A Beautiful Plan of Organization

The same principles of piety and justice that were to guide God's people in the time of Moses and David were to be followed by those given the oversight of the newly organized church in the gospel dispensation. In setting things in order and ordaining men to act as officers, the apostles held to the standards of leadership outlined in the Old Testament. He who is called to leading responsibility in the church “must be blameless; he must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of goodness, master of himself, upright, holy, and self-controlled; he must hold firm to the sure word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to confute those who contradict it.” Titus 1:7-9, RSV.TT 50.5

The order maintained in the early Christian church made it possible for them to move forward as a well-disciplined army. Believers, though scattered over a large territory, were all one body; all moved in concert and in harmony. When dissension arose in a local church, matters were not permitted to create division, but were referred to a general council of appointed delegates from the various churches, with the apostles and elders in positions of leading responsibility. Thus the plans of the enemy to disrupt and destroy were thwarted.TT 51.1

“God is not the author of confusion, but of peace.” 1 Corinthians 14:33. He requires that order and system be observed today. Christian is to be united with Christian, church with church, every agency subordinate to the Holy Spirit, and all combined in giving the world the good tidings of the grace of God.TT 51.2