Who Needs Hierarchy?

The following article written by syndicated columnist Cal Thomas appeared in newspapers on July 10, 2003:

“America’s grand concept of liberty applies to faith as well — individuals choose what to believe, how to behave.

Thomas Jefferson — whose greatest work, the Declaration of Independence, was celebrated for the 227th time last Friday — observed in 1774: “The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.” That was one of those rare church-state moments that rings as true as the Liberty Bell did before it cracked. And yet, we witness people in the world and, I fear, increasingly in our country, who believe and act as if God not only gave life, but also required us to be in bondage.

There is something that has always bothered me about “religion,” and it applies to a lot of faiths. It is the notion that God needs puny, fallen and imperfect human beings, who are around for an average of just 70 years, to carry out His will.

Does this make sense? A God who is said to have created the universe out of nothing and who controls the keys to life and death (not to mention hell and heaven) must rely on human beings to execute judgment — such as homicide bombers in Pakistan and Moscow — and deliver blessings? What kind of weak, dysfunctional God is that? Why can’t He stand up and fight like, well, God?

This attitude is not unique to certain people who claim to speak for Islam. Like many other faiths, Islam comprises people with different beliefs, interpretations and lifestyles. Certain fundamentalist Christians behave similarly, telling people what they can and must not drink, should and should not wear and, again, depending on interpretations, whether they must or must not change their government to more accurately mirror what they see as the Kingdom of God.

This cleric says you should pray so many times a day, abstain from pork and have nothing to do with people who don’t believe as he does. That cleric says pork is OK, but you can’t drink anything with alcohol in it, although cough medicine with a 12 percent alcoholic content apparently makes the approved list.

The question remains: Why should I listen to a man (and it’s always a man, isn’t it?) with something on his head, or around his neck, or in a robe or a suit? He is just like me. He gets angry. He sins. He is fallen. He will die. Why does he get to speak for God, while I have no say in the matter? Am I not allowed to read “holy writ,” think for myself and behave accordingly?

Are ordained people necessarily better spiritually than those who are not ordained? Recent Catholic and Protestant church scandals would seem to suggest otherwise. When Jefferson spoke of God giving us liberty, he said a wise thing. He echoed the Old Testament prophet Joshua, who said, “Choose this day whom you will serve...” and he added “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). God gave him a choice, and he exercised it, but he didn’t impose that choice on others. There are benefits for choosing wisely and consequences for choosing wrongly. But liberty, not conformity, should be supreme.

Admittedly, this is a biblical notion. So is “Vengeance is mine, says the Lord.” When a mere human takes on the role of God, dispensing vengeance and judgment, and thus assuming the role God reserves for Himself~, he becomes guilty of that worst of all sins: pride. He is saying that only he knows what God wants.

It’s going to be difficult to win consideration for Jefferson’s noble observation in Pakistan and Russia and in many other places, but we should try. As Dinesh D’Souza wrote in The Washington Post, "virtue has great power, but not if it is imposed — only when it is chosen."
(end of article)

Through much of my life, I believed that the “Church” and “hierarchy” went together like bread and butter. I believed that it was just a normal thing to have a universal church organizational structure with one man (in my case, the Pope) as the universal head, and ordained hierarchy (in my case, cardinals, bishops and priests) as the ruling and governing body over the “laity” — the lower members of the church. It just seemed like a logical corporate structure.

But when I began to really study church history, it became obvious to me that this hierarchy structure was ripe for and did actually bring about the results of a very decadent and abusive human weakness — power and control at any cost.

The godly purpose for the hierarchy of serving the people easily fell into the ungodly expression of controlling the people. A study of church history shows a very decadent life style of the hierarchy through much of the ages. Certainly there were many good and faithful men and women in the church actually serving. I am not painting the whole institutional church with a broad brush. Many individual hierarchy lived faithful to their Lord, Jesus Christ.

When examining the lives of the bad Popes and immoral cardinals and bishops, I always heard the excuse, "But they were only men, and the church lives on!” And I accepted this reasoning for a long time.

Why not look back to the book of Acts and find out what kind of a structure the earliest church (or rather, “churches”) established by Peter and Paul consisted of?

Christianity started out in the first century with no priestly hierarchy structure involved in the formation of the first churches. There was just the pastor and his assistants in each church. In fact, Peter in his first epistle stated that every Christian was a “priest” — a member of a “royal priesthood” (chap. 2:5,9). The book of Hebrews is a convincing treatise that the idea of the need of a priesthood as existed in the Old Testament had been replaced and done away, Hebrews 4; 4 says that all any Christian needs is the great High-priest, Jesus Christ.

The churches that were established in the first century were very loosely organized and individualistic. Leaders of each church were chosen BY AND WITHIN each church itself. As people of gifted ability were discovered, they just naturally assumed the position of servants within the local church. The Bible says that they were ordained, but this word has no sacramental root. To be ordained simply meant that they selected elders by show of hands.

Only after the death of the original apostles did men begin to make centralizing changes in the organization of the church. The whole hierarchy structure began to be established and "ordination" of popes, cardinals, bishops, and priests became a sacramental exercise. This structure was presented to the “laity” as necessary for proper “service” within the Body of Christ. But rather than serving the children of God better and coordinating doctrinal teachings, pride within the hierarchy reared its ugly head. Control and self-preservation became the major function of the hierarchy.

Yes, as Cal Thomas states, “Am I not allowed to read ‘holy writ,’ think for myself and behave accordingly?” Indeed we are. At our new birth in union with Christ, the Holy Spirit within us becomes our Teacher. As a local Body of Christ, the members of a local church have a right and a duty to depend on the combined revelation which they receive from the Holy Spirit.

The assignment of hierarchy to a local church by a centralized command is not biblical. As we have seen with the Catholic church scandal, this situation has led to priests who are weak morally being placed in parishes where the laity unknowingly accepts them and set themselves up for sexual abuse. And the central hierarchy, in order to preserve the power structure and “defend the church”, creates a coverup of deceit and disinformation.

Am I being too harsh? Is Cal Thomas being too harsh? I don’t think so. What we have seen within the hierarchy structure within the last couple of years is only a continuation of centuries of abuse among many of the “clergy”.

Do what I did. Study the earliest church in the book of Acts. Study the history of the institutional church through Constantine, through the middle ages, through the Protestant reformation, and up to the present day, and I believe that it is clear that the problem is the HIERARCHY!

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