As previously, the excerpts are ordered from
newest to oldest.
2017, Jordan
Walker, Progressive Primitive Baptist, “I have come to the belief
that many of our “little” problems are due in large part to a
fundamental deficiency in our church leadership tradition. I believe that
our departure from the Biblical model of local churches with a plurality
of elders is one of our biggest practical pitfalls.”
2016, Ben
Winslett, Primitive Baptist, “I find it sad when some churches
struggle to fill the pulpit for lack of a pastor, and men within driving
distance are not willing to go and preach for them, despite not having a pastorate
of their own. I understand that a plurality of elders was indeed displayed in
Scripture, but I also know how important it is to our Master that His sheep are
fed. Please – go preach.”
1958, The Orthodox
Baptist Confession of Faith leaves the possibility of plural pastors, but was
likely not practiced by these churches, “We believe. …that pastors and deacons,
the only divinely appointed church officers, should be duly ordained and
brought to understand the sacred duties devolving upon them…” Orthodox Baptist Confession of Faith, by
W. Lee Rector, Third Edition published by First Orthodox Baptist Church of Ardmore,
Oklahoma, 1958
1923, The Articles Put
Forth by the Baptist Bible Union of America suggest a plurality in
the local church (a congregation of baptized believers), though probably
intended to be understood as fitting either single-elder or plural-elder models:
“XIII. OF THE CHURCH. We believe that a church of Christ is a congregation of
baptized believers associated by a covenant of faith and fellowship of the
gospel; observing the ordinances of Christ; governed by His laws; and exercising
the gifts, rights and privileges invested in them by His word; that its
officers of ordination are pastors, elders and deacons, whose qualifications,
claims and duties are clearly defined in the Scriptures…”
Early 1900s, Mark Dever, “It is indisputable that
at the beginning of the twentieth century, Baptists either had or advocated
elders in local churches—and often a plurality of elders.” By Whose Authority: Elders in Baptist Life,
Mark Dever, Washingdon, DC: Nine Marks Ministries, 2006, pp. 21-22
1886, Sylvester
Hassell, “Instead of one Bishop presiding over several churches,
there was, it would seem, a plurality
of Elders or Bishops in each of the apostolic churches, as at
Jerusalem, at Ephesus, at Philippi, and at the ordination of Timothy (Acts xi.
80; xiv. 23; xv. 2, 4, 6, 23; xvi. 4; xx. 17, 28; xxi. 18; Phil. i. 1; 1 Tim.
iv. 14; James v. 14); but the distinction between teaching Elders and ruling
Elders, observed by Presbyterian and by some Congregational and some
Baptist Churches, cannot be proved by the New Testament or from church
antiquity...” History
of the Church of God: From the Creation to A. D. 1885, Cushing Biggs
Hassell, Sylvester Hassell, Middletown, NY: Gilbert Beebe and Sons, p. 305
1874, William
Williams (Professor of Ecclesiastical History 1859-1877, at Southern
Baptist Theological Seminary) wrote, “In most, if not all the apostolic
churches, there was a plurality of elders.” (p. 531) The plurality was equal: “The
elders of the New Testament were all equal in rank and authority, and
discharged the same duties,—the ministry of the gospel and the oversight of the
government and discipline of the church. The distinction of preaching elder and
ruling elder, made by the Presbyterians, rests upon a single passage of
Scripture, 1 Tim. v. 17.” (p. 533) Apparently, though, Williams thought these
were “temporary reasons growing out of the peculiar exigencies of the time” and
that current practice was left to the discretion of each church. [Apostolic
Church Polity, William Williams, (Philadelphia, PA: American Baptist
Publication Society, 1874), as printed in Polity:
Biblical Arguments on How to Conduct Church Life, (Mark
Dever, editor, Washingdon, DC: Nine Marks Ministries, 2001)]
1849, J.
L. Reynolds, “It has been shown that a plurality of elders was
customary in the apostolic Churches. Many of these, after the example of Paul,
labored with their own hands for support; and as they were stationary, might do
so with little inconvenience.” Church Polity;
or, the Kingdom of Christ in Its Internal and External Development by
James Lawrence Reynolds, p. 116
1846, W. B.
