Origen:
b. c. 185,, probably Alexandria,
Egypt d. c. 254,, Tyre, Phoenicia [now Sur, Lebanon] Quotes
from Dabney
From
Origen's day
we find the Christian Fathers constructing their
discourses on the principles of philosophy, and
a false, artificial rhetoric. See
Chrysostom
Then
began the season of shallow and heartless conversions and of general corruption.
And
soon
after
came Arianism, Prelacy, Neo-Platonism, Pelagianism, Popery.
The
same steps of
decline were trodden again after the Reformation.
Luther and Zwinglius, Farel
and Calvin, Latimer and Knox,
preached expository sermons,
in
which the word of God was simply
set forth in its
application to the soul; and the consequence was a revival almost as wide as
christendom.
Paul
and others would
identify self-composed sermons or songs as speaking
in
tongues:
"The
central meaning of the
Arabic root is "anticipating another," then hurry,
negligence,
excess, inadvertence in act, and, in speech,
exaggeration in praise,
and 'got the first word,' 'spoke precipitately, the
tongue outrunning
the sense.' Walid... says that the corresponding
Arabic participle is
used to those 'who
extemporize poetry, i.
e. sing extempore without thought. (Barnes, Albert,
Amos, p. 308).
Barnes identifies this with "soulless versifying which
Bruner in The
Holy
Spirit
identifies as
"low-level glossolalia."
While
you may not agree with
Carl Ketcherside on all issues, his comments on the
Professional
Pastor are factual and Biblical. They are also in
agreement with the
founders of the Restoration Movement.
"It
is a common
error in this degenerate age for men to reason that
the duty of
elders is to oversee
and supervise the work, but they may hire another to do the work.
"They
are willingly
ignorant of the fact
"that
their relationship to the
flock in a governmental sense is expressed by the term
bishop;
"but
their relationship to the
flock in a developmental sense is expressed by the
term pastor.
"Now
they would
refuse to hire a man for the first, and claim to
hire him only for
the second. But it is the second
which makes him a
pastor, and not the
first.
"Ask
a hireling
minister or "located evangelist" the difference
between his
position and that of
the other sectarian pastors about him. His
sole glib reply will be that
he does not run or manage the church, but is under
the elders.
"This
has nothing to do with
"pastorating." The overseeing or superintending is
covered by the
term bishop.
"The
question is not about
hiring bishops, but pastors! If a rancher hires a man
to prepare feed
and dispense it to his sheep, to visit the flock and
lead it, has he
not hired a shepherd?
"And
if the work becomes too
arduous and an associate is hired to assist, is
he not an associate shepherd?
"Could
these argue that they
were not shepherds because they worked under
supervision of the
rancher to whom the sheep belonged, and were subject
to him as an
overseer?
Supervising
is the
work of bishops,
feeding
the flock is the work
of pastors.
"Just
because one is not hired
to supervise or govern is no sign he is not hired to
pastorate. The
whole truth is that the very argument of the hireling
ministers is a
candid admission that they are "pastors" and "associate pastors." (That they All May Be
One, Carl Ketcherside, p.
9)
Jesus
validated His own
preaching by saying that he did not compose or make up
His
sermons.
Rather, He
spoke only that which the Spirit within revealed to Him.
In the same
way Paul validated his ministry by repudiating the
messages of song
and sermon which came out of the Corinthian's own spirit and preached only that
which the Spirit revealed to
him. The restoration movement fails to the extent hired
help usurps
the authority of the collective body of Christ.
Those
who followed Paul
understood the difficult nature of Spiritual teaching
and knew that
those who tried to embellish this Spiritual truth must
be false
teachers. For instance, Seneca
(Lucius Annaeus Seneca, 4? B.C. - 65 A.D.; Roman
philosopher, dramatist, & statesman)
in the early literature entitled
"Paul
and Seneca" which
is supposed to be correspondence with Paul, wrote:
"I
profess myself well content with the
reading
of your
letters which you sent to the
Galatians, Corinthians, and Achaeans; and may we so
live together as
you show yourself to be inspired with the divine frenzy
(horror). For it is the holy spirit which is in you and
high above you which expresses
these exalted and adorable thoughts.
