***Wouldn't living in open rebellion to the will of God automatically disqualify someone from holding a Church office?***
I agree, hence my question: "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" So, how can anyone hang their hat on a succession of elders through the laying on of men's hands unless you can also spiritually discern the state of the ordaining elder?
So, if the early Protestants who were ordained by Catholics regarded the Catholics themselves as apostate, then how can those apostate men bring a clean thing out of the unclean? If the Catholics weren't unclean, then what right did the Reformers have to break with Rome?
In the service of the Lord,
Christian.
*** So, how can anyone hang their hat on a succession of elders ***
Help me understand why someone would want to "hang their hat on a succession of elders"?
Wouldn't that be somewhat like the Pharisees and Sadducees who thought they were good with God because they "had Abraham as their father"?
"And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham." - Matt 3
To me the only true succession is the succession of those who bear a moral and spiritual likeness to Jesus. The mere physical laying on of hands imparts nothing. If God wants elders He can raise them up from stones - so to speak.
***how can those apostate men bring a clean thing out of the unclean***
Because it is God who make unclean men clean - not church ritual.
Let's say a church was entirely apostate. What I hear you saying is that it would be impossible for God to raise up a man who truly know Him in such circumstances?