Back in July, I wrote a post titled Our Form of Government where I was examining Scripture to see how God intended us to be governed and then I paralleled that very same form of government to our own national government as it is set up in the U.S. Constitution. I still find all of this to be so very exciting and have been researching more, so I wanted to share with all of you more of my incredible findings.

I have been reading the book America's Providential History that I have found to be a wonderful resource, and a very easy read as well! So what did I read that is worthy of writing this post? Well back at the time of the first church there were three essential characteristics of church government.

1. Covenant Commitment - or otherwise known as love. It was the resposibility of the entire congregation "the body"to do their share and participate in the church functions. (see Col. 2:19, 3:14)

2. Plurality of elders - Elders for each church were appointed by God through apostles (Acts 14:23, Titus 1:5) and a plurality of elders were appointed for each church in order to avoid bad desicions. (Also read 1 Tim. 3:1-5 and Prov. 11:14)

3. "Senoir" elders, apostles, and prophets - There was a need for strong leadership within the elders. James was one of these "senior" elders in Jerusalem (Acts 12:17; 15:13,19; 21:18; Gal. 2:12).  The Bible also mentions apostles and prophets as having authority in the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:28; Eph. 2:20).

Unfortunately over time the church slowly got away from this as more and more believers were no longer willing to lay down their lives and serve the church in love. These resposibilities quickly fell upon the elders who became fewer and fewer as men with the qualities required to be elders became less and less available. This eventually gave way to a more centralized government and the remaining elders became known as "bishops". As this apostacy continued so too continued the decrease in qualified apostles as well. Within just a few centuries the church government became completely centralized under the authority of the "Popes". Through all of this the Bible was taken out of the hands of the people but God did not sit by idly. He raised up courageous individuals that would put their very lives on the line to get the Bible back into the hands of the individual.  As the people began reading the Word for themselves they began to find truth in all areas of their lives. They began to see the liberty they had in Christ and that their freedoms were God-given and not government granted. These truths led many who became known as "protestants" to question the way the church was being governed and seek change. Some (the Separatists) felt that this change required them to reform individually without  "tarrying for any" thus breaking away from the church while others (the Puritans) sought to reform the church from within. So now skipping ahead a decade or two we see these seeds of individual liberty being brought over to America through first the Separatists (known today as the Pilgrims) and eventually the Puritans who later realized that their attempts to purify the church from within had been in vain and recognized that they too needed to break away from the church. With all of these protestants headed to America we see three different movements in church government brought over with them.  Some clung to that centralized form of government which became known as the Episcopal form and established the Southern Colonies of VA, NC, SC and GA.  Now remember that this was the third one of the three essentials of the first church's form of government that I mentioned above.  Another group sought to reestablish the plurality (Presbytery) of elders in place of the the apostolic form.  This form became known as Presbyterian form and would be the government dominant in the middle colonies of NY, MD, DE, NJ and PA. So what about the Northern Colonies of MA, CT, RI and NH? These were the colonies that emphasized covenant participation of all members or the Congregationalist form.

These views of church government would obviously influence how the civil government of these colonies would be run as well. So the Northern Colonies were self-governing (Democratic), the Middle Colonies tended to be Aristocratic, and the Southern Colonies were royal provinces ruled by a Governor (Monarchial).

Anyone seeing a connection to our three branches of government as established by our Founding Fathers in the U.S. Constitution? Well our executive branch consisting of our President and Governors stems from the Episcopalian (or Monarchial) form, our judicial branch which consists of our Judges and originally our our Senators stems from the Presbyterian (Aristocratic) form and finally our legislative branch which is the U.S. and State Representatives stems from the Congregational (Democratic) form.

So in tracing our government's branches clear back to their origins we see that the combination of these three forms began with the first church as established by our Almighty Creator! Incredible!