Rebellion Against Pauline Authority
by Pastor Cornelius R. Stam
One
of the chief reasons why so many sincere religious people are left in
doubt and uncertainty as to salvation is because the organized Church
has rebelled against a distinct and important revelation from God to us
who live in this present age. This revelation is found in the inspired
words of Paul, in Rom. 11:13:
“For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles. I magnify mine office.”
Many
minimize that which the Word of God magnifies here. They insist upon
following Peter rather than Paul, failing to see that Peter’s authority
concerned the now-rejected kingdom of Christ on earth over Israel and
the nations. Our Lord had said to His twelve apostles:
“Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed Me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory, YE ALSO SHALL SIT UPON TWELVE THRONES, JUDGING THE TWELVE TRIBES OF ISRAEL” (Matt. 19:28).
Surely
there are no twelve tribes in the Church today, nor was any provision,
specific or implied, made by our Lord for “apostolic succession.” This
dogma is built upon the unscriptural assumption that the Church today is
the kingdom which Christ established when on earth, and that our
ministry today is but a perpetuation of that which the twelve began.
The
fact is that the ministry of the twelve was halted by the rejection of
the King and His kingdom and that the apostles themselves finally agreed
to turn their proposed Gentile ministry over to Paul, that other
apostle, to whom had been committed “the gospel of the grace of God”
(Read carefully, Gal. 2:2-9 and Acts 20:24).
If
only the confused religious masses could see that when Israel joined
the Gentiles in rebellion against God, when the world’s sin had risen to
its height and all was ready for judgment, God revealed “the exceeding
riches of His grace” by saving Saul, the chief of sinners, and sending
him forth as both the herald and the living example of His grace! Thus
he writes:
“Moreover
the law entered, that the offence might abound, BUT WHERE SIN ABOUNDED,
GRACE DID MUCH MORE ABOUND: “THAT AS SIN HATH REIGNED UNTO DEATH, EVEN
SO MIGHT GRACE REIGN, through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus
Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:20,21).
King James Bible
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