(BUT) I
would therefore have you careful of other points, that
the polish of the style
may not be wanting to the majesty of the thought. And,
brother, not
to conceal anything from you, and have it on my
conscience, I confess
to you that the Augustus was moved by your views. When I read to him the beginning of the
power (virtue) that
is in you (perhaps he meant your exordium about
virtue) his words
were these: that he could wonder that a man not
regularly educated
could think thus. I replied that the gods often speak
by the mouths
of the simple (innocent),
not
of those who
try deceitfully to show what they can do by their
learning. And when
I cited him the example of Vatienus the rustic, to
whom two men
appeared in the territory of Reate, who afterwards
were recognized as
Castor and Pollux, he appeared fully convinced. Farewell.
When
the people ran out of
bread, Paul sold his coat to feed them. He was the
feedER not the
feedEE.
In
chapter 13 he
wrote-
"Much
in every part
of your works is enclosed in allegory and enigma,
and therefore the great force that is given you of
matter and talent
(?) should be beautified, I do not say with elegance
of words, but
with a certain care. Nor should you fear what I
remember,
you
have often
said; that many who affect such things vitiate
the thought and emasculate the strength of the
matter.
But
I wish you would yield to
me and humour the genius of Latin, and give beauty to your
noble words, that the great gift that has been
granted you may be worthily treated by you.
Farewell.
Paul
disqualified the
exploitive teachers in Corinth by implying that they
were "trained
speakers." If they had read or taught his inspired
message without
having to resort to preaching skills then they could
have added
nothing to that which the Corinthians already had free
of charge and
could not, therefore, have commanded a wage. Seneca
understood that
anyone who "set off" Paul's writings with "rhetorical
flourishes of
speech" simply repudiated Paul's message. Seneca
understood that all
that the teacher had to do was to read the message with
proper
elegance.
Paul
warned
Seneca
that the Word of
God is not popular and the masses will not or cannot receive it:
"To
your
meditations have been revealed those things which the
Godhead has
granted to
few.
With confidence,
therefore, I sow in a field already fertile a most
prolific seed, not
such matter as is liable
to corruption,
but
the abiding word, an emanation
from
God who grows and abides for
ever. This your
wisdom has attained and you will see that it is
unfailing -so as to
judge that the laws of heathens and Israelites are
to be shunned.
You may
become a new
author,
by showing forth with
the graces of rhetoric the
unblameable wisdom of Jesus Christ, which you, having
well nigh
attained it, will instil into the temporal monarch,
his servants, and
his intimate friends,
yet the
persuading of them will be a rough and difficult
task, for many of
them will hardly incline to your admonitions.
Yet the Word of God, if it be instilled
into them, will be a vital
gain,
producing a new
man,
incorrupt, and an everlasting soul
that shall hasten from hence to God. Farewell, Seneca,
most dear to
me.
The
writers of the American
Restoration Movement came out of churches where the
pastor was
dominant as a continuance of Catholicism.
However,
they knew that this
was not part of the church they sought to restore to
Jesus Christ as
the Master Teacher:
> "The priests of the
pagan
temples had been paid
from the purse of
the Empire, but now Caesar was a Christian and the
priests of Mars and Venus hastened to
their baptisms.
For
the first time
in the history of the church, salaries were
paid to Christians workers. Tradition has it
that Constantine's mother
was the
first to give the money for the erection of a church
building... All
this (meetings in homes) was over now. The rags of
persecution gave
way to softer garments, and the church began to
enjoy the feel of
silk upon its flesh.
Thus
the Pergamos
stage
of church history came into being, the
church was married to the world." (Barnhouse, D.G.,
Revelation, Zondervan, p.
