Nuggets from "Whatever Happened to Heaven?" by Dave Hunt

Nuggets from "Whatever Happened to Heaven?" by Dave Hunt

None of the New Testament epistles is written as though it came from a bishop or pope who had to be obeyed under threat of excommunication. On the contrary, like James and John, Peter exhorts equals, he does not command inferiors: "The elders, which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder" (1 Peter:5:1The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed:
See All...). He offers as the basis for his writing not any official ecclesiastical postion or power but the fact that he has been "a witness of the sufferings of Christ...[an eyewitness]...of his majesty (1 Peter:5:1The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed:
See All...; 2 Peter:1:16For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
See All...).

Paul also addresses his readers as equals (calling them brethren, yokefellows, and fellowlaborers) and appeals not to any obligation that church organizational structure imposes upon them to obey him but to their consciences before God and to their individual inspiration by and submission to the Holy Spirit. Thus Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians (14:37): "If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord." Avoiding any idea of hierarchical authority, all of the apostles except James use the word "beseech," and Paul does so repeatedly (see Romans:12:1I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
See All...; 1 Corinthians:1:10Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
See All...; Galatians:4:12Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are: ye have not injured me at all.
See All...; Philippians:4:2I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord.
See All...,3; Hebrews:13:22And I beseech you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation: for I have written a letter unto you in few words.
See All...; 1 Peter:2:11Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
See All...).