God Hath Spoken

by Harris J. Dark

In the church that Jesus built, each congregation is entirely independent of every other congregation. The Bible teaches congregational autonomy, which means that under Christ each congregation is entirely independent. According to the Bible, there can be no organization whatsoever binding two or more congregations together. This is the first fundamental fact to remember.

Second, in the church built by Christ, each local congregation is supervised by a group of men who are called by either of six different names: pastors, bishops, overseers, presbyters, elders, or shepherds. In the Bible these six names are used interchangeably. The words elder and presbyter are both from the same Greek word “presbyteros”; the words bishop and overseer are both translations of the same Greek word “episkopos”; and the words pastor and shepherd are also synonyms, being derived from the Greek word “poimenas.” Paul referred to the elders of the church at Ephesus as bishops and designated their work of feeding or tending the flock by using the verb form of the Greek word for pastors or shepherds (Acts 20:17, 28; Titus 1:5, 1:7; 1 Pet. 5:1, 2).

Hence, no distinction of title or rank is suggested by the Bible use of these words. It is very important that we remember this fact. The overseers, the pastors, the shepherds, the bishops, the elders, and the presbyters are all the same men. The nine men here whom we frequently call elders may by the same authority be called by either of these other five names. They are the pastors of this congregation; they are the overseers; they are the bishops; they are the presbyters; they are the shepherds of the flock.

Whenever one of these names is used to distinguish one person from the rest of the group they describe, trouble will always follow. That is exactly what happened in the early history of the church. It probably occurred in a very natural way and so gradually that only the most vigilant became alarmed. In a group of overseers, it is most likely that one of them will be more active than the others. It is natural for one of them to have more ability and more zeal as a leader than the rest, and he is liable to become known as the leader of the group.

Thus it came to pass in the history of the early church. One of the overseers, or elders, became so much more prominent and influential than the others that they began to designate him by a different name. They called him the bishop. The rest of the overseers were called presbyters. They took one of these six Bible names and made it apply to one of the men in the group to distinguish him from the others. Now, that looks like a very small departure, doesn’t it? If I had been living in those days and had warned the brethren against such a practice, they would have said, “That preacher is radical. He is making a mountain out of a molehill. What difference does it make if we want to distinguish the man who does most of the work by calling him the bishop?” Anyone who opposed them would probably have been called old-fashioned, non-progressive, etc.

But, friends, I want you to know that that is the seed out of which has grown more than two hundred denominations in America. Out of that first departure from the Bible plan has come the ecclesiastical hierarchies that curse the religious world today. If you and I aren’t very careful, we will repeat the same error. Whenever one man in the congregation is set above all the others in the group and is distinguished by any title whatsoever, you are taking a step in the wrong direction.

Well, let us follow the matter still further. It was also perfectly natural for this congregation which had made one man more prominent than the others, and distinguished him by the title Bishop, to start some missions around over the country and exercise authority over them until they became self-supporting. Since the man who was now called the bishop was head of the mother congregation, you can see how it would be very easy for the same man to become the head of this group of churches. Thus, less than two hundred years after Christ, there came into being a form of church organization quite opposite the plan revealed in the Bible. Instead of a group of men, with equal authority under Christ, overseeing one congregation there was one man over a group of congregations.

Doubtless there were certain congregations who maintained scriptural organization, contended against these departures, and refused to share in the digression. When some digressed and others did not, there was naturally a division—not because the Bible was at fault, but because some refused to follow the Bible.

The territory represented by a group of congregations over which a bishop gained control came to be known as a diocese. Later these geographic units were grouped to form larger units. In these larger units one of the “bishops,” usually the one residing in the capital of the province, gained ascendancy in rank and authority over his fellow “bishops” and was called the metropolitan.

The digression was augmented by conferences held in the various provinces and in which the local metropolitan served as chairman. At first, they were innocent “get-togethers” of delegates from the different congregations for the sake of fellowship, friendly discussion of their common problems, and reaching conclusions on disputed questions. But they soon partook of the nature of legislative bodies, and were called Councils by the Latins, and Synods by the Greeks. Thus there came into existence a source of legislation in addition to, and different from, the Bible. The congregations joining in this movement were deprived of their scriptural autonomy.