[unspun]

An apostle is like a minister plenipotentiary, or what legal eagles call an agent, for whose acts the principle consents to be responsible -- as long as the agent acts within his brief.

And we are all agents. All are priests (and that is without any modifiers) in the Kingdom of Christ. And any leaders in earthly church fellowships are to help to build all of us up as the priests we are. No substitute for that, either.

So, in Spirit and in truth, the organizational chart of God and His royal priesthood of believers is as follows:

God
|
Each Believer

I don't think 1 Jo 2:19-27 is about all the truth but the truth of the incarnation, that Jesus is the Christ. Is is the denial of that about which John is writing. And besides I Cor 12 stands. Diversities of gifts, not all get all, each gets some.

And the Holy Spirit is like the wind, as Jesus explained to Nicodemus. He may blow one gift or revelation one way at one time, directly to one person or through another, and at another time, in another direction. It is all at God's discretion.

I wouldn't address Baalam's ass with reverence, nor anyone in the Church. All are to allow the measuring rod of the immutable Logos of God as his Magisterum. And the Rhema of God, aligned with the Logos, is to guide each and all, as the Holy Spirit decides and severally blesses.

[Mad Dawg]

Well, that's a point of view. I don't think it's scriptural, IMHO. There is a clear distinction from the sermon on the mount through the Pentecost and after, with the ordination of deacons, the appointment of Matthias, the apostolic conference in Acts, that there are those with apostolic authority and those who do not have it but are members of the Church.

This is not an argument, simpliciter, for the RC church, just for SOME hierarchy of some kind being attested to in the NT.

[Quix]

Reads pretty accurate, to me.

Thx.