Government

Jim Hamby

A major source of controversy in churches today is the issue of church government. Church government for new testament Christians. I believe that you could have in every other area proper and right doctrines . but if you have a church government that is very faulty you can destroy everything.

What do we have when we talk about church government? Government comes from the word govern. Which means to control. To regulate. To manage. To hold back. A governor. Do you know what a governor is? Like on a motor. It lets it go up to a certain place and then it holds it back. It restrains it and it can’t go any further.

So by definition, Govern means to hold back.

To check. Government means some sort of control or restraint.

We talk about self government is the best government. Self control is the best control. We don’t need government for people that are self controlled.

What do we have governments for… to make sure people are controlled. What kind of government should we have in the church? Lets go back to some basis principles of the scriptures. And maybe some surprises.

Lets go back to what Jesus often did. When you approach JC and say …. What about this? What about what Moses say about this? Jesus would go back before Moses and say…."from the beginning". The very start. If we could only understand the first few chapters of Genesis we would be able to understand so more than we ever realized about the bible… Imbedded in those scriptures is so much more than we have about to see without in-depth study.

Gen 1:27 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them". What is man? What is mankind? Mankind is male and female. In god’s image he created them.

Gen 1:28 And God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

So the first thing God said to the first man and woman was rule over all these animals…rule over the creation. He didn’t say. "Rule over one another". That’s what he didn’t say. He didn’t say…"Rule over your wife". I’m creating you male and female, and I want you to rule over the female. It’s not there. He said rule over the animals th4e creation.

Gen 2:21 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh at that place.

Gen 2:22 And the LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.

Gen 2:23 And the man said, "This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, (She shall be called isha). Because what was take out of ish. Out of man.

Gen 2:24 For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.

Gen 2:25 And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.

He does not consider her an inferior being. Ish and isha. Aging there is no instruction for him to rule over her. They are allowed to eat anything. Notice when sin comes into things.

Notice what God does. One of the curses that God put on Eve. At that time.

He put curses on Adam too. At that time.

Gen 3:16

Gen 3:16 To the woman He said, "I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth (your paid in your pregnancy and conception), In pain you shall bring forth children; Yet your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you."

One of the curses that became of sin was that he was going to rule over you.

As a result of sin.

Adam

The curse to Adam. Cursed shall be the ground.

Gen 3:17 Then to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life.

Gen 3:18 "Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you shall eat the plants of the field;

Gen 3:19 By the sweat of your face You shall eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return."

Here is what God does. He curses the woman, the snake, Adam.

The question is are some of these curses still alive?

I don’t believe so.

When Noah was born. One pf the names of Noah.

 

Gen. 5:29 Now he called his name Noah, saying, "This one shall give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the LORD has cursed."

One of the names of Noah means comfort.