My anointed step dad always mentions about how the first century christians had a governing body also. Where in the bible does it actually say that? Does anyone know? To me governing body is just a dictatorship of men who think they are right and can control, no different than the governments....governing body set rules, and ultimately decide your future as far as I'm concerned. I just want to know if it's actually in the bible that they had one back then...???
First century governing body?
by lostsheep82 20 Replies latest watchtower bible
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civicsi00
No such thing. The GB idea is centered on the scriptures found at Acts 15. A group of "older men" did get together to discuss things, but in no way did all "spiritual food" come from this location (no reference is made to a "centralized authority").
If you get on the Freeminds.org website, someone put together an excellent article on the GB/FDS.
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seek2find
It's kinda like the Gods organization concept. It's mostly imagined by them. For instance they say that God has always worked through an organization and point to Noahs ark as an example. But the ark was just a method God used to preserve those few whom he chose, it didn't represent any kind of organization, (unless a person wants it to). Organizations aren't necessarily bad things, but when a person is presuaded to depend on them for salvation, that's when you have to draw the line. Jesus said he was "the way the truth and the life". As far as the Governing body goes, if one had existed in the 1st century and it was entirely important that they dictate every move of the diciples, then why didn't the apostle Paul consult with them right away upon his conversion? (see Gal. 1:16,17) seek2find
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Awakened at Gilead
JWs reject the trinity because the word is not found in the Bible.
They should apply that same standard to "governing body" and "organization", words which also do not appear in the Bible.
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seek2find
I forgot to mention, Ray Franz has a audio recording on his web site that you can purchase as an mp3 download that is of his uncle Fred giving a talk where he pretty much says that there wasn't a governing body in the 1st century. seek2find
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sir82
They should apply that same standard to "governing body" and "organization", words which also do not appear in the Bible.
Heard this once in a talk, don't recall if it was from a CO, or at an assembly, or what...perhaps a trial balloon for a future WT article?
They claim that "governing body" is in the Bible. Hebrews 13:17 is the one that says "be obedient to those taking the lead over you"...the NWT footnote says that the expression "those taking the lead over you" is originally from the Greek "the governors of you". Thus, goes their logic, if their are governors, there is more than one, thus a "governing body".
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Doubting Bro
Sir82,
That was at the last "elders school" (not the current one the COBOE is attending). I distinctly remember the person giving the talk was a local heavy weight and he specifically said that he was reading this directly from the outline and he seemed very uncomfortable with the stretch. At the time, I was starting to doubt and was also very uncomfortable that that "logic"
On topic - if there was a first century GB, how come Paul wasn't on it? Wasn't he directly selected by Jesus to be an apostle to the nations? And, how come the only time they really interacted with Paul was with the whole circumcison issue referred to in Acts 15.
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shadow
You might find these old threads interesting since they discuss this topic.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/members/private/84617/1/a-friend-in-need
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My Struggle
There was no such thing in the first century of Christianity. There were many Christian churches/congregations that acted autonomously, though still part of the Christian movement. Bishops and deacons were set as the head of each local church, though they probably did not have as much 'power' as a modern day church leaders. They were more of an overseer of the church, being educated they could read for the church and make general decisions.
A good example of how this played out was the forming of the New Testament canon. Each congregation had various books that they saw as fitting into the new testament, some accepted only certain new testament books (synoptic gospels and a few of Paul's epistles) or books that are not longer in our canon like Apocalypse of Peter, Didache, or Shepard of Hermas just to name a few.
The first Bishop of the Roman church, Clement of Rome was appointed by the apostle Peter. Clement, spoke much about Christ and quoted a few well know saying of Christ, which are found in the synoptic Gospels. When writing a letter to Corinth he encouraged the people there to read from Paul's letter to them. However he made no mention of any of these New Testament writings as being scripture, as he did with the books of the Old Testament. For Clement, though he was a Christian, scripture was only the Old Testament. Though, other church leaders like Papias, who was a successor of one of Apostle Paul's workers Epaphras, did see the written word of the New Testament to be of great importance and often quoted from it. There were several others that held this same opinion such as Polycarp of Smyrna. So, you can see a variance of opinion in the first century church leaders, though they were both part of the Christian movement.
The 'Christian' books that are not in our canon today were largely written after the first century, but still some of these came to be respected and held as scripture and canonical. Clement of Rome wrote his own epistle and it came to be respected and even included as scripture in some churches around the third century. Shepard of Hermas enjoyed canonical status in many churches and was even listed as scripture by Eusebius along with the Epistle of Barnabas. One book that lingered in the New Testament longer than any other was the Epistle to the Laodiceans which was still viewed as scripture in 1165 by John of Salisbury, though most of the church rejected it. In exception to Laodiceans, the canon was closed by Augustine between the years 397-419, when he made an official list (to be held by all Christian churches) of the 27 books of the New Testament and did not hold any other books to be scripture.
That was a bit long to make a point, but it shows the type of Christian organization there was in the first few centuries. If there was a central governing body, like that of the JW's, they would have come out with a list of official New Testament writing and sent a letter to all the churches. Nothing like that ever took place. Instead, there were individual churches that had various opinions as to what was to be regarded as scripture. If there was a governing body like the JW's, it would have not taken until the early fourth century to have an official list of New Testament books. Imagine there was something like a JW governing body in the first century, but they could not even muster a letter to all congregations of which books were to be considered scripture.....not very likely.
A governing body did not come about until Christianity was legalized by the emperor Constantine in the early fourth century. It would have been impossible for there to have been a centralized body before that point. The Christian church was persecuted and by necessity had to act autonomously. It would have been far too difficult to have a central location from which all instruction was sent. Any central location would have been easily known and attacked. There was simply nothing like a JW governing body in the first, second or third centuries of Christianity.
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hamsterbait
"Gibbering Buddy" "Borganization" are among those truths "which have become part of the Babble." (thus saith the Witchtower babble and Trash Society.)
HB