William Tyndale 1494 - 1536
He's been called The Father of the English Bible. But greedy, self-serving, religious leaders - so called Christians - had him strangled and then they burned his body.
In this excerpt, he is answering a famous Roman Catholic scholar, Sir Thomas More, who challenged him for not translating the word elder as priest. Tyndale translated it as senior. Senior was dropped in the later versions of his English translation in favor of the word elder... thus opening a world of confusion to this day.
We keep bringing up this subject because it has become a stumbling block for those seeking to be a part of a simple non-traditional church.
Not to mention the sad fact that multitudes of Christians seniors are sitting around idle, bored, and lonely. Feeling they have no purpose on this earth when in reality they have a very high, God-ordained calling to be deliberately engaged in every day.
Thankfully, there are indeed seniors who have figured out the plan via spiritual instinct, I suppose, but... the vast majority are not engaged. More than willing to pass their obligations onto the professional clergy or anyone else believed to be qualified.
Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task. 1 Timothy 3.
Hundreds - now thousands of years have past since the Son of God walked the earth. We still do not comprehend the most basic things: Older ChristianS, as opposed to "the pastor", are appointed to lead the churches. To love, care for, teach, pastor, shepherd and minister to the younger ones in God's household.
None of these responsibilities are of a technical nature, by the way.
Yes, you are your brother's keeper.
To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ’s sufferings who also will share in the glory to be revealed: Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, watching over them—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.
In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another... 1 Peter 5.
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This is fantastic!
I had lunch last week with an elder from the last institutional church that I was a part of when I left the system three years ago. For him, nothing has changed. He considers me to be in rebellion to Christ's calling to be a church member and be in subjection to its leadership, even though no such calling exists. On the contrary, we are called as Christians to be unified in the Spirit yet church leaders often see their role as to keep the purity of their theology (which they call "faith") and they continually divide the church over inconsequential issues.
The saddest part of my lunch with my friend is that he doesn't know his Scripture, nor does he have any real interest in it. When I told him that he puts more faith in his creeds, catechisms, and confessions than he does in the Bible then he pushed back on me. His gave me his best "building on the shoulder of giants" speech and said that he didn't want to "re-litigate" his interpretation of Scripture each time an issue came up. Re-litigate? Really?!?! How sad that an elder in the church can't be bothered to discuss the Bible with us "mere mortals" (aka laity).
It took me a couple of years to get over my need to trust human institutions for guidance on God's will and instead rely on the Holy Spirit. A friend of mine recently said that if you've been broken by God to the point where you hate and weep over your own sins then you truly have the working of the Holy Spirit within you. Yet the institution requires that you tick off a bunch of checkboxes in order to be saved. The spirit of the Pharisees is alive and well in the modern-day church.
When I look at the current state of Christendom, I can draw parallels to the Israelites before they entered the Promised Land. Weary and hungry, they would come to Moses complaining about their lack of food and would say that they wanted to return to Egypt. They were willing to enslave themselves yet again for a few morsels of food rather than wait to possess the "land flowing with milk and honey". The modern-day church is a tyrannical system which enslaves those who are a part of it to follow only the leading of those who run it. Instead, Christ is calling us to a life of love and service that is buried deep within today's churches. It is only by God's grace and mercy that His message of salvation in Christ shines through all of the nonsense that is we experience when we go to "church". My prayer is that God continues to call His people out of the system and into real fellowship free of all of the rules, just as He did with me. And I believe that the "seniors" are an important part of that transition. The idea of ordination or the clergy/laity distinction needs to disappear.
So now would you like to know what I really think? :-)