Below is the script I wrote for a Catholic apologetics video geared toward lay people. The video is also linked below with all of the sources I used for this script in it's description.
If you grew up going to church and you’re like me, then you may have wondered about the guy at the podium every Sunday morning. He always gave a sermon, sometimes compelling, sometimes inspiring, maybe a little bit of a snoozer every now and then, but he was up there doing his best to explain to his congregation exactly what it is we should believe.
But why was he in that position? On whose authority did your pastor preach the Truth about the most important matters a human being can encounter? What if he was just up there giving us his best shot? What if he was wrong? Does it matter?
If you believe in Jesus, if you consider yourself a Christian, then the subjects taught at Church are very important. We’re talking about who God is, what he expects of us, and how we get to heaven. Doesn’t get bigger than that. If God is just and merciful, which we believe He is, then surely he left us with a way to know with certainty what is True.
Now, many of you are probably thinking, “Yeah, it’s called the Bible.” That’s good, he certainly did give us the Bible, and it does tell us a lot about the Truth of God. But, there’s a problem. The Bible has no agency. What I mean is, it doesn’t do anything on its own, it doesn’t speak or teach or make judgements. It is simply paper and ink and it requires a person to come along to read it and interpret it.
To make matters more complicated, it is not a book of systematic theology, or, it is not a list of things we have to believe and do. It is actually a library of very ancient books from different cultures, time periods, and genres. We’ve got poetry in there, history, prophecy, visions of fiery doom, and ecstatic pictures of paradise. If this collection of books is our main source of truth, then we definitely need someone to come along to mine the truths for us, or we could do it ourselves. This requires the ability to read first off, it also requires a knowledge of the cultures these books were written in, and a number of other skills the vast majority of humans simply do not possess.
So, when you believe the Bible is your main source of authority, you’re actually putting your faith into whichever pastor or Church you’ve chosen to follow. Or maybe your faith is in your own ability to interpret the scriptures. In either case, we’re not actually grounding our faith in the Bible alone, we’re putting it in the people who teach us what it’s saying.
This is actually a good thing. Look at God’s story found in scripture. He does not put his authority in inanimate objects, but in men and women he has raised up to lead His people. From Moses, to King David, to Peter and Paul, God loves to delegate to faithful and righteous followers the authority to lead and teach. It would have been unjust if Jesus, right before he ascended to heaven said, “All authority in heaven and Earth has been given to me, and I’m going to write everything down in a book for you guys. Bicker amongst yourselves about what it really means and I’ll be back in a couple thousand years to sort it out.” But that’s kind of how Christians act. There are tens of thousands of different Churches around the world and many of them are teaching profoundly different things about how we’re saved, what God’s really like, and what we’re supposed to be doing.
Which brings me to the main subject of this video. Look at what Jesus actually said at the ascension, found in Matthew 28:
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Jesus being God did a very consistent thing with God’s story up to that point, he delegated his authority to his apostles. Not only His teaching authority, but the authority to baptize and to make disciples. And he gave it to them until He returns.
Jesus’ original apostles fulfilled their mission greatly and their life’s work turned the most powerful empire in the ancient world upside down. All of them except one were killed for their faith. So what happened to that authority when they died? Did it just go away? Is that why we have the Bible now?
No, this authority was passed down to men the apostles trained up to take their place. The Church calls this apostolic succession. The role of an apostle in the Church is an office and is usually held until the apostle dies, kind of like a Supreme Court justice in the United States. The original 12 understood this from the very beginning. In the book of Acts chapter 1, shortly after Jesus ascended, they replaced the vacant office left by Judas. Peter, taking a leadership role quotes a Psalm saying, “May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it, and, ‘May another take his place of leadership.’ Acts then records, “So they nominated two men: Joseph and Matthias. Then they prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs.” Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.”
From this first selection in Acts all the way down to the present day, the Church has been faithfully passing along the authority Christ gave to the original 12 apostles. The Catholic Church calls the men who hold this office a Bishop. The Orthodox Church also has valid apostolic succession. What is so cool about this is when you go to a Catholic or Orthodox Church you know for a certainty that the man speaking at the podium, baptizing new Christians, and performing other functions of the apostolic office is doing so under authority you can tangibly prove. It is a stamp of guarantee on the man’s calling to the ministry. You don’t have to wonder if the person leading your church is really supposed to be there and if his leadership is valid. The priests and bishops get their authority from Christ himself in a physical connection all the way back to the first century and the original 12 apostles. How awesome is that?
