I've been wondering lately if the whole concept of a Christian congregation is an apostasy from Christ as the gospels portray. I find the Isrealite history a lesson in basically the pitfalls of "organization", or of trying to keep a group of people confined by laws.
The Gospels stand out as completely different from the Scriptures. Here Jesus, who basically operated outside of any organization, teaches basic, simple, yet profound principles and qualities that an individual would strive to acquire and govern himself. To be free, yet bound and restrained by his love for God and man, an individual is governed from inside and not anything external. An individual would be motivated by love and not restrained by fear of punishment.
The apostles had so much of the Jewish way of thinking ingrained in them, as evidenced by their constant arguments, that i wonder how much of that carried over into the early congregation. Obviously Peter still after recieving the HS continued to show he had this attitude in him.
Perhaps these men's constant desiring for position and prominance led to the forming of these hierarchal structures developing in the congregation. I also find interesting that so much of the NT is letters by the apostle Paul. There is really little imput from Christ's original apostles at all, asside from a handful of books.
I'm beginning to think that the lessons and attitudes of the Gospels are the primary lesson in the Bible. They seem to contrast and conflict with what is placed before and after them in the Bible. To me they emphasize a higher level of existance, beyond the rules and control and authority of man. Their beauty is in their simplicity.
Path