Gery
Sep 10, 2005
This question came up somewhere and I thought what your opinion is.
This question came up somewhere and I thought what your opinion is.
I would assume you are saying offices such as that are found in esphesians: apostle, prophet, etc?I would say at the outset there is one office to be held but many giftings that can be had.
Dear Greg,It seems to me what you say is correct. In the Old Testament we always find that it did not work out when kings tried to take over the priest's duties. What also tickles me is that the Bible speaks of Mechisedec as both a priest and a king (Heb. 7:1). We know though that our Lord held the offices of King, Priest and Prophet, but then again not at the same time. In Him,Gery
“Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity.” (1Tim. 2:7, KJVS)Not that I believe in 'offices' of any kind! ;-)
We know though that our Lord held the offices of King, Priest and Prophet, but then again not at the same time. He is all three right now. :-)
You hit the nail on the head.Didn't Paul take more than one more office?
Hi YeshuaIsMyGd...!I would just say that the apostle Paul was quite an evangelist and teacher. :-)
Didn't Paul take more than one more office?YehsuamyGodThis has come up from time to time on the forum, so my apologies for those who have heard it before... I think our concept of 'office' is completely mistaken. The last time I counted I found 46 times that the KJV uses the concept of 'office'. In none of these instances does the idea or concept appear in the Hebrew or the Greek. I am not opposed to leadership or eldership but the concept of 'office' has no basis in the scriptures,as far as I can see. For a brief post or two I referred to Greg as 'webmaster Greg' to make the point that a function is not the same as an 'office' or 'title'. Apostle, evangelist, prophet etc are 'functions' not 'offices'. I don't believe Paul was ever referred to as "Apostle Paul" nor "Teacher Paul" nor "Prophet Paul". These are not 'offices' but simply functions in the body of Christ.You can check these out if you have the time:Gen. 41:13; Ex. 1:16; 28:1,3-4,41; 29:1,9,44; 30:30; 31:10; 35:19; 39:41; 40:13,15; Lev. 7:35; 16:32; Num. 3:3-4,10; 4:16; 18:7; Deut. 10:6; 1Chr. 6:10,32; 9:22,26,31; 23:28; 24:2; 2Chr. 11:14; 24:11; 31:15,18; Neh. 13:13; Psa. 109:8; Ezek. 44:13; Luke 1:8-9; Rom. 11:13; 12:4; 1Tim. 3:1,10,13; Heb. 7:5The point is that there is no limit to the number of 'functions' a person may have, but the idea of 'office' produces immediate problems of 'how many offices can a man have?'
Here is something I have heard that might be helpful.Hold you hand out. You have 5 fingers (I hope). Your thumb is like the apostle. He can touch all of the others. Your pointer finger is like the prophet. The prophet says, "Thus saith.." Your middle finger is the longest. It is like the evangelist.. it can reach farther than the others. The ring fingers is like the pastor. He wares a ring of love. The little finger is like the teacher. He can reach into places the others cannot.
Parsly, i've heard that over and over again. Good purpose to describe each 'function' as Ron showed.Wow, RON!! Wow, that cool. I looked up the first 15, got tired of copy and pasting..(the online bible thing that i use, lets me only look up 5 verses at a time)
by philologosI think our concept of 'office' is completely mistaken. The last time I counted I found 46 times that the KJV uses the concept of 'office'. In none of these instances does the idea or concept appear in the Hebrew or the Greek. I am not opposed to leadership or eldership but the concept of 'office' has no basis in the scriptures,as far as I can see. For a brief post or two I referred to Greg as 'webmaster Greg' to make the point that a function is not the same as an 'office' or 'title'. Apostle, evangelist, prophet etc are 'functions' not 'offices'. I don't believe Paul was ever referred to as "Apostle Paul" nor "Teacher Paul" nor "Prophet Paul". These are not 'offices' but simply functions in the body of Christ.You can check these out if you have the time:Gen. 41:13; Ex. 1:16; 28:1,3-4,41; 29:1,9,44; 30:30; 31:10; 35:19; 39:41; 40:13,15; Lev. 7:35; 16:32; Num. 3:3-4,10; 4:16; 18:7; Deut. 10:6; 1Chr. 6:10,32; 9:22,26,31; 23:28; 24:2; 2Chr. 11:14; 24:11; 31:15,18; Neh. 13:13; Psa. 109:8; Ezek. 44:13; Luke 1:8-9; Rom. 11:13; 12:4; 1Tim. 3:1,10,13; Heb. 7:5The point is that there is no limit to the number of 'functions' a person may have, but the idea of 'office' produces immediate problems of 'how many offices can a man have?'I like your analogy Preach.I also fully agree with RonB on his post above.Bravo ! And I didn't even need to look up the verses. Great Post.:-)
Dear BrethrenThanks for the replies. Thank you!In Him,Gery
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