Scripture Revealed

A Revelation of Jesus Christ – Revelation 1:1

Month: April 2017

The Elders

The Elders

The Ordination of Elders – Painting by John Henry Lorimer (1856–1936)

According to the Bible, the focal point all church leadership is the elder.  But who, according to the Bible, is an elder?  Well, an elder is one of a number of biblically qualified men who jointly shepherd and oversee a local body of believers.  The word that is translated “elder” is used almost twenty times in the book of Acts and the epistles.

The Office of Elder

There are numerous passages in the New Testament that indicate that the words “elder” (presbyter), “overseer” (episkopos), and “pastor” (poimen) all refer to the same group of men or office.  Some think that overseers and pastors are distinct from elders, but this is not the case.  All of these terms are simply different ways of identifying the same group of men.  There is a parallel between the qualifications for a bishop (episkopos) in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and those for an elder (presbuteros) in Titus 1:6-9.  Paul uses both terms to refer to the same man (presbuteros in 1 Tim. 3:5 and episkopos in v. 7).

In Acts chapter 20 all three terms are used interchangeably.  In (...)

Which Kingdom Did Jesus Come to Establish?

Did Christ come to set up an earthly kingdom? Did Jesus come to establish two kingdoms?  Many of the Hebrews believed that Christ was to come to re-establish the earthly political kingdom of Israel. Many Judaic and Christian Zionists believe the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 is a precursor to the physical, millennial reign of the Judaic Messiah. However, the scriptures declare that the kingdom of God was “at hand” in the first century A.D.

Believers were told to repent and believe in the gospel “for the kingdom of God was at hand.”  So did Christ bring the kingdom of God to his people? Are will there be a future physical millennial kingdom of Israel? Let’s explore what the scriptures reveal.

The Ancient Kingdom of Israel

Abraham’s children left Canaan for Egypt, but God promised Abraham that his seed would be regathered back to the promise land. Moses led the Children of Israel out of Egypt during the Exodus. Under Joshua’s leadership, the Israelites conquered Canaan and divided the land by lots of inheritance. Jacobs’s offspring established the Kingdom of Israel and proclaimed their kingdom in 1030 B.C.E.  It endured until it fell to the Assyrian Empire (...)

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