Servant Authority

Servant Authority by Sandy Simpson This DVD is a message based on this article: http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/servantauthority.html The world system has always been a "top down" structure, starting at the apex of the pyramid and going down to the bottom. In kingdoms we have the king at the top, then the princes, common people, slaves. In a democracy we have the President at the top, the VP, the Sec. of State on down to the citizens. In business we have the CEO at the top, upper management, lower management, office workers and the janitors. Unfortunately, sometime in the third century, the church started to have a top down structure. This is also when the church began to be in error. The church of Rome began to have a "top down" structure that started with the pope, then cardinals, then bishops, then priests, then the people. Well, what about that? Eph 4:11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, This all sounds like a "top down" structure. But the problem is that people have not seen an important fact about these gifts of the Spirit -- man looks at function and title, God looks at aim and goal! Read on. Eph. 4:12 to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up. These are not gifts given for title or to give people job descriptions. They are given because there are people out there who need our help! The church needed the Apostles. They were the ones who were the foundation of the church. They were the ones who saw Jesus in the flesh and were taught by Him personally. They wrote the New Testament Scriptures. Though the gifts of apostle and prophet are different today than in biblical times, the gift of evangelism, pastoring, teaching and others are still the same. A person who is an evangelist does not just have a title so he can rule over people. The reason that he has the gift to be an evangelist is so that he can tell others the good news. Why do we have pastors? Are they supposed to rule the church and get everyone to support them and bow to their demands? No. They are to serve the church by helping people to come to a fuller knowledge of Jesus Christ, to equip the saints to become more like Jesus every day. The true structure of Christianity is symbolized as an inverted pyramid! You can get this DVD here: http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/servantauthorityDVD.html --- Apologetics Coordination Team FAIR USE DISCLAIMER This video is for educational purposes. In the Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a doctrine in the United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as for commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching or scholarship. It provides for the legal, non-licensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author’s work under a four-factor balancing test. The term “fair use” originated in the United States. A similar principle, fair dealing, exists in some other common law jurisdictions. Civil law jurisdictions have other limitations and exceptions to copyright. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use) The U.S. Copyright Office “Fair Use” definition can be found here: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html Fair Use Notice Section 107 of the US Copyright Law This video contains some copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in (processed as of May 13, 2006) section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/.... If you wish to use copyrighted material from this video for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.