DISCIPLE

W. E. Vine quotes from his book The Church and the churches       The Apostles did not establish an earthly system, an organization of churches centralized in ecclesiastical headquarters. Such a policy is significantly absent both from their methods and their doctrine. What took place at Jerusalem, as recorded in Acts 15 provides no example of such a centre. The company which assembled there has been called an apostolic council. Whatever was its nature, no Apostle presided over it; Peter and other Apostles took part, James summed up matters in a closing speech, and an epistle was addressed in the name of the Apostles and elders, and delegates were chosen by the whole local church together with them (verse 22). But this gathering was incidental and not intended as a precedent. No other such assemblage is recorded in apostolic times. Nor did the decision effect a settlement of the trouble. Peter himself was afterwards found acting inconsistently with the decree (...

W. E. Vine     The churches are His by right of His redemptive work on the Cross and by the operation of the Holy Spirit. They are not the property or possession of any ecclesiastical organization or religious body or society or denomination. As we have already observed, the Word of God knows nothing of such organizations or associations of churches in any shape or form; its testimony is distinctly against the formation of any such federation or combination with earthly headquarters. Each church, as the property of Christ, is designed to acknowledge His authority as its Lord (I Cor. 12:5).     Nor again does any local church belong to those who, as its spiritual guides, elders or bishops (see, e.g., Acts 20, verse 17 with verse 28, R.V., Phil. 1:1, etc.), are appointed by the Spirit of God to exercise oversight and to take care of it (I Tim. 3:5). They are the Lord's servants, answerable to Him for the discharge of their functions in tending ...