Ecclesiastical Governments Are Irrelevant

I’m an Anglican?  No, you are not.  I’m a Presbyterian.  No, you are not.  I’m a Congregationalist?  No, you are not. 

It is ironic in the truest sense of the word that Protestant Christians have divided themselves from one another and chosen their distinctiveness according to their preferred form of government while at the same time the majority don’t heed what their chosen form of government decides. 

Those of us in the Anglican world claim to be committed to an Episcopal form of government that has us under the authority of Bishops, then Presbyters and then Deacons.  We say we believe that those who have authority over us have been placed there by God and thus are there to counsel us and to obey when we are in need of correction (see Romans 13:1-7 and Hebrews 13:7).  To not seek counsel from the authorities over us and or to no not obey them is not to be Anglican.  It is not even to be Presbyterian or a Congregationalist.  It is something else entirely and may be some up as “doing what is right in his/her own eyes.” 

“But”, someone may object, “what if the authorities over me go against Holy Scripture and thus against God?”  This is an important “but” and it is exemplified to us in the manner the early Christians defied their Jewish and political authorities stating that a Christian must obey God before men (Acts 5:29).  When this is exemplified we are taught that we are to only reject the authority over us when it goes against doctrinal convictions that clearly defy the apostolic faith.  If the issue, then, is not doctrinal, to step outside the authority over us is to reject what God has ordained for our lives.  It is disobedience.  To say, “I am Anglican” and to follow up such a statement by ignoring and even rejecting the authorities over us is to be double minded and such a man is unstable in all his ways. 

And the point in the paragraph above applies to Presbyterians and Congregationalists as well.  If you are Presbyterian and the Presbytery decides such and such, and such and such does not go against the apostolic faith then if you believe that your form of government is biblical do you not, by faith, need to obey the authority of your Presbytery?  And if you are a Congregationalist and your congregation votes in favor of such and such, and such and such does not go against the apostolic faith then if you believe that your form of government is biblical do you not, by faith, need to obey the authority of the congregation?  If these authorities are not obeyed then let us “man up” and admit that we are neither Anglican, Presbyterian nor Congregationalist but something else.  And that something else that we are is not by faith.