Part 10 Conclusion
Truly, the Spirit has not left us without the knowledge needed to return God’s children to the ekklesia. While the framework is evident, what this can, and will eventually look like in our day is anyone’s guess, but this we know: the Spirit ONLY uses TRUTH to sanctify (John 17:17). We the authors invite you on this journey in using the law of God lawfully, that is, in the way of love. And with the apostle Paul, we bow our knees to the Father that…
“according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
This is in contrast to the church prayer that we would know the depths of our supposed condemnation for God’s glory and thereby recognizing the size of chasm between us and our father illustrated by a bigger cross.
The church prayer is not our prayer because we have not received the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear because fear has to do with judgment and not the way of love and its power following.
The way of the ekklesia is aggressive love without fear of condemnation. We do not partake in fearful introspection because there is no law to condemn us. Our love for the law is aggressive and unfettered. The old us is dead, and even if the church digs up our dead corpse and drags it into court or their delusional sessions, the judge has no law; our beloved Brother nailed it to the cross and therefore…
…our allegiance is to Him, the ONLY head of the body which is resurrected with Him, and the one who has been given ALL authority. We will believe on Him alone and not men; we will focus our lives together towards the day we stand before Him for our reward. We long to hear, “Well done faithful servant.”
So help us God.
Paul Dohse and Andy Young.
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
Thank you for this series. I’ve been on vacation and am still working my way through the articles. Interestingly, I received an email today from Way of Life Literature (David W. Cloud; I find some of their articles valuable) advertising his book ” The Pastor’s Authority and the Church Member’s Responsibility.” It immediately set off red flags. I downloaded the PDF at https://www.wayoflife.org/free_ebooks/downloads/Pastors_Authority_&_Members_Responsibility.pdf
I read through it rapidly and recognized many of the assumptions you have been addressing in this series and in your many articles on supposed church ‘authority.’
Thanks again for your expose of such presumptuous, entitled attitudes that have run rampant for centuries. This is the blurb that accompanied the advert for the book:
“This book examines each major New Testament passage dealing with the relationship between pastors and church members. It looks at the extent of the pastor’s authority and the spiritual characteristics of his authority, as well as the responsibilities of church members.
It is an extremely practical book that should be studied by every church member. It gives many tips for dealing with problems that typically arise in churches.”
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Thank you for your input as this will be a published book ready for our conference in August. Readers can offer input on any of these articles.
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A great study; thanks. So, after the fat lady has sung and the drunkards have crawled home, who is ultimately behind this lie of fear and condemnation? Not God, but Santa (rearrange the letters in “Santa” for some mindless fun) and his little elves on their Protestant/Calvinist/Reformed sleigh.
Light has nothing to do with darkness, so let’s pray our loved ones out of that whore called Calvinism; their eternal destination is at stake.
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Thank you for your input as this will be a published book ready for our conference in August. Readers can offer input on any of these articles.
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