What is a church?
A church is a gathering of Jesus’ disciples.
What is polity?
This is a word used to refer to the government or administration of the church.
What are the different kinds of polity seen in the church today?
One way to think of church polity is to distinguish between those forms of church government which are hierarchical and those which are not.
What is a hierarchy?
This is where the leadership of the church is arranged such that one person or one group of persons has authority over the next leader as is often seen in the corporate world. The most obvious example is the Roman Catholic church where the pope is at the top, and under him are the cardinals, then bishops, priests, etc.
What kind of polity does not have a hierarchy?
Those churches that are ruled by elders who all share equal authority.
Does the Bible establish either of these as the polity which is most pleasing to God?
It does not.
What sort of polity can be seen in the church of the New Testament?
The supreme authority in the New Testament churches belonged to the apostles. Under the apostles, it appears that each local church made its own decisions.
How do you know that supreme authority belonged to the apostles?
Because they were directly appointed by Jesus to carry on the work of the kingdom of God which He had begun. Consider this:
So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. “If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.” (John 20:19-23)
Here Jesus gives the disciples the same mandate which His Father had given Him. That’s why He says, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” Then, to empower them for this mission, Jesus gives them the Holy Spirit.
What is meant by Jesus’ promise that if they forgive the sins of any, they will be forgiven?
This means that Jesus gave the apostles the “ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18) meaning that if anyone believed in Jesus Christ, the apostles were authorized in the Name of Jesus to assure them that their sins were really and truly forgiven by God.
Did the apostles themselves have the ability to forgive sin?
Roman Catholics argue that the priest has the power of absolution.