Sitting in Moses' Seat

The Pharisees and Law teachers sat on Moses' seat, said Jesus. They must be obeyed, though they didn't live out God's Word. The Pharisees could trace their leadership authority to Moses and the Law, and Jesus acknowledged that. They indeed sat in Moses' seat. The only problem with them was that they were hypocrites, snakes, and vipers. 

But I don't know where denominations can trace their authority. They cannot claim to sit on Paul's or Peter's seat. Paul and Peter never taught about having denominations with separate doctrines, each often going against the other. At least, the Pharisees and Law teachers were strictly clinging to Moses' teachings--they overdid it, in fact, and became too religious for Jesus. Denominations today do not overdo the New Testament--they're doing completely different things from what Jesus and the Acts church did.

For one, most of them are not headed by genuine apostles and prophets. They are run by chairmen and presidents and directors and superintendents. Pretty soon, they're gonna have CEOs too. They have bible schools and theological seminaries to earn titles and degrees from, unlike what the Acts church had. In Acts, church leaders were educated and trained in genuine Jesus discipleships where no tuition fees were paid or grades and examinations and degrees and credentials given. They just had the supernatural life of Jesus as their mark of genuine God-ordained authority.

Paul said genuine apostles did supernatural signs and wonders with consistency (2 Cor.12.12). Before you or any of your church leaders claim to be apostles, make sure you have this mark. "Missionaries" are nowhere in Scriptures. If you think missionaries are modern-day apostles, think again. And think again. All over the New Testament, especially in the Acts, you'd see the supernatural power and signs and wonders of God being done left and right, confirming the words of His servants. Today, it's nowhere in the church--very minimal, if any. So what do they do? Many of them announce unabashedly that the era of signs and wonders and miracles have ended--just because they have none of them. They say that today, it's all man's theology.

Thus, I wonder, where we can place denominations? They cannot be sitting in Paul's or Peter's seat. If these two men were alive today, they'd never recognize what denominations are. They'd probably remark in confusion: "You call this church?" Neither can they be sitting in Moses' seat. There's just one seat that remains--the enemy's seat.