NOMINATION OF ELDERS
NOMINATION OF ELDERS
I have reasons for thinking that the author will no longer insist now on Acts 14:23. At all events, since it is an important [p. 264] passage, and the only one which might seem to present the assemblies as participating in the choice of elders, I will say a word more on the subject. Mr. Rochat would prefer leaving out the expression of “the church” or “the assembly,” in the passage, because it is not in the Greek. But we must remember that the point in question is the participation of the assembly.
Our brother tells us that Wahl translates, not merely “I choose,” but “I choose by way of suffrages.” He has quoted Wahl wrongly in the very thing that is in question. I am fully persuaded that it is through pre-occupation, as it may happen to everyone; but it is important to know that Wahl says, “I choose by way of suffrage,” without an s at the end of the word. The reason for this is quite simple, and the difference is immense. The suffrage is always the suffrage of the person who chooses, so that one could not translate, I choose by way of suffrages, with an s, since it would be choosing by other suffrages besides my own; whereas, if I say, I choose by way of suffrage, in the singular, it is my act in view; it is a question of myself. It is always the suffrage of the person who is the subject of the verb “to choose,” which is spoken of. The word translated by “chose” means to stretch out the hand, and those who did choose stretched out their own hands, and not the hands of others. If anyone wishes to confine himself to etymology, although the verb, like so many others, has lost its etymological sense, the only sense which can be given to it is, “the apostles chose by stretching out their hand.”
The thing in question is not to know if the word retains the sense of suffrage (although in its general use, it has lost it) but, admitting the sense of choosing by way of suffrage, we must know by whose suffrage it is. Then I answer, by the suffrage of him who chooses, and of him alone. As for the case of 2 Corinthians 8:19, it is exactly the same thing. The churches “chose,” but then the “churches” are in the same relation to the verb, as Paul and Barnabas in Acts 14:23. The churches, like Paul and Barnabas, did not choose by the suffrages of other persons, but by their own suffrages. This passage in 2 Corinthians entirely confirms this interpretation, which, after all, is the only reasonable or possible one. I do not here exclude the idea of hands being lifted up; but this I say, that the hands lifted up, if there were any, according to the form of the word, were the hands of the apostles. Moreover, I do not think that Mr. Rochat would dispute it now.
[p. 265] Mr. Rochat knows as well as I do, that the use of the participle, instead of the past tense, makes no difference. Hence, in the only passage where the choice of elders is mentioned, the word shews us that the church did not choose herself, but that it was the apostles who chose for the church. The only epistles which speak of the qualification of elders and of deacons are addressed, not to churches, but to persons who in a special way represented the apostles. These two circumstances are more than extraordinary, if the rule of the word was that the churches were to choose their elders. Add to this that Titus had been sent to a great distance in order to establish them, as the apostle had commanded him to do — him, I say, and not the churches which existed in these localities.+ Mr. Rochat says that I make a distinction unknown to everybody between elders and pastors. All I can reply to that is, that it is astonishing how grave and learned men can remain so entirely shut up in their own ideas. Nearly the better half of the Reformed Church has made this distinction; all the Presbyterians make it; and our brother has only to make a short excursion in the Canton de Neufchatel, and he will find in each parish Mr. — , elder, who is not the pastor at all.++ Farel, Knox, the reformers in France, etc., were not men to be despised in their generation. By the way, does my memory fail me, when I say that Farel was never ordained? It is certain that at Geneva a poor artisan had begun to distribute the Lord’s supper, and was banished for it. Faith is worth many ordinations of men. On the other hand, I do not quote these facts as authority to rest upon, but solely in reply to our brother, who says (page 51), that he has thought, until now, that everybody was agreed in thinking that these two charges were the same. For my part, the Bible suffices me.
Mr. Rochat has only referred to a part of the passages in Exodus and Deuteronomy. Although they are not very important with respect to this subject, I will say that in Exodus 18, it is Jethro who proposes the thing to Moses, and that it is Moses who chooses. From what is said in Deuteronomy 1:13, it is Moses who proposes the thing to the people,
+If Mr. Rochat wishes to find examples and arguments on this point, he may consult “Poli Synopsis Crit,” on this passage.
++See also the “Confession of Faith of the Reformed Church of France,” Article 29, etc.; “Confession of Faith of the Churches of Switzerland,” chapter 18.
saying, “Take ye.” The people answer, “The thing which thou hast spoken is good,” etc. Then Moses says, “So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men, and known, and made them heads over you,” etc.
Our brother is very much astonished also that I said, As to the service of tables, the choice was granted to the church, because the church supplied the tables, as the choice also was reserved for God, when God supplied the gift. He asks if God does not supply the gifts for a deacon. Everything is confounded here, because our brother has not understood the use of the word gift. All the things that we possess are gifts of God undoubtedly; but, in the word, the use of this expression is specially connected with certain gifts, which result from the glory of Christ, as Son of man. “He gave gifts for men.” “He gave some apostles,” etc. “There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.” “Covet earnestly the best gifts,” etc.
Now the charge of deacon was not one of these gifts, but a charge which had to do with the care of temporal things. A person was the deacon or the servant of the church. Certain qualities were necessary, to be a deacon, but this charge was in nowise one of the gifts mentioned in the list which is left us, Ephesians 4 and 1 Corinthians 12. A man might very well possess a special gift of service, in a more general sense, without being officially a deacon, but the things intrusted to deacons were temporal, and they were intrusted to them by the brethren. As to those who possessed gifts, the things which were intrusted to them were spiritual; they came directly from God; and those men were immediately responsible towards the Lord in their service. They were servants or deacons of Jesus, in things which were spiritual, and not servants of the church in things which were temporal. But here comes out the whole thought of our brother. “The church,” he says (page 55), “ought to have named elders, not only because it paid them, but also because it intrusted to them something much more precious than its money, namely, the souls of the faithful which composed it.” I only ask where such a thought is to be found in the word as this, that the church intrusts to the elders the souls which compose it?
