The Church and Authority

The church has no intrinsic authority. No creed is law; no ordination is valid. It has no separatist clergy class fitting, no religious title and no church tradition. The church does not authorize. In fact, it cannot properly authorize anything. Only the Lord Jesus Christ authorizes through His New Testament (James 4:12). The church is what is authorized. Failure to understand this is the basic error of both Catholic and Protestant religion. The purity of the religion of the New Testament, with apostolic doctrine and tradition contained therein, reveals the true church of Christ, now and forever. When the New Testament as law is no longer considered sufficient by us, then true Christianity quickly gets lost to us. Then, Christ is hidden from us and our worship becomes invalid (Matthew 28:18-20; 15:7-9; Acts 2:42; Colossians 2:20-23; 1 Corinthians 9:21; Galatians 6:2; 2 Corinthians 13:5; 2 Thessalonians 2:15).