Read my note entitled A Word to Preterists to consider the validity of church leaders.
Paul’s teaching in his regional essay entitled Ephesians and in his letter to the Corinthians are his essential statements for evaluating the current status of church leaders.
In Ephesians he said, “He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things. And He gave some indeed as apostles, some as prophets, some as good-message tellers, some as pastors and teachers, toward the complete furnishing of the holy ones for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the full-knowledge of the Son of God, to a complete man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”
To the Corinthians he said, “Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away with; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away with. For we know in part and prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away with. When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror obscurely, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
Two other essential statements: The author of Hebrews said, “If perfection was through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the people received the Law), what further need was there for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be designated according to the order of Aaron? For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also” and, “When He said, ‘(I will bring about) A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is about to disappear.”
Church leaders are no more. They fulfilled their purpose. They functioned to equip God’s holy ones until the bestowal of the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Jesus, the Love of God, the Perfect One has come. The partial has been done away with in the full-knowledge of the Son of God. Now we see face to face.
God’s perfection has come through our High Priest Jesus, Who is according to the order of Melchizedek. When He came from God’s right hand, the law of God changed. The former covenant with its functional administration disappeared. Jesus Christ is both the Lawgiver and the Law.
All that was of the partial realm has been fulfilled in the completed realm of Jesus Christ.
Jahveh is Here! – Jerusalem has descended! – God’s tabernacle fully dwells among us!