Johnson (first president of the Southern Baptist Convention). Concerning
the New Testament age, Johnson asserted, “That over each church of Christ in
the apostolic age, a plurality of rulers was ordained, who were designated by
the terms elder, bishop, overseer, pastor, with authority in the government
of the flock.” (p. 190) He believed the Scriptures taught, “That these rulers
were all equal in rank and authority, no one having a preeminence over the
rest. This satisfactorily appears from the fact, that the same qualifications
were required in all, so that though some labored in word and doctrine, and
others did not, the distinction between them was not in rank, but in the
character of their service” (p. 191) and “It is worthy of particular attention,
that each church had a plurality of elders, and that although there was a
difference in their respective department of service, there was a perfect
equality of rank among them.” (p. 192) Concerning the prescription for his own
time, Johnson wrote, “A plurality in the bishopric is of great importance for
mutual counsel and aid, that the government and edification of the flock may be
promoted in the best manner.” (p. 193) “Whilst a plurality of bishops is
required for each church, the number is not fixed, for the obvious reason, that
circumstances must necessarily determine what that number shall be. In a church
where more than one cannot be obtained, that one may be appointed upon the
principle, that as soon as another can be procured there shall be a plurality.”
(p. 194) [The Gospel Developed Through
the Government and Order of the Churches of Jesus Christ, William Bullein
Johnson, (Richmond, VA: H. K. Ellyson, 1846) as printed in Polity:
Biblical Arguments on How to Conduct Church Life, (Mark
Dever, editor, Washingdon, DC: Nine Marks Ministries, 2001)]
1791, Egremont Association in New York
(constituted 1788) “Have a plurality of ruling and teaching elders.” [Asplund’s
summary on page 47 shows the Egremont Association had 6 churches with 12
ordained and 3 licensed ministers.] The Annual Register of the Baptist
Denomination, in North America, John Asplund, Virginia: by the
author, 1791, p. 49
1790, Freewill Baptist Connexion history reveals
that they had both teaching elders and ruling elders. “The Statistics at the close of the first decade [1790, rlv] cannot be
ascertained with certainty, but an approximation is possible. The estimated
number of members was four hundred, and the number of churches, active and
efficient, eighteen. There were eight Ordained ministers, seven Unordained, and
nine ruling elders.”[i] (p. 94) “Joseph Boody of
Strafford preached extensively and administered the ordinances under an ordination
as ruling elder.”[ii] (p. 298) The History of the Freewill Baptists: For
Half a Century, Volume I, I. D. Stewart, Dover, ME: Freewill
Baptist Printing Establishment, 1862
1772, The Upper Essex Church in Virginia was
organized in 1772, “and lay elders ordained; not having a pastor...” A History of the Rise and Progress of the
Baptists in Virginia, Robert Baylor Semple, Richmond, VA: 1810,
John O’Lynch Printer, p. 124
1768, Morgan Edwards, “A church essential becomes
a church complete by accession of proper officers; which officers, ordinarily,
are teachers; elders; deacons; deaconesses; and clerks: the first are also called preachers, exhorters, catechists &c, and, in modern
language chiefly, ministers: when set
in particular church they acquire the relative titles of pastors, bishops, elders &c, and lose them again when
disengaged from their churches. Of which five sorts of officers every church
should have a complete set, if their circumstances will permit.” “That
every church should have a complete set of them, if their circumstances will
permit. What I would call a complete set is, ‘{One} pastor, an exhorter, and
catechist; two deacons; two ruling elders, and a clerk.’ Large churches may
have as many more of each as they want. So the church of Jerusalem had twelve
teachers; a company of elders, Act. xxi. 18; and seven deacons, Act. vi. 5.” (pp. 4-11) Customs of Primitive Churches by
Morgan Edwards (Philadelphia, PA: 1768)
1743, A Short Treatise Concerning a True and
Orderly Gospel Church, “A church thus constituted, is not yet
completed, while wanting such ministerial helps, as Christ hath appointed for
its growth and well-being; and wanting elders and deacons to officiate among
them. Men, they must be, that are qualified for the work; their qualifications
are plainly and fully set down in Holy Scripture, I Tim. 3:2-7. Titus 4:5-10.
all which must be found in them, in some good degree, and it is the duty of the
church to try the persons, by the rule of the word.” (p. 3 in online
transcription) “Ruling Elders are such persons as are endued with gifts to
assist the pastor or teacher in the government of the church; it was as a
statue in Israel, Exo. 18. Deut. 1:9-13. The works of teaching and ruling
belong both to the pastor; but in case he be unable; or the work of ruling
belong both to the pastor; but in case he be unable; or the work of ruling too
great for him, God hath provided such for his assistance, and they are called
ruling elders, I Tim. 5:17, helps, I Cor. 12:28. governments, or he that
ruleth, Rom. 12:8. They are qualified for, and called unto, one part of the
work: and experience teacheth us the use and benefit of such rulers in the
church, in easing the pastor or teacher, and keeping up the honor of the
ministry.” (pp. 5-6 in online transcription) “Elders were ordained in every
church by election or suffrage of the church; and every particular church, as
such, assembled with her proper elders, hath sufficient power to receive
members, Acts 2:41. Romans 14:7.” (p. 24 in online transcription), A Short Treatise Concerning a True and
Orderly Gospel Church, Benjamin Griffith, Philadelphia, PA: 1743
1701, Benjamin
Keach, pastor in London, “Some are officers, or in places of higher
and greater trust, as elders, teachers, and deacon, yet all are labourers.” (p.
