Through the twenty centuries of church history the matter of how the church should be organized has been a continual problem. The church does not consist of only one or two persons. On the day of Pentecost alone three thousand were saved and brought into the church (v. 41). Not long after, five thousand more were saved (4:4). It would be difficult even to know how to bring together only these eight thousand people. Eventually, there was not only a church in Jerusalem, but there were also churches in Samaria, Antioch, Asia Minor, and Europe. Furthermore, in the church there were not only believers but also apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers (Eph. 4:11). There were also elders, deacons, and deaconesses. All these believers, churches, gifts, and serving ones had to be arranged, or organized, in some way.
Actually, according to God’s New Testament economy, there should not be any organization in the church. The church is not an organization but an organism. A desk, which is an organization, consists of many pieces fitted together without any life. However, our physical body, which is an organism, was not organized but was born and grew into its present form. An organism with its many organic parts is altogether a matter of life. The word organic means “of or related to life.” An organism is an entity entirely of life. Nothing in our body is produced by organization. In contrast, in an organization nothing is living; every piece is dead. Everything in an organization is a human work arranged by human hands.
Today’s Christianity is altogether an organization. Positions and offices in many denominations are decided by elections. Pastors today are often hired and fired. However, nothing in an organic body can be elected, hired, or fired. Our arms are not placed on our bodies by an election, nor can an old or weak arm be hired or fired. Elections, hiring, and firing are inorganic tools of human organization. There should be no elections, hiring, or firing in the church, because the church is altogether an organism. However, today’s Christianity is full of elections, hiring, and firing because it is an organization.
The church is an organism, not an organization, yet there is surely the need of some arrangement among thousands of people who come together in various cities as local churches. Finding this arrangement and the proper way for all the affairs of the church to be carried out is a great problem. Most seminaries have a course concerning the organization of the church, but the concept of organization related to the church cannot be found in the New Testament. We need to see the basic principle that any kind of organization leads to a hierarchy and that any kind of hierarchy is an insult to the headship of Christ.
Let us first examine the organization of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church is organized by first claiming that Peter was the unique representative and successor of Christ and thus the head of the church. The Catholic Church says that Peter became the first pope and that every succeeding pope has also been the head of the church. The office of the pope is an insult to the headship of Christ. The Catholic Church claims that because Peter is named first when the disciples or apostles are mentioned in the New Testament, he was Christ’s representative and was the head of the church. It is true that in the four Gospels and Acts Peter’s name is mentioned first, but at least one verse lists Peter second. Galatians 2:9 mentions “James and Cephas and John.” This verse shows that Peter was not always the first. Sometimes Peter was the first, but sometimes he was not. In Galatians 2:9 he became the second, and James became the first. Peter became second because he lost the boldness that he had on the day of Pentecost. In Acts 2 Peter did not care for his own life. He cared only for Christ and stood up in a threatening situation to take the lead to declare the gospel. However, in Galatians 2 he became afraid of only a few Jewish believers. Peter was eating with the Gentile believers, but according to verse 12, when some Jewish believers came, he became afraid and began to shrink back and separate himself from the Gentiles. This damaged the truth of the gospel (v. 14). The truth of the gospel in the New Testament economy is that the Gentile and the Jewish believers are one (1 Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:27-28; Eph. 2:15; Col. 3:11). Because Peter became weak and did not uphold the truth, he lost the leadership.
Acts 15 also shows that Peter was not always in the lead. There was a conference among the apostles and the elders to fellowship concerning the matter of circumcision. In verses 7 through 11 Peter spoke based upon his experience, and then in verse 12 Paul spoke based upon his experiences, but no decision was made. Verse 13 says, “When they finished speaking, James answered, saying, Men, brothers, listen to me.” In verse 19 James concludes, “Therefore I judge that we do not harass those from the Gentiles who are turning to God.” The final word in the conference was given not by Peter but by James. In human terms, James presided over the conference. This proves that by that time James was higher than Peter. Thus, Galatians 2:9 and Acts 15 nullify the entire structure of the Catholic Church.
Peter was never a unique, permanent, organizational, official, or positional leader. He was temporarily a leader according to his spiritual capacity. When he had the highest spiritual capacity, he was the leader. When he lost his spiritual capacity, he lost the leadership. This proves that the leadership among God’s people is not official, organizational, positional, or permanent. Rather, it is always dependent on spiritual capacity. If a brother has the capacity, he should take the lead. If he does not have the capacity, another should take the lead.
The organization of the Catholic Church begins from parishes, or local assemblies, which have deacons and priests as their leaders. All the parishes in a certain region are part of a diocese, which is led by a bishop. Actually, the title bishop comes from the Greek word that means “overseer.” In the New Testament this term refers to an elder (1 Tim. 3:2; Acts 20:17, 28). Thus, according to the New Testament, elder and bishop are two terms denoting the same person. The word presbyter in Greek refers to one who is older and experienced and is translated as “elder.” The term elder denotes an elder’s person, and the term overseer denotes an elder’s function. In the second century Ignatius taught that an overseer, a bishop, is higher than an elder, a presbyter. He taught that the elders oversee local assemblies and that the bishops oversee larger districts. The Catholic Church went further in this error by placing archbishops above the bishops, the cardinals above the archbishops, and the pope above the cardinals. This hierarchy with the pope as the head insults the headship of Christ. Because a hierarchy always has a head, any hierarchy in the church is an insult to the headship of Christ.