This authority also gives us certainty as to the validity of what the Church teaches about the important subjects I talked about earlier. I don’t mean to imply that a priest or a bishop can’t teach something wrong on Sunday morning. But the Church as a two thousand year old community full of brilliant apostles, has produced the most theologically sound and consistent teaching out there. And you can faithfully believe it because it’s been handed down from Christ himself through his apostles. So if a priest or bishop does make a mistake, there’s an entire ancient body of teaching there to check it by. No longer do you have to figure out the whole Bible for yourself and neither does your pastor. Pretty much every major theological issue was figured out for you centuries ago, the guess work is largely gone.
Aside from Acts, how do we know the ancient Church practiced apostolic succession? From the Church Fathers of course.
St. Clement of Rome was a first century Christian who likely knew Peter himself, and was possibly ordained by him according to Tertullian. Writing near the end of the century he said this:
“Our Apostles knew through our Lord Jesus Christ that there would be strife for the office of bishop. For this reason, therefore, having received perfect foreknowledge, they appointed those who have already been mentioned, and afterwards added the further provision that, if they should die, other approved men should succeed to their ministry (Letter to the Corinthians 44:1)”
As you can see the term title Bishop was already in use for this office and Christians were treating it like an office that needed to be filled at the Bishop’s death.
St. Ignatius was Bishop of Antioch. He was martyred in Rome in 107 AD. He was the disciple of the apostle John. That is, he was directly taught the faith by the beloved disciple who learned the faith from Jesus himself. He said:
“You must all follow the bishop as Jesus Christ follows the Father, and the presbytery as you would the Apostles. Reverence the deacons as you would the command of God. Let no one do anything of concern to the Church without the bishop. Let that be considered a valid Eucharist which is celebrated by the bishop, or by one whom he appoints. Wherever the bishop appears, let the people be there; just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church (Letter to the Smyrnaeans 8:1 [A.D. 110]).”
We can see here that the authority of the bishop was serious matter in the early church, also they were calling themselves Catholic just decades after Christ’s ascension. Just one more quote for you.
St. Irenaeus was the Bishop of Lyons and a famous Church historian. He died in 202 AD. In his famous work “Against Heresies” he said:
It is necessary to obey those who are the presbyters in the Church, those who, as we have shown, have succession from the Apostles; those who have received, with the succession of the episcopate, the sure charism of truth according to the good pleasure of the Father. But the rest, who have no part in the primitive succession and assemble wheresoever they will, must be held in suspicion.(ibid 4:26:2).
Not only can we see apostolic succession here but also the fact that the early Church regarded those without it suspiciously. Makes one think...
Thank you so much for watching. I will link an abundance of sources for you below so you can dig into this topic for yourself. Please like and share the video with all your friends and enemies, and I’ll see you next time. Sam Bolton - March 2016 The Finished Video
If you grew up going to church and you’re like me, then you may have wondered about the guy at the podium every Sunday morning. He always gave a sermon, sometimes compelling, sometimes inspiring, maybe a little bit of a snoozer every now and then, but he was up there doing his best to explain to his congregation exactly what it is we should believe.
But why was he in that position? On whose authority did your pastor preach the Truth about the most important matters a human being can encounter? What if he was just up there giving us his best shot? What if he was wrong? Does it matter?
If you believe in Jesus, if you consider yourself a Christian, then the subjects taught at Church are very important. We’re talking about who God is, what he expects of us, and how we get to heaven. Doesn’t get bigger than that. If God is just and merciful, which we believe He is, then surely he left us with a way to know with certainty what is True.
Now, many of you are probably thinking, “Yeah, it’s called the Bible.” That’s good, he certainly did give us the Bible, and it does tell us a lot about the Truth of God. But, there’s a problem. The Bible has no agency. What I mean is, it doesn’t do anything on its own, it doesn’t speak or teach or make judgements. It is simply paper and ink and it requires a person to come along to read it and interpret it.
