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Priesthood of Believer

Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by Shortandy, Feb 24, 2010.

  1. FR7 Baptist

    FR7 Baptist Active Member

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    I voted in business meetings from when I was 14.
     
  2. Revmitchell

    Revmitchell Well-Known Member
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    That would not meet the definition of hypocrite.
     
  3. FR7 Baptist

    FR7 Baptist Active Member

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    I'd still feel bad about it. Besides, it has never caused any issues at my church.
     
  4. Marcia

    Marcia Active Member

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    So can anyone be a member of your church no matter what age? Can 5 year olds be members? 10 year olds? If so, can they vote? There must be an age cut-off, right? If not, that makes no sense to me.

    I have to point out that just because your church allows 14 yr. olds (and maybe younger) to vote, that does not make it necessarily a good thing.
     
  5. FR7 Baptist

    FR7 Baptist Active Member

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    All baptized, non-heretical believers can join my church.

    I never said it did. Under the bylaws of the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Inc. all members can vote.
     
  6. Marcia

    Marcia Active Member

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    Wow. So this means theoretically, a 5 year old can vote!

    I just do not think that anyone under 18 has the maturity and experience to vote on church business. Do they know what a business plan is at age 5, 7, 9? Do they understand the implications of some difficult issues that may come up? Churches often have to vote on sensitive issues, and on issues that directly affect people's lives. People under 18, and especially younger than that, like pre-teen ages, should not be in a position to make those decisions.
     
  7. FR7 Baptist

    FR7 Baptist Active Member

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    In theory. However, I don't know many five year olds who can make a profession of faith in Christ and request baptism.

    Well my church's bylaws aren't structured like yours. From the time I joined the church, I had a responsibility to be a good steward and come to a well-informed decision on church matters.
     
  8. Onlybygrace

    Onlybygrace New Member

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    Ok hank. I get what you are saying but is it not a mute point anyway since I am not aware, and I stand to be corrected that voting itself is a sanctioned practice in scripture. I know that the early church did cast lots to make decisions but I don't see any scripture supporting the fact that we should remanifest that in the present day church through the practice of voting or even any scripture that endorses what they did and then commands us to do likewise. Now I know a lot of folks will say well then how are we supposed to make decisions, which is a seperate issue all together but we should not do just be cause it presents a pragmatically viable solution to a practical problem.
    So I would like to reiterate my earlier point and say that if you are going to set a precedent of excluding children on the basis of their age is that not prejudicial unless you take the principle to its logical conclusion and exclude adults who are immature spiritually, or carnal or have not attended church regularly,etc.
     
  9. menageriekeeper

    menageriekeeper Active Member

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    In thinking about this over the past few days as I noticed it, I've decided that this is not a priesthood of the believer issue at all.

    Children are represented by their parents because they are children and have the understanding of children. Same reasons we don't let children do all sorts of things apply here.

    However, as I recall, when I was a teenager there were times when our church allowed our participation in certain votes. It was a time of us learning how the congregation runs the church and we were told specifically when our vote counted. Of course we were all "good" children who voted the way our elders wanted us to anyhow so it was a moot point.

    I don't believe young people should be ignored, but children below the age of 13 probably don't have the facilities to make sound decisions.
     
  10. CF1

    CF1 New Member

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    Yes HankD. This is what I meant.

    The OP said the assignment was to search for scripture on the matter.

    Since the Bible does not provide guidance for such a question on should children vote, or should anyone vote, we turn to the closest related scriptures we can find on how to do decision making in the church.

    It seems like having children vote on special issues that are non-controversial, to get them to own being part of the decision making process might make sense.

    However members who want children to vote seem more likely to do so to promote their own agenda in an underhanded way rather than seeking a fair representation of the church body.
     
    #50 CF1, Mar 18, 2010
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 18, 2010
  11. Onlybygrace

    Onlybygrace New Member

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    CF1 you mention fair representation, what do you define as fair representation in a church context?
     
  12. HankD

    HankD Well-Known Member
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    Thanks for the response Onlybygrace.

    I agree with you regarding the immature Christian and so far as we can tell from the Scripture the carnal Christian (as the Corinthian Christians) and/or the "novice" have a distorted world view and should be allowed leadership very cautiously (or not at all) as they seem to be bent more towards the world mind than the mind of Christ and we can see the trouble they (Corinthians) got themselves into.

    Personally and for instance, I have been to church business meetings which children were not even allowed to attend as it concerned matters of life style in the congregation of a sensitive nature.

    Some adults but generally all children lack objectivity and that is why I said in my voting criteria (FWIW) that a "voter" must be a baptised believer, an official member by choice, in attendance at the local church for at least a year, over 18 and in good standing with the congregation and holding a good testimony and life style before God (as far as we can discern).

    How to find such people and the enforcement of the criteria is another story.

    Since the Scripture seems quiet concerning the "voting" procedure then God apparently has left this decision and process up to the autonomous local church.

    Some believe that "casting lots" was the same as modernly casting a ballot. For instance: Each apostle wrote a name on a piece of paper and Matthias name was in the majority so it was not a "roll of the dice".
    I believe it was something like what we do today in an election which BTW excludes children though they may be American citizens

    Do we do less that the world?

    That's another debate however.


    HankD
     
  13. CF1

    CF1 New Member

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    I wasn't thinking too deeply about it. Just something that reflects what everyone is thinking on the whole.

    I guess what you might be implying is that some people dominate the conversation and influence in an unfair way too often so an ideal of fair representation fails to be achieved more often than we wish.

    But we should still try to get fair representation even though it is not easy.
     
  14. Onlybygrace

    Onlybygrace New Member

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    CF1 I agree with what you are saying. I think church goverment tends to be a thorny issue on the whole, especially it remains so non de script in scripture and many systems of decision-making are more pragmatic than biblical. I wonder why God would not give us crystal clear intructions on something so vital as to how to make decisions in the local assembly? Or maybe His instructions are explicit but we are just ignoring them. Since the church was basically finding its feet in the book of Acts they did what seemed right and sensible but does this provide us with an automatic endorsement to adopt their practices as normative church policy and practice for the local assembly?
     
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