512) “A king appoints officers in his kingdom under him…they that submit not to
his government, despise the king’s authority; the officers are elders and
deacons, whose work is expressly laid down in the gospel: nor do we read of any
other office or officers he hath left in his church (and to abide) but only
those two.” (p. 645) An Exposition of the Parables and Express
Similitudes of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (London: Aylott
and Company, 1858, originally 1701) “A Church thus constituted ought forthwith
to choose them a Pastor, Elder or Elders, and Deacons, (we reading of no other
Officers, or Offices abiding in the Church) and what kind of Men they ought to
be, and how qualified, is laid down by Paul
to Timothy, and to Titus. Moreover, they are to take
special care, that both Bishops, Overseers, or Elders, as well as the Deacons,
have in some competent manner all those Qualifications…” (The Glory of
A True Church and Its Discipline Display’d, Keach, London: n.p., 1697, pp.
7-8) For a few brief comments on elders, see Tropologia: A Key to Open Scripture Metaphors, in Four Books by Benjamin Keach
(Ireland: Bonmahon Industrial Printing School, 1858, original 1682) on pages
414, 713, and 882.
1689, The
(Second) London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689, speaks of plural
elders or bishops for a particular church (one local body): “26.8. A particular
Church gathered, and compleatly Organized, according to the mind of Christ,
consists of Officers, and Members; And the Officers appointed by Christ to be
chosen and set apart by the Church (so called and gathered) for the peculiar
Administration of Ordinances, and Execution of Power, or Duty, which he
intrusts them with, or calls them to, to be continued to the end of the World
are Bishops or Elders and Deacons.”
1689, In An Exposition of the Whole Book of
Revelation, Hanserd Knollys wrote “...each Company or Congregation
had their Elders and Deacons.” In fuller context: “…when the number of the
Disciples was multiplied, Act. 4.32. and 6.1, 2. and Multitudes
both Men and Women were added to the Lord, and by the Lord to the Church, Act.
2.41, 47. and 4.4. and 5 14. then the Church was necessitated, for the
Edification of the Multitude, and great number of the Members thereof, to
assemble themselves together in particular Congregations, and became distinct
Companies, of whom we read Act. 4.19, 23. Peter and John had
their own Company or Congregation, and so had Paul and Barnabas;
and each Company or Congregation had their Elders and Deacons, Phil.
1. 1.” (pp. 8-9) In keeping with this, Knollys also believed the singular “angel”
represented the plural eldership of the church. “But by [Angel] in this and all the other Epistles written to the seven Churches in Asia, we are to
understand the Episcopacy, Presbytery, and Ministry in each particular Church, unto whom the charge,
oversight, care and government thereof was committed by the holy Spirit...So
the word [Angel] in all these seven Epistles,
is a noun collective, comprehending
all the Bishops and Presbyters, called Elders,
Act, 20.17, in this Church of Ephesus,
so in all other churches of Christ in Asia,
and elsewhere.” (p. 19) An Exposition of
the Whole Book of the Revelation. Wherein the Visions and Prophecies of Christ
are Opened and Expounded, Hanserd Knollys, London: William Barthall, 1689,
pp. 8-9
1681, Nehemiah
Coxe, “And this also I take to be included in the general commission
here given to Titus that he should ‘set in order the things that are wanting
[lacking],’ for it appears that the primitive churches had both bishops, or
elders, and deacons ordained in them,
when brought to that settlement and order in which they were to continue
(Phi 1:1).” (p. 6) “Bishops or elders are ordinary officers in the church, of
divine right and appointment, and are to be continued therein to the end of the
world.” (p. 10) “The officers that we are now treating of, which are in our
text called elders (πρεσβυτέροι), are in the very next words styled bishops or
overseers (ἐπίσκοποι, the like application of both these terms to the same
persons and office you may observe in Acts 20), and in Ephesians 4:11 are
called pastors and teachers. It is evident the Holy Spirit intends by any of
these different terms no distinction or preeminence of office among those that
bear these characters, but they are all suited to the same office in its
different respects. These ministers are sometimes called elders, because of
their gravity and precedence in the house of God, perhaps with some respect to
the paternal authority and preeminence of the heads of families and elders of
the people amongst the Israelites of old; and at other times bishops or
overseers, because their work is to take
the oversight of the flock, and to acquit themselves as faithful watch-men who
watch for the souls of the people committed to their trust, that they may give
an account of them to the great Shepherd with joy, and not with grief. And because
it is incumbent on them to feed the church with the words of eternal life, and to
open the mind of God to them from the Scriptures that they may by their
