3. The New Testament Position

The New Testament follows the same pattern for both voting and family representation. As the New Testament church first deliberates in Acts 1, it is the 120 brethren who meet to form the new Israel (Acts 1:15).¹⁶ It was the “men and brethren” who “proposed two” leaders (Acts 1:15-16). The ones who vote for the deacons in Acts 6 are “brethren” (v. 3). When the church in Acts 15 chooses delegates, the delegates are described as “leading men among the brethren” (v. 22) because they led the men (“the brethren”), who in turn led their own families. Again, this is a republican form of government that is composed of subordinate governments (families). It is not a democracy that is composed of subordinate individuals. There is an immense difference between these two frameworks of thinking.

The voted decisions of the “whole church” (Acts 15:22) were not made by men, women, and children. They were made by “the apostles, the elders, and the brethren” (v. 23). It was these brethren who did the choosing (verse 5 - “it seemed good to us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men”). When the church did this, it was simply following the Old Testament pattern of having the grown men represent their families since the fathers are the shepherds of their families. Indeed, the Old Testament prophesied that the New Covenant period would follow exactly the same pattern of having salvation by families (Gen. 12:3¹⁷; Zech. 12:10-14), worship by families (Psalm 22:27; 96:7; Zech. 14:17), representation by the men of the household (Zech. 8:23) and accountability of those men for the state of their families (Mal. 3:3; 4:6).