Cheryl

Don,

You said:

“The reason I said it was a mistake to couple these ideas is it makes it easier for the non-egals to dismiss 1 by dismissing the other. The idea of Paul being the 12th apostle is not common. So you are giving your opponents a “slow pitch” even if you believe it to be true. There are many things that I might believe the Lord showed me that I would never bring up in an argument.”

We each have our own way of argumentation. My way of argumentation is to use the scriptures and prove from them that men’s authority does not make a pastor nor does men’s authority take away the gifting of a person as a pastor. Perhaps you could show me how you teach from the scriptures that men’s authority cannot make one a pastor nor can it take away one’s calling. If you have a better way of seeing this from the scriptures, I would be open to seeing it. I believe that the fact that Paul proved his apostleship when he was not ordained by man is very applicable to the fact that one can be what one is called to be without having to be ordained by a body of men. I also believe that although Matthias was an apostle of the eleven, he was not called to be an apostle of the resurrection as Paul was called so his ordination of men did not “make” him what he was not called to be by Jesus. If you have a better way to show this from any other text of scripture, I am very open to hearing it. I am assuming that you believe that men cannot “make” one a pastor nor can they invalidate one’s calling. If you don’t believe this, I would be open to hearing why you don’t hold to this either.

Iron sharpens iron. it is always good to be pushed to show what we believe and why we believe it. It stretches us and causes us to keep our focus on the text and the context.