steve7150 wrote:
This Apostolic succession claim would never in a million years be seen by a bible reader had he not been told in advance about it.
I'm not so sure about the truth of this statement. After all, we find in the Bible itself Apostolic Succession-- Matthias succeeds Judas as an Apostle. Furthermore, we have Apostles laying on hands on other men, delegating their authority and ministry to others-- clearly, there is at least a start to some kind of succession going on here. Furthermore, we are exhorted by the Scriptures to obey the authorities in the Church-- if there was not something like Apostolic Succession in the Church, then such exhortations in Scripture would have meaning, it would seem, only for the Apostolic Christians, and not for, say, us (as Christians after that age would have no real authority to look to, other than, perhaps, persons with charismatic or moral authority, but not any objective ecclesiastical or hierarchical authority). But this seems to run contrary to the fact that Christ Himself in the Gospels, and in other parts of Scripture, make it clear that the Church He founded will last for all time (eg., Mt. 16:18-19), and this Church will be able to teach (as the pillar of truth, 1 Tim. 3:15) and administer punishments to those who do not listen to her, i.e., the Church (eg., Mt. 18), implying necessarily that there must be SOME in the Church who have the same kind of authority that the Apostles had. And other examples could be brought forward manifesting similar points or arguments.
So, I disagree with this statement. I think anyone reading the Scriptures, both the Old and the New Testament, attentively and inquisitively cannot help but see that there is certainly an implicit understanding that, in the Church of Christ, there WILL be leaders with TRUE authority which can be legitimately exercised by some in the Church-- even, we must recognize, authority coming from Christ Himself and the Apostles (especially Peter), for Christ promised that the Church that HE, CHRIST, founded on PETER would last FOREVER (and, thus, that same PETRINE authority, given FROM Christ TO Peter must, somehow, persist even after Peter's death, right?? Thus, such attentive reading of the Scriptures simply begs one to ask the question, "So, WHERE IS this authority today, authority which was, EVEN IN the NEW TESTAMENT, being passed down in the Church?" Well, the only Christian Body that can legitimately claim to possess that same Petrine authority today is the Catholic Church; no other Christian community can....and the history of the Catholic Church-- eg., it is an historical fact that the current Pope, Francis, is the successor of St. Peter-- further lends credibility to Her (the Catholic Church's) claims of being the One, True, Catholic, and
Apostolic Church founded by Our Lord and Savior, the Son of God and Son of Mary, Jesus Christ....to Whom Belongs All Power and Glory, now and forever. Amen.
In Christ,
BrotherAlan