ministry be instructed unto His kingdom, they are also styled pastors and
teachers.” (pp. 11-12) A Sermon Preached
at the Ordination of an Elder and Deacons in a Baptized Congregation in London,
1681, as reprinted in Biblical Elders and Deacons,
Pensacola, FL: Chapel Library, 2015
1675, Obadiah Holmes, in his “Last Will and
Testimony” exhorts the church to wait on the Lord for “talent or talents” after
his demise. This is in context of both Holmes’s death and the church’s pastoral
office. “I beseech you also wait upon
the Lord to see what talent or talents the Lord bestows on any of you, and put
it not in a napkin but improve it for your Lord. Yes, how often have my fellow
labourers called upon you to exercise the gifts you have received, and how it rejoiced
my soul to see my brethren come forth to profess in the church that, when the
Lord removes us, you may not yet want any good gift nor will it much concern
you.”[iii] Baptist Piety: The Last Will and Testament
of Obadiah Holmes, Judson Press, 1994, p. 109
1675, Petty France Church, England, “On 21
September 1675 William Collins and Nehemiah Coxe were ordained elders of Petty
France.” “A London
Congregation during the Great Persecution: Petty France Particular Baptist
Church, 1641 - 1688,” The
Baptist Quarterly, p. 234
Late 1600s in England “There was a plurality of
elders in many of the churches. As numbers increased, they judged it conducive
to profit to increase the number of teachers, and thus avoid the inconvenience
and loss which must accrue from placing a large church under the care of a
single pastor.” Cramp goes on to say there were probably no more than 150
churches “in England during this period, and many of them were small.” (p. 368)
He then names about 14 churches ‘and doubtless others’ that had two or more
pastors (Ashford had four). Further, “in some of the churches there were ‘ruling
elders,’ sometimes called ‘teachers,’ who preached when their services were
required, and presided at church meetings in the absence of the pastor.” (pp.
368-69) Baptist History: from the Foundation of the
Christian Church to the Close of the Eighteenth Century, John
Mockett Cramp, London: Elliott Stock, 1868
Late 1600s, in England, “William Kiffin in the
seventeenth century argued for a plurality of elders but made no distinction
between ruling and teaching elders.” (One Sacred Effort: The Cooperative Program
of Southern Baptists, Chad Owen Brand, David E. Hankins,
Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman, 2005, p. 50) “Most of the English
Baptists of this era, unlike Presbyterians, rejected the idea of ‘ruling elders’
as a distinct from ‘teaching elders.’ The Devonshire Square Church in London,
where William Kiffin pastored, recognized ‘a parity within the eldership’; each
elder shared responsibility and authority within the church. Likewise at a
church in Kensworth, Bedfordshire in 1688, ‘three men were chosen jointly and
equally to offitiate [sic]…in
breaking bread, and other administration of ordinances, and the church did at
the same time agree to provide and mainetane [sic] all at there [sic]
one charge.’ The renowned Benjamin Keach also rejected the idea of ruling
elders as a distinct position, but allowed that the church might ‘choose some
able and discreet Brethren to be Helps
in Government,’ presumably either as
a separate alliance or more likely as members of plural eldership. However, a
few Baptist churches did make a distinction between teaching and ruling elders.
In such cases, ‘The pastor was the chiefe [sic]
of ye Elders of ye Church,’ while the ruling elders shared oversight with him.
Certainly not all of the English Baptist churches of this era followed elder
plurality but ‘the majority of the Particular Baptists were committed to a
plurality and parity of elders in their churches,’ believing that a plurality
of elders were ‘necessary for a completed church’.” Elders in the Life of the Church: Rediscovering
the Biblical Model for Church Leadership, Phil A. Newton, Matt
Schmucker, Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2014, p. 33
AD 150 (circa), The Shepherd of Hermas might
reference the practice of plural elders in a single congregation: “Thou shalt
therefore say unto the elders of the Church, that they direct their paths in
righteousness, that they may receive in full the promises with abundant glory…But
thou shalt read (the book) to this city along with the elders that preside over
the Church.” (J. B. Lightfoot translation)
AD 120 (circa), The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians,
“Polycarp and the Elders with him to the Church of God sojourning in Philippi… Wherefore
it is necessary to refrain from all these things, and to be subject to the
presbyters and deacons as to God and Christ.” (Kirsopp Lake translation)
[i] A statistical table
appears on page 95.
[ii] According
to Stewart, by around 1820 doubts had arisen “as to the Scriptural authority of
such an office,” and the number of ruling elders declined, p. 451
[iii] Gaustad says,
nevertheless, that “no one in the membership does step forward to accept the
pastoral office when Obadiah Holmes dies.”
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