As to the phrase which astonishes our brother, I maintain it in all its force; and I see great perfection in the ways of the Spirit of God as to this. As regards the difference which exists between the elder and the pastor, I say that the pastorate was [p. 267] a gift of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4), whereas the charge of elder was not one. This charge was established by men in the church, according to God undoubtedly, but it was an institution connected with government, and not a gift from above, although certain gifts and certain qualities were necessary for those who were named elders. I said that the gift of shepherding the flock of God, in one way or in another, was necessary or suitable for them, because it is shewn by the first epistle to Timothy that the elders who laboured in word and teaching are distinguished from the other elders. Peter speaks of the elders in a very vague manner, calling himself an elder, and contrasting them with all the younger, so that it would be difficult to suppose a choice.
I admit this, that on certain occasions the disciples did take resolutions in common. In the case of the disputes about circumcision, which the apostle Paul could not settle, the brethren at Antioch agreed to refer to the decision of the apostles and elders at Jerusalem. If our brother, Mr. Rochat, likes to quote this as an instance of a decision on the part of the church, he is quite free to do so. For my part, I see the incapacity in which the church was to decide anything on the subject; they agreed to refer this question to a superior authority. Except the answer from the apostles and elders, with the church, to the question which had thus been proposed to them, all the other cases (excluding what was done before the coming down of the Holy Spirit), only relate to deacons and to pecuniary aid. Let brethren take resolutions in common when circumstances arise, I have nothing in the world to say against it, provided their direction be from God; but this, I repeat, that I see nothing in the word that resembles the decision of a majority. It is evident that, if the church is in a bad state, the majority will probably decide wrong, and nothing can prove that the Holy Spirit is with the majority. It is merely a human means of settling an affair. In matters of arrangement one may very well consult what suits the greater number; but, as regards moral things, the number is of no moment.
Our brother (page 59) returns to the subject of gifts. He asks if the gifts connected with the charge of elder did not come directly from God. When it is a question of governing one’s household, and one’s own children (1 Timothy 3:4, 5), it is quite a different thing from gifts, in the scriptural sense of the expression.
[p. 268] Mr. Rochat (page 60) insists on the answer he gave in his first pamphlet to this remarkable fact, that every direction about elders is given to Titus and to Timothy, and never to the churches. He remarks that Paul says to Timothy (1 Timothy 3:15), “These things write I unto thee ... that thou mayest know [not, ‘how thou oughtest to behave thyself,’ but] how one ought to behave oneself.” I take a similar case. My son is chosen councillor of state, and I write to him to explain how one ought to behave oneself in the affairs of the state. This shews, according to Mr. Rochat’s mode of reasoning, that every citizen may, at any time, exercise the functions of councillor of state, because I told my son how one ought to behave oneself. I confess I do not see where the force of that argument lies.
The author adds to his thought, which is also mine, that we must not go in advance of the gifts of God. “When God,” he says (page 61), “sends elders and deacons, I will not have them to be tacitly owned, but to be established through their being recognised by a regular vote of the church.” But, first of all, in the case of establishing elders and deacons, it is supposed that all is in order, the very thing that always remains to be proved; and if even it were supposed that all is in order in the church, it would still remain to be proved, that it has a right to establish elders by a regular vote, as Mr. Rochat says. This has not been done, but quite the contrary. It ever remains true, that what is presented to us in the word, is the choosing of elders by the apostles; their establishment by the delegates of Paul; directions for those same delegates, and an absolute silence on this subject in all that is written directly to the churches.
I will point out here a principle, which is expressed twice in Mr. Rochat’s pamphlet, with a very slight difference: where the word has determined nothing, man is free. The essential thing is to follow its spirit (page 66). There is no principle more dangerous than that one. Were it followed, all kinds of innovations might be introduced into an assembly, and imposed on the brethren by the vote of a majority. It is true that the Holy Spirit leads us according to the spirit of the word in cases where we do not find at first a positive text; for the Spirit has not abandoned the church. But to say, in such a case, that man is free, is a horrid principle. It is this especially that I [p. 269] dread in the system of dissent. Man, the flesh, its rights, are constantly put in place of the Holy Spirit.
As to the article on the ruin of the dispensation, I have replied to it while considering that on the unity of the church. Here is what I have to say now about women (page 86). Whenever brethren meet as an assembly before God, the women are to remain silent; it is a moral ordinance of the word. Discipline is not connected with organisation, but with the presence of Jesus, where two or three are gathered together in His name. The Holy Spirit necessarily exercises that discipline, wherever He acts; for He is holy, and He governs in the church. The author’s answer about the refusal anyone might make to join the disciples, is no answer at all. The church was not yet manifested at the time of Joseph of Arimathea (page 90). To belong to the assembly a person must have been baptised, and those who had not been baptised could not be owned as Christians. As for those who had been baptised, they had thereby publicly joined the Christians. As for the imposition of hands, if it were only given to recommend to the grace of God someone who is about to go forth for the Lord’s work, I see nothing to hinder it; but if it be to make a minister, as people say, or to give a right to the exercise of ministry, it is a positive infringement upon the sovereignty of God.