52).
> "With
the victory
of Christianity and the development of the service
came
a soaring
of the sermon. Preaching became more frequent, being
employed even during the
week
and during fast
seasons in some places daily.
As
the Church during that
period assimilated more and more Greco-Roman culture, the sermon developed
para passu.
The
most noted Christian preachers had
not seldom been educated in
the rhetorical
schools
of
the heathen,
and
employed in
their sermons the rule
of rhetoric and the artistic effects taught there, and polish
became almost an end, often giving more brilliancy
than warmth.
The
hearers came to look for esthetic
satisfaction rather
than for edification,
leaving
after the
sermon and before the Eucharist." (The New
Schaff-Herzog
Religious Encyclopedia,
Preaching, p. 150)
Indeed,
preachers sowed
discord by adding musical instruments and appealed
to pagan authority
which is the only authority. Writing to Alexander
Campell one of them
wrote:
"Music exerts a
mysterious charm upon man--it takes captive the citadel of life--carries him out of
himself,
and leads him where it will. The
shrill fife and the rattling drum, inspire the soldier
just
about to enter into
battle,
with a zeal and
daring which no hardship can overcome, and no danger
intimidate, and
causes him to rush headlong into the thickest of the
combat,
regardless of consequences.
If martial
music
thus inspires the worshippers of Mars,
will sacred music do less for the humble followers
of the meek and
lowly Jesus--the worshippers of the true and living
God? Alexander
Campbell
Denominational
Urges to
Restore Paul's Pattern
As
the early church fell into
apostasy, those men (often elders or bishops) who had
travelled
around their region preaching the gospel and
establishing churches, began
to
settle
into a given
church from which they could "oversee" their district.
In time, they
saw themselves as permanently located with the power to
tax the
people for "buildings and grounds" and "salaries." The
Biblical
command to take collections only for the poor was
satisfied by a
"poor box" into which people could put their loose
change.
Because
these located men had
control of the funds of the church they had power to
remain in power.
It is fitting, therefore, that when the Reformation came
the
buildings were taken over by the state and the "poor
preachers" went
out preaching the gospel as a reformation of the
preaching task.
In
time, however, the church
regained control over the "taxing power" and the
"pastor" controlled
the church. It is significant that denominational
scholars have led
the way in trying to put down this evil. In this, they
are part of
the restoration movement.
While
the absolute command of
Jesus and Paul is understood by most thoughtful Bible
students, it
seems impossible to restore it as part of our
restoration movement.
That this is totally irrational is shown by Fredrick Bruner in his book on the Holy Spirit when he wrote-
"At
a time when
there is a rising protest against monologues and therefore sometimes
monotonous 'one man ministries' in the churches, and
when it is
complained increasingly that
the
preacher is one
of the few remaining public figures whose formal
remarks allow no
public interrogation or discussion (even Presidents
are subjected now
to the discipline of public interview),
it
is perhaps in order for
the churches to look here in Corinthians to their
earliest
structures.
Perhaps
the worship services
should include or append a period of thoughtful
discussion following
the sermon-or sermons (v. 29)-in place of the often
dull and
unprofitable responsive readings before it and of
some
of the singing
which seems to be often, at the conscious or mental
level at
least,
low-level
glossolalia with
instrumental accompaniment." (Bruner, p. 300).
(Note, in the church, Paul used
a Greek word which means "dialog" and not preach in
the form of
"sermonizing." (Bruner, Fredrick, The Holy Spirit)
"There
is, in our day, a
marvellous idolatry of talent; it is strange and a
grievous thing to
see how men bow down before genius and success. Draw
the distinction
sharp and firm between these two things-goodness is one thing, talent is
another. It is an
instructive fact that the son of Man came not as a scribe, but as a
poor working man. He was a
teacher, but not a
Rabbi.
