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Date Posted: 10:08:29 10/11/04 Mon
Author: Chris
Subject: Re: Obedience
In reply to: Brian Karcher 's message, "Re: Obedience" on 08:36:53 10/11/04 Mon

So, the rule "We must obey God rather than men!" from Acts 5:29 is not a general rule, but only applies in certain situations, and "men" has to be translated with "men outside of our ministry." Did I sum up your uncomplicated exegesis correctly?

So, let's assume you are a member of the Presbyterian church and a leader tells you to do something you think is against God's will. Then you should absolutely follow the leader nevertheless, because he is "inside your ministry." However, if you start your own ministry and make yourself a leader, it would be biblical for you to disobey, since now the Presbyterian leader is "outside your ministry." And from now on, everybody in Your Own Ministry (YOM) has to obey you as if you were God, because the rule from Acts 5:29 does not apply unless people leave your minstry. This is what I conclude from your exegesis. Well, I guess I am thinking just too complicated.

Nobody disputed the fact that Peter and John (the verse speaks only about the two) were "unschooled, ordinary men" (compared with the "rulers, elders and teachers of the law"). They did not have the elite education like the Pharisees, and they were not from the rich upper class like the Saducees. I only said that many Christians read too much into that and believe the disciples were poor backwoods like hoboes or intellectually challenged. But Peter and John were owners of a fishing business, they had spiritual interest and bright minds, and they had authorization and education from JC personally. Nobody criticized Samuel Lee for calling them "uneducated, ordinary". We criticized the inconsistency that "Dr." Lee was so much interested in pioneering elite universities like SNU, getting a PhD and other titles, raising up "professor shepherds", regarding the UBF chapters in the provence as inferior to Seoul and Chicago, etc. and at the same time telling about the wonderful world of uneducated, ordinary layman people, manger ministry etc.

I also want to refute the idea that the disciples categorized the "rulers, elders and teachers of the law" as belonging to a "different ministry." No, that split between Jews and Christians happened much later. They recognized and respected these people as spiritual authorities very much. They were in a real dilemma here. They did not think that these leaders were not competent or belonging to another ministry and that they need not be accountable. No, they still believed the high priest was the high priest and still went to the Jewish temple. On the one side they wanted to obey these leaders, on the other side they wanted to obey God. But they could not do both. Thus the conclusion "We must obey God rather than men!" They did not say "We must obey God rather than pharisees!" or "We must obey God rather than unbelievers!", but made a very general statement that was included into the Bible in a prominent place so that we may learn this lesson with a learnful mind, and not a complicated mind.

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