Hi Mr. Hamilton, greetings.<\/p>\n
Please, I need your views on this idea that is being taught by a very influential brother in Ghana. According to the brother, all the churches in one country were under just one eldership. His argument is that the churches in the apostolic age were persecuted churches, which met in homes. So when Jesus wrote to, for example, the church in Ephesus, he wrote to just one eldership which oversaw all the house churches in the city and it was all these house churches combined that our Lord called \u201cthe church of Ephesus\u201d (Revelation 2:1) and not just one local church like is always taught.<\/p>\n
I have never heard this argument before. I would be very glad if you could give me your view on this issue.<\/p>\n
Thank you.<\/p>\n\t
The most notable problem with the argument is that it is lacking evidence. He\u00a0claims<\/em> that there were multiple house churches in each town, but he provides no evidence that such existed; yet, his entire argument revolves around this unproven assertion.<\/p>\n Yes, there was persecution, but that does not lead to the conclusion that all the brethren met in small groups in individual homes. Instead, we find that in his instructions to Corinth, Paul said: “the whole church comes together in one place<\/em>” (I Corinthians 14:23, NKJV). We have no reason to suppose that if this was to be done in Corinth, then it was also done in other places that the church met.<\/p>\n But this brother made an illogical jump. He is not claiming an eldership in each city but across an entire country! This also is provably false. Paul and Barnabas traveled through Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch appointing elders in every church (Acts 14:21-23). Even though the first three towns listed are all in the region of Lycaonia and all four are in the province of Galatia and a part of the Roman Empire, there were elders appointed in\u00a0every<\/em> church and there were churches in each town mentioned. The country at this time was the Roman Empire and there wasn’t a single eldership over the entire country. There wasn’t a single eldership over entire provinces or regions. The elderships existed per church.<\/p>\n What you have is a power-hungry man trying to control God’s people.<\/p>\n\t Thank you very much, sir.<\/p>\n God bless you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Hi Mr. Hamilton, greetings. Please, I need your views on this idea that is being taught by a very influential brother in Ghana. According to the brother, all the churches in one country were under just one eldership. His argument is that the churches in the apostolic age were persecuted churches, which met in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[448,123],"class_list":["post-20614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-church","tag-elders"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":95248,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-there-be-church-autonomy-when-the-church-in-jerusalem-oversaw-many-house-churches\/","url_meta":{"origin":20614,"position":0},"title":"How can there be church autonomy when the church in Jerusalem oversaw many house churches?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 23, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello brother, I have a question about the autonomy of the local church. I understand that there were many house congregations in the first century. So, if there were many house congregations in Jerusalem, how can they be considered the church in Jerusalem? Also, if there were many congregations\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30186,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/plurality-of-elders\/","url_meta":{"origin":20614,"position":1},"title":"Plurality of Elders","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 11, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by J. W. McGarvey Sentry Magazine, September 2002 There is no proposition in reference to the organization of the primitive churches upon which scholars and critics are more perfectly agreed than that every fully organized church had a plurality of Elders. So nearly universal is this agreement that a man\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33097,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-cant-all-the-elders-in-a-city-get-together-to-direct-all-the-churches-in-the-city\/","url_meta":{"origin":20614,"position":2},"title":"Why can’t all the elders in a city get together to direct all the churches in the city?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: First, I would like to say thank you for posting your informative studies. I currently attend a church that has dissolved the eldership and has been operating without elders. After reading Keith Sharp's article on Autonomy I still have a question about elders. Our biblical example is one church\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":83178,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-an-eldership-direct-multiple-congregations\/","url_meta":{"origin":20614,"position":3},"title":"Can an eldership direct multiple congregations?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 12, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We teach that elders are appointed in local congregations and that no congregation oversees another congregation. Neither does the elder of one congregation have overseeing power or responsibility over another congregation. In Acts 15, we know that there were Jewish Christians who insisted that Gentile Christians must circumcise and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5739,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-sponsoring-church-arrangement-what-was-the-issue\/","url_meta":{"origin":20614,"position":4},"title":"The Sponsoring Church Arrangement: What Was the Issue?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 11, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 by Bill Hall I can't say enough about the encouragement it is to me to see your continued interest in this effort that we're putting forth.\u00a0 Your willingness to come and study with us -- it means so much to me.\u00a0 When this was planned, I thought we could\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/localchurch-300x128.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":46916,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/elders-and-church-decline\/","url_meta":{"origin":20614,"position":5},"title":"Elders and Church Decline","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"by Matthew W. Bassford \u00a0 Recently, there's been a lot of chatter on my Facebook feed about a survey of churches of Christ conducted by an organization called 21st Century Christian.\u00a0 According to this survey, attendance in such churches has declined by about 10 percent since 1990. 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