When
once the
idolatry of talent enters the Church, then farewell
to spirituality;
when men ask their teachers, not for that which will
make them more
humble and God-like,
but
for the excitement of an intellectual
banquet, then farewell to
Christian progress.' (F. W. Robertson, Hastings on 1
Cor. p.
10).
Again
we quote the Pulpit
Commentary as it "dots
the i's and crosses the t's" of the warning from the Old
Testament,
of Paul, and of the testimony of church history about
one-man
ministries-
"If
this be so: 1.
Should Christian teaching be regarded as a profession? It is so now: men are
brought up to it, trained for
it, and live by it, as architects, lawyers, doctors.
Surely
preaching
the gospel should no more be regarded as a
profession than the talk
of loving parents to children.
Is
the Church justified in
confining its attention to the ministry of one man?
In
most modern
congregation there are some Christian men who, by
natural ability, by
experimental knowledge and inspiration,
are far
more qualified to
instruct and comfort
the people than their professional and stated
minister.
Surely
official
preaching has no authority, either in Scripture,
reason, or
experience, and it must come to an end sooner or
later." (Pulpit Commentary, 1
Cor. p.
464).
Commenting
on Paul's
prohibition of a one-man teaching ministry-even by
inspired
prophets-in First Corinthians, chapter fourteen,
Albert Barnes said-
"It
was possible
that those who claimed
to be prophets might err, and it was the duty of all to examine whether that
which was uttered was in
accordance with truth. And if it was a duty then, it is a duty now;
if
it was proper even when the teachers
claimed to be under
divine inspiration,
it
is much more the duty of
the people now.
No
minister of religion has a
right to demand that all that he speaks shall be
regarded as truth,
unless he can give good reasons for it:
no
man is to be debarred
from the right of canvassing freely, and comparing
with the bible,
and with sound reason, all that the minister of
the gospel
advances." (Barnes,
Albert, 1Cor Commentary, p. 273).
Paul
prescribed a system of
"dialog" rather
than "preaching" in the assembly so that one man's
comments (even if
inspired) would be tested or judged by another person.
He could make
wild claims about Scripture but he was regulated by
knowing that he
would be challenged before the spit dried from his
bombast. This was
the Scriptural pattern.
The
Restoration Movement claims
for itself and condemns those who disagree that "there
must be a direct
command,
an approved
example, or a reasonable inference in the New Testament
or it is a
sin to add any belief or practice to the church."
Those
who are more tolerate
might allow reason to rule. For instance, there is no
command,
example, or inference that the church should own real
property but
reason allows us to believe that God did not have to
command us to
get in out of the rain. We violate our Restoration Rule
because it
appeals to our human reason.
Another
writer
said-
"We
Americans have tended to
take Christianity for granted, and we have used our
sophisticated
intellects to concoct a myriad of pseudo-religious notions that we follow as if
they were the gospel.
Many
Americans file
into church sanctuaries Sunday after Sunday
to
hear befuddled
ministers blather a
confused mixture of Scripture, psychology, humanistic philosophy, and advice from Dear
Abby.
Many
of our seminaries send out graduates who aren't sure whether
Jesus is the Son of God,
whether the Bible is God's inspired Word, or even
where to find the
book of Hosea. We have invested tremendous amounts of
money and raw
human energy in our quest to know the truth about
life;
all
we have found
are abstract philosophies, empty symbols, and a
perverse
kind of
self-worship. We have much in common with the
Greeks
and Romans... Professing to be wise, we have become
fools". (Sumrall, Lester, Where was God when
Pagan
Religions
Began,
p. 81).
[Heard
a TV bishop showing
how "God shut Noah up in the Ark of the Covenant.]
"Modern fraudulent
teachers
are not
newly invented but have ancient Babylonian, Canaanite, Egyptian,
and perverted Jewish ancestors
for their pattern. More recently, the sale of relics
such as bones or
enough fragments of the cross to build the ark, church
offices,
indulgences
and
other devices have been used to dupe the ignorant or
superstitious into allowing the idle clergy to live
without making an honest living.
