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Sound of Liberty
7286 Hwy 53 West
Dawsonville,
GA
30534
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Bishops,
Elders, Deacons and the Five-Fold Ministry
Difficulties of the Five-Fold Ministry
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These Two Messages
Transcribed From Audio Taped messages
Preached By Brother Ben Howard
Dawsonville, Georgia
I want to deal with something that I feel is of
great importance to the Church in the time that we are
living in. So I would like to minister on the subject
of “Bishops, Elders, Deacons And The Five-Fold
Ministry. Let’s begin reading in 1st Timothy, chapter
three. It says, “This is a true saying, If a man
desire the office of a Bishop, he desireth a good
work. A Bishop then must be blameless, the husband of
one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to
hospitality, apt to teach; Not given to wine, no
striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not
a brawler, not covetous; one that ruleth well his own
house, having his children in subjection with all
gravity; (for if a man know not how to rule his own
house, how shall he take care of the Church of God?)
Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall
into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover he must
have a good report of them which are without; lest he
fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.
Likewise must the Deacons be grave, not doubletongued,
not given too much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre;
holding the mystery of the faith in a pure
conscience. And let these also first be proved; then
let them use the office of a Deacon, being found
blameless. Even so must their wives be grave, not
slanderers, sober, faithful in all things. Let the
deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their
children and their own houses well. For they that
have used the office of a Deacon well purchase to
themselves a good degree, and great boldness in the
faith which is in Christ Jesus. These things write I
unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly.” Now
let’s take a look at Titus 1:5.., “For this cause left
I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the
things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every
city, as I had appointed thee: If any be blameless,
the husband of one wife (Paul wanted to end the
age-old custom in the Middle East of polygamy, which
is not permitted under the New Covenant), having
faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. For
a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not
selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no
striker, not given to filthy lucre; But a lover of
hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy,
temperate; Holding fast the faithful word as he hath
been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine
both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. For
there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers,
specially they of the circumcision: Whose mouths must
be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things
which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake. One of
themselves, even a prophet of their own said, The
Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.
This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply,
that they may be sound in the faith; Not giving heed
to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn
from the truth.”
I believe the same God that inspired Saint Paul to
pin these words down that we have read, is an
unchangeable God. I believe He is very concerned
about His Church, especially in this hour. I believe
He wants us to be right. The only way we can be right
is to hear what God has to say to find out what He
wants for us, and fall into that category. What we’ve
just read, I want to get first, because that is the
sticky point. We will get the sticky points first,
and then lets deal with the other. What we have read
so far deals with Bishops, Elders and Deacons. Now I
want us to just take the Word for what it says. Let’s
not make it say something that it doesn’t say. Let’s
just take it for what it says, and move out from
there. The Word is still good, isn’t it?
Now God set an order to the Church to perfect Her,
to bring Her into the fullness of all that Christ is.
There are nine spiritual gifts for the Church. They
are in Christ and in the body of Christ. There are
Five Ministering Offices, to minister to the body of
Christ, and they are in Christ; namely APOSTLES,
PROPHETS, EVANGELIST, PASTORS AND TEACHERS. These are
given for the Perfecting of the Saints, and they are
gifts given unto Men. A man, if he has a gift of God,
the Lord foresaw it before the foundation of the
world. He was born for that purpose. We have men
sitting in congregations that God has dealt with in
supernatural ways before conversion, leading them into
the Kingdom of God, bringing them things that would
help them find their place in God. Now let’s deal
with these words one at a time, that the Apostle Paul
was writing about. You may ask, “What is an Elder?”
Usually, we think of an Elder as a Minister.
Sometimes it’s so, sometimes it isn’t. The Jewish
people had Elders in Israel even before Christ was
born. The Elders of Israel were rulers, and they had
a theocracy type government. They ruled in temporal
things, as well as in the spiritual things. Now when
you look into the word “Elders”, you go all the way
back to Egypt, and see that Pharaoh had Elders. An
Elder simply means a Senior. In each church
congregation, they would appoint Elders to help the
Christian converts to stay in line and keep them in
the faith. Elders were always appointed. There is
no calling in the Five-Fold Ministry as an Elder.
There are folks in the Five-Fold Ministry that are
Elders, but there is no calling as an Elder. Also
there is no calling in the Word of God as a Bishop.
When you look to the word “Bishop”, you will find it
means Superintendent. It seems to be one of the
Elders that were a little more recognized among the
many Elders. Each congregation had several Elders in
the Church. They helped look after the things of the
Church, and were always appointed to be an Elder, and
never has there been such a calling in the Ministry.
Now a man was not born with a gift of being an
Elder, there is no such gift. That comes when one has
proved himself, and has walked uprightly before God
and the Church. This takes place after he has proved
himself worthy, and then the church could say, “That
man there is a good man. Let’s ask him if he would
like to be a Bishop, or Elder or maybe a Deacon.”
This word “Elder” is a spill-over from the Jewish
order. It is a spill-over from the Jewish temple, the
worship and the running of their government. Their
government was run by Elders and they were all
appointed by the church or their government. It is
the same for a “Bishop”. There is no calling in the
Five-Fold Ministry as a Bishop. The Word says, “If
any man desires the office of a Bishop, then let him
follow certain rules.” Now Paul is writing about the
order that he placed in the Church to keep it going in
the right direction. Now we have the gifts of the
Five-Fold Ministry, and that is the Ministry we have
today, after the Seven Church Ages are over. So if a
church selects someone to be a Bishop, Elder or
Deacon, then the church has a right to lay down the
rules for them in deciding their duties in each local
church, but Paul writes in the Book of Ephesians about
the Ministry that God would use to perfect the
Saints. When we look at Elders, there are different
kinds of Elders in history, and it took different
qualifications to be an Elder for different groups.
Now we find the Twenty and Four Elders in the Book of
Revelation. They represent the twelve Apostles of the
Lamb, and the twelve Patriarchs of the Old Testament.
Now some of these Patriarchs of the Old Testament were
counted as Elders, and some of them had more than one
wife; they lived in polygamy, which in the Old
Testament was allowed; yet they were Elders. Remember
here, that this was in the Old Testament. Although I
can find no grounds whatsoever where anyone can take
scripture and prove in the New Testament that polygamy
is allowed. Well, so much for that.
Now, Paul and all the Apostles grew up in this type
of environment, where Elders controlled almost
everything. Now in the Temple, they had a High
Priest, and then they had a lot of Priest under that
High Priest. So when the Church started, they
followed a pattern similar to the order that existed
in that day to keep the Church in order. So they got a
Bishop, which means Superintendent of the Elders. He
was the Head of the Elders, and the rest of the Elders
were under him.
Click here for the full text
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