***Would you mind doing me a favor. Please read the article. At least until you see how what we are discussing is addressed in the article.***
I thought I understood the issues at hand. I read the article and now I KNOW I understood them.
My issue is basically with this....
"With that said, I reject my own Baptist ordination as invalid, and unlawful, and repent of having committed sin before God as previously exercising the rights and privileges of an ordained minister when I was not lawfully ordained, though I thought so at the time. I may have been gifted and graced with the abilities, but only Scripturally ordained elders could lawfully ordain other elders. "
...Which is utter hogwash. This man is saying that every Baptist minister's ordaination is unlawful, invalid and sinful.
Hence my points.
1. No one should "hang their hat on a succession of elders". God often circumvents the "system".
2. God who make unclean men clean and fit for His use - not "legal" church ritual.
3. The real calling and ordination comes from God, not from men (read elders).
***It is McMahon who has rejected his Baptist ordination as sin and schismatic and embraced Presbyterianism because Presbyterianism claims a succession of elders***
I understand this and am persuaded that he is wrong and several of his basic assumptions are wrong.
***I thought I understood the issues at hand. I read the article and now I KNOW I understood them.***
I got the sense that we were not quite on the same page. I basically agree with your assessment. I think that McMahon is off on this one, too.
Christian.