"In
1300 we are told that Pope Boniface VIII declared
a
"jubilee" and offered indulgences to pilgrims to St.
Peters. It is estimated that two
million people attended the "jubilee" to see the "marketeers" display their bodies
and their wares. After
designating a tomb as that of the apostle Peter, two
priests used
rakes day and night to rake in the money. The proceeds were used
to buy castles for the "in" group who
were primarily relatives of
the Pope."
By
the Middle ages the church
owned whole cities and much of the farm land and those
who occupied
it were taxed by the church. This was not "free-will"
giving but what
was "of necessity" or extortion which Paul opposed in 2
Cor. 9:7. For
instance, Woodward reports that because few people knew
how to draft
a will, the priests were required to witness it and any
secular
notary who wrote a will was excommunicated. This coupled
with the
demand for Extreme Unction as a man died guaranteed an
endless supply
of extortion for the self-proclaimed leaders.
After
one was baptized and
then sinned:
"there still
remains
the temporal
punishment required by divine justice, and this
requirement must be
fulfilled either in the present life or in the world
to come, i.e. in Purgatory. An indulgence offers
the penitent sinner the means
of discharging this debt during this life on earth"
(Woodrow, Ralph,
Babylon Mystery Religion, p. 66).
Perhaps
too often, money is
contributed as a legal way to buy unstated "indulgences"
and because
there is too much, it is stored by the "treasurer" in
the "treasury"
because their might be a "rainy day" even if it is
presently raining
on the heads of the poor.
We
are told today that if you
find yourself in a bookstore to buy a certain book,
don't think that
you had anything to do with it: God led you there to buy
the book to
learn what the Bible claims for itself: surely the sale
of the free
Word (Isaiah 55) goes on.
The
Catholic Encyclopedia
says:
"the practice was fraught with grave
danger, and soon
became a fruitful source of evil... a means of raising
money...
indulgences were employed by mercenary ecclesiastics
as a means of
pecuniary gain...
abuses were widespread." Those whom Paul would call
"pedlars of the
word" travelled over the land and "issued a letter of
pardon,
sometimes for the payment of two pence, sometimes for
a glass of
beer, for the hire of a harlot, or for carnal love."
An
indulgence is in the form
of a promise or a threat.
A
modern INDULGENCE is to
promise widows that "they are sacrificing to GOD" if
only they will
pledge their farm to GOD rather than provide for
their
children.
An
indulgence is to falsely
claim that "God commands that you give us a tithe of
your wage income
and lay it by in the collection plate EACH Sunday or
you have not
worshiped.
The
"Sliding Scale" for
buying redemption still persists.
"High
mass can be
very expensive, depending on the flowers, candles, and
number of
priests taking part. It is sung in a loud tone of
voice. The low
Mass, on the other hand, is much less expensive-only
six candles are
used and it is repeated in a low voice. The Irish have
a saying,
'High money, High mass; low money, Low Mass; no money,
No Mass!"
(Woodward, p. 69)
None
of this could ever have
happened and millions of people never died or imprisoned
to protect
the faith if the professional clergy had not usurped the
authority of
those paying the bill.
The
Restoration Movement
Restored Christ's Pattern
A
fundamental goal of the
American Restoration Movement was to root out the
"dominant pastor"
or clergy from the church just as surely as it intended
to root out
the changes which such a system had introduced. it has
succeeded in
removing instruments form the building, opening up
"closed
communion," and restoring believer's baptism but these
arose again
like a Phoenix from the ashes. It appeared, for many
years to have
substituted "lay"
preachers who went everywhere founding the movement for
clergy
trained in liberal schools but it wasn't too long until
those who had
planted churches were succeeded by "located" men whose
leisure
permitted time to "conference" with others and gradually
restore
those things which had been put down.
