will offerings or sacrifice, or they were provided through compelled offerings directed by men who rule over the people; in other words either through church or state.
Israel was a theocratic republic where God was to rule through the hearts of the people, the elders or priests of each family. The Levites as priests of that society served the “tabernacles of the congregations” o a nation by serving the "tents" of each family in free assemblies.
Those assemblies donated to the minister of their choice who acted as a voluntary health, education and welfare agency to help care for the needs of society through a network of ministers supported entirely by free will offerings.
The Elders of each family were both priests and kings within their own family but to come together as a nation required some one to act as as priest on a national level. The people were gathered in congregations of ten but they shared what they produced with the national priests of their society to help maintain the community and strengthen its natural bonds.
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.
CORE |
Free Assemblies |
Congregations |
Congregants |
Elders |
Fractal Network
Why Congregate |
Why we gather |
Why Minister |
Church |
Why Church |
COM |
MORE |
Congregations of Rebuke |
Tips on forming a CORE |
CORE Solution |
CORE Off Track |
First to do List |
Why did Jesus Say |
Society and community |
Feasts |
Celebrate |
Network |
Monks |
Minister |
Titular Servants |
Elder |
Deacon |
Bishop |
Overseer |
ordain |
appoint |
Orders |
Religious Orders |
Rules of St Benedict |
Married Monks |
Mendicant |
Lost Monks |
Monasticism |
Modern Monastic life |
Churches |
Levites |
Vow of poverty |
All things common |
Guidelines |
Liturgy |
Priests |
Eucharist |
Daily ministration |
Christian conflict |
Diocletianic Persecution |
Altars |
Fringes |
Breeches |
Red heifer |
Sabbath |
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.”