02.04. Conclusion
CONCLUSION As a result of our survey of the Epistles, we must conclude that there was no organized hierarchy over the local churches. There was apostolic authority. Furthermore, Paul clearly was a spiritual father to the churches that he planted. With the possible exception of a large portion of the Corinthian Church, all of them viewed him as God’s infallible agent for delivering ß theological truth (truth about God), ß soteriological truth (truth about salvation), ß ecclesiastical truth (truth about the Church), and ß moral truth (the standards that governed the personal lives of believers).
Paul was viewed as an infallible authority because the information that he imparted had been given to him by Divine revelation. It was the truth. Anything that deviated from this, was error and those who advocated the deviation were described as agents of Satan.
20 In this Godgiven role, Paul did not hesitate to function as an extra-local authority. He instructed, rebuked, and confronted local churches and their leadership, when teaching or practice strayed from the truths and patterns that he had given to the churches.
All churches viewed the Twelve as being in the same role. It was their infallible revelatory role that gave them authority over the churches. Even so, there is no evidence of an organized apostolic hierarchy over local churches. There were certain “apostolic agents,” such as Timothy, Titus, Mark, etc, who exercised temporary authority in certain churches, because a Revelatory Apostle had sent them to do a specific thing in a specific church. They did not continue as a permanent extra-local authority over a church or a network of churches.14 Even though New Testament Churches did not relate to one another through an organized hierarchical structure, they were united around the revelation that the Revelatory Apostles delivered to them. They had a common source for doctrine in all of the four areas outlined above. This is one of the things that united them, the common salvation…the faith, which was once for all delivered unto the saints (Jude 1:2).