It is
logical that a
non-professonial like Alexander Campbell who understood
the
cause-and-effect between going out to virgin territory
and planting
churches would see the located clergy as "Jay birds" or
Cuckoos who
found that nest stealing is easier than nest-building.
While Alexander
Campbell
was wealthy, his principles were based
upon the Bible and the history of division created by
dominant
pastors.
Alexander
Campbell
on Regenerating the Church
notes:
And,
first of all, be it
observed, that in some churches there appears to be
wanting a
proper method of
handling the Scriptures to the edification of the
brethren. It is
admitted by all the holy brethren that the Scriptures
of truth,
called the
living
oracles,
are the great
instrument of God for all his purposes in the saints
on earth.
Through them they are converted to God, comforted,
consecrated, made
meet for an inheritance among the sanctified, and
qualified for every
good word and work. Every thing, then, depends upon
the proper
understanding of these volumes of inspiration. They
can only operate
as far as they are understood.
The
system of
sermonizing on a text is now almost universally
abandoned by all who
intend that their hearers should understand the
testimony of God.
Orators
and exhorters may
select a word, a phrase, or a verse; but all who
feed the flock of
God with knowledge and understanding know that
this method is wholly
absurd.
While
his
comments may not represent the total movement, or
necessarily the
opinion he always held, the following quotation clearly
shows that
Campbell saw the need for a total restoration movement
back to the
Biblical model of the church:
"Give money to make poor pious
youths learned clergy, or vain pretenders to
erudition; and they pray
that they may preach to you; yes, and pay them too.
Was there ever
such a craft as priestcraft? No, it is the
craftiest of all crafts. It is so
crafty that it obtains by its craft the means to make
craftsmen, and
then it makes the deluded support them!" (Campbell,
Alexander,
Christian Baptist, Dec. 1, 1823, Vol. 1, p. 91).
"Money
is of vital consequence
in the kingdom of the clergy. Without it a clergyman
could not be
made, nor a congregation supplied with a 'faithful
pastor.' O Mammon,
thou wonder-working god!" (Ibid., p. 124).
"'Will
you,' said an honest
inquirer, 'allow the clergy no salary at all? Will you
not allow the
poorer class of the clergy a decent little
competence?' I
replied I have no allowances to
make. Let them have what the
Lord has allowed
them. 'How much is that?' said he, Just nothing at
all, said I. A
church constituted upon New Testament principles,
having its own
bishop or bishops, or, as sometimes called, elders, will not, and ought
not to suffer them to be in want of any thing
necessary, provided
they labor in word and doctrine, and provided also,
they are
ensamples to the flock in industry, disinterestedness,
humility,
hospitality, and charity to the poor. Such bishops will now be esteemed
very highly in love for their
words sake; but especially those who, by their own
hands, minister
not only to their own wants, but also to the wants of
their
brethren." (Ibid, p. 140).
"That
any man is to be paid at
all for preaching, i.e. making sermons and pronouncing them;
or that any man is to be hired
for a stipulated sum to preach and pray, and expound
scripture, by
the day, month, or year, I believe to be a relic of
popery." (Ibid.,
Vol. 3, p. 185).
"Our
Elder labors
with his own hands, that he may live honestly..."
(Vol. 5, p.
163).
"...
our elders labor... for
their support, and are not burdensome to the church;
but in
case of need..." (Vol, 5, p. 95).
Campbell
undoubtedly lived with
and ate with members in the communities in which he
preached and
would not, therefore, have objected to treating
preachers the way
Paul advised when he allowed the ox to eat part of that
which it had personally produced. However, he
would not allow
the ox to stray and consume the work-product of the
donkey. Like the
modern threshing machine, he was not hired for the whole
year.
"IN
my former essay
I showed that there is not a single passage in the whole of the New
Testament, from beginning to
end, which records the fact, that any disciple of Christ
ever had hands laid on him to
authorize him to preach the gospel and baptize
believers. The object
of this essay is to ascertain the scriptural use and
meaning of the
term "ordination." [566]
"It
is deeply to be deplored
that in the common English version of the scriptures
there are to be
found so many outlandish words, which to the common
reader can convey
no definite signification whatever.
