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To: A2J
"along with its 'bishop'
"So, you are Catholic."

Do you believe that the word "bishop" is used as a name for a church office exclusively by the Roman Catholic church?

It is prominently used in the King James Bible (1 Tim 3:1). But it is never used in a way indicating hierarchical nature. There is no reason to take the office of "bishop" as being anything other than the presiding elder of a local congregation of believers.

The Roman Catholic system does not allow the description of the "bishop" in 1 Timothy ch. 3, where he may be the husband of one wife.

No, I am not a "Catholic," if you mean Roman Catholic or Orthodox Catholic, etc. I am a Bible-believing (Bible-lteralist) Baptist
143 posted on 12/19/2005 9:18:04 AM PST by Free Baptist
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To: Free Baptist
The Roman Catholic system does not allow the description of the "bishop" in 1 Timothy ch. 3, where he may be the husband of one wife.

Sure it does, provided he is a widower, or she has entered a convent. Nary an early Christian had an exegesis of this passage other than that. "Husband of one wife" was a guaranteee of his continence in the minsitry. A man who could not control his human flesh and remarried, or who continued using marriage after ordination, could not be expected to maintain the discipline needed to be a Bishop.

The Catholic Church doesn't forbid married men the ministry. It forbids ministers to make use of their marriage if they had one prior to ordination, faithful to the exhortation of the Lord. "And every one that hath left house, or ... wife, or children, ... for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting." (St. Matthew 19.29)

187 posted on 12/19/2005 10:09:58 AM PST by Hermann the Cherusker
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