Did the Apostles Make the Rules

Did the Apostles Make the Rules?

We correctly teach that men did not and do not have authority to legislate the rules for the church. The church is to follow God's law; not make or revise it. To do that is to usurp the authority of Christ (Matt. 28: 18).

But did the apostles do that very thing? Indeed, not! What they taught is authoritative but only because they were guided by the Holy Spirit in what they taught as Christ promised would be the case (John 14, 15, 16). Therefore, their teaching did not originate with them but they spoke as the Spirit gave them utterance.

What they taught is now in God's inspired Scripture (2 Tim. 3: 16, 17). Jude says the faith has been once delivered to the saints (Jude 3). Christians continue in the apostles' doctrine only in the sense that the apostles taught it but by the authority of Christ. HE alone is the lawgiver.