Had
every word been translated
into plain English, and the "laity" been permitted to
hear the truth
in their own mother tongue, the creed-makers would
have been in a
great measure defeated;
and
the "clergy"
would have been deprived
of one of their most successful methods of imposing on the ignorance and credulity of
mankind.
Had
Bishops, which in England
has no meaning, except what the reigning Priesthood choose to give it, been
translated Overseer, then
every body would have known,
that,
in the New
Testament, Bishops meant nothing more than the
associate Elders
or
Overseers of one
Christian
congregation.
Had
Minister been translated
servant, as it should have been,
then
the
distinctions between servants of Christ and
Ministers of Christ would
have been unknown.
"How
fatal must the base
translation of this word have proved to the dominion
and arrogant
pretensions
of
the Clergy, who
impiously dare to lay an exclusive claim to the rank of
Ministers of the Gospel, and to
the right of performing
certain parts of the
service under the New Constitution--such, especially,
as preaching
the gospel and "administering its ordinance;"
thereby disfranchising the great mass of
God's
"royal Priesthood," and degrading them
to
the rank of mere menials in the Kingdom.
"In
like manner, if ordination had been translated
into English, it would have been
simply appointment. Every appointment,
then, no matter to what duty or
office, or in what mannerit might have been made,
would have been an
"ordination." But by anglicising the Latin word ordinatio, instead of using the
English term appointment,
ORDINATION easily comes to have a cabalistic meaning.
An ambitious and self-constituted
Priesthood can easily attach to
the word a signification favorable to their exclusive pretensions, and persuade the 'laity'
that it means consecration to the "HOLY MINISTRY"
by
the laying on of
the hands of a duly "ORDAINED MINISTRY." Thomas Campbell
Oh!
for the day when faithful
translations of the scriptures into every tongue under
heaven shall
enable us all, every member of the human family, to
learn the truths
of scripture, "in that language in which we were
born." May God
hasten its advent!
When
a peculiar meaning, no
matter how erroneous, has thus been appropriated to an
outlandish
word, and that meaning has been extensively
incorporated with
religious prejudices, it becomes a Herculean task to
disabuse the
public mind, and restore the word to its true
signification.
Ordain,
and its derivative
ordination, fall within the scope of these remarks. So
soon as ordain
is heard with reference to religious matters, it is
immediately and
almost irresistibly inferred that hands were imposed; and he
who would question this
inference would be regarded as questioning the fact of
ordination,
and doubting the veracity of the historian. But is
this a correct
view of the subject? Let us examine a few passages
where ordain
occurs, and see what is the scriptural meaning of the
term:--
[567]
Isaiah
xxvi. 12. "Lord, wilt
thou ordain peace for us?" Psalm viii. 2. "Out of the
mouth of babes
and sucklings hast thou ordained strength." Psalm
viii. 3. "The moon
and the stars which thou hast ordained." Psalm cxxxii.
17. "I have
ordained a lamp for mine Anointed," Acts xiii. 48. "As
many as were
ordained to eternal life, believed." Acts xvi. 4. "The
decrees that
were ordained of the Apostles and Elders." Romans vii.
10. "The
commandment which was ordained to life." Galatians
iii. 19. "The law
was ordained by angels." I Tim. ii. 7. "Good works,
which God hath
before ordained." Jude 4. "Ungodly men, who were of
old ordained to
this condemnation."
In
all the foregoing passages
(and similar ones might be multiplied almost ad
infinitum) it is
manifest to the intellect of a child, that to interpret ordain so as
to include the
laying on of hands, would make sad havoc alike of
scripture and of
common sense.
MILLENNIAL HARBINGER, NEW SERIES. VOLUME
III.-----NUMBER XI. B E T H
A N Y, VA. NOVEMBER, 1839.