To make matters more complicated, it is not a book of systematic theology, or, it is not a list of things we have to believe and do. It is actually a library of very ancient books from different cultures, time periods, and genres. We’ve got poetry in there, history, prophecy, visions of fiery doom, and ecstatic pictures of paradise. If this collection of books is our main source of truth, then we definitely need someone to come along to mine the truths for us, or we could do it ourselves. This requires the ability to read first off, it also requires a knowledge of the cultures these books were written in, and a number of other skills the vast majority of humans simply do not possess.
So, when you believe the Bible is your main source of authority, you’re actually putting your faith into whichever pastor or Church you’ve chosen to follow. Or maybe your faith is in your own ability to interpret the scriptures. In either case, we’re not actually grounding our faith in the Bible alone, we’re putting it in the people who teach us what it’s saying.
This is actually a good thing. Look at God’s story found in scripture. He does not put his authority in inanimate objects, but in men and women he has raised up to lead His people. From Moses, to King David, to Peter and Paul, God loves to delegate to faithful and righteous followers the authority to lead and teach. It would have been unjust if Jesus, right before he ascended to heaven said, “All authority in heaven and Earth has been given to me, and I’m going to write everything down in a book for you guys. Bicker amongst yourselves about what it really means and I’ll be back in a couple thousand years to sort it out.” But that’s kind of how Christians act. There are tens of thousands of different Churches around the world and many of them are teaching profoundly different things about how we’re saved, what God’s really like, and what we’re supposed to be doing.
Which brings me to the main subject of this video. Look at what Jesus actually said at the ascension, found in Matthew 28:
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Jesus being God did a very consistent thing with God’s story up to that point, he delegated his authority to his apostles. Not only His teaching authority, but the authority to baptize and to make disciples. And he gave it to them until He returns.
Jesus’ original apostles fulfilled their mission greatly and their life’s work turned the most powerful empire in the ancient world upside down. All of them except one were killed for their faith. So what happened to that authority when they died? Did it just go away? Is that why we have the Bible now?
From this first selection in Acts all the way down to the present day, the Church has been faithfully passing along the authority Christ gave to the original 12 apostles. The Catholic Church calls the men who hold this office a Bishop. The Orthodox Church also has valid apostolic succession. What is so cool about this is when you go to a Catholic or Orthodox Church you know for a certainty that the man speaking at the podium, baptizing new Christians, and performing other functions of the apostolic office is doing so under authority you can tangibly prove. It is a stamp of guarantee on the man’s calling to the ministry. You don’t have to wonder if the person leading your church is really supposed to be there and if his leadership is valid. The priests and bishops get their authority from Christ himself in a physical connection all the way back to the first century and the original 12 apostles. How awesome is that?
This authority also gives us certainty as to the validity of what the Church teaches about the important subjects I talked about earlier. I don’t mean to imply that a priest or a bishop can’t teach something wrong on Sunday morning. But the Church as a two thousand year old community full of brilliant apostles, has produced the most theologically sound and consistent teaching out there. And you can faithfully believe it because it’s been handed down from Christ himself through his apostles. So if a priest or bishop does make a mistake, there’s an entire ancient body of teaching there to check it by. No longer do you have to figure out the whole Bible for yourself and neither does your pastor. Pretty much every major theological issue was figured out for you centuries ago, the guess work is largely gone.
Aside from Acts, how do we know the ancient Church practiced apostolic succession? From the Church Fathers of course.
St. Clement of Rome was a first century Christian who likely knew Peter himself, and was possibly ordained by him according to Tertullian. Writing near the end of the century he said this:
“Our Apostles knew through our Lord Jesus Christ that there would be strife for the office of bishop. For this reason, therefore, having received perfect foreknowledge, they appointed those who have already been mentioned, and afterwards added the further provision that, if they should die, other approved men should succeed to their ministry (Letter to the Corinthians 44:1)”
As you can see the term title Bishop was already in use for this office and Christians were treating it like an office that needed to be filled at the Bishop’s death.
St. Ignatius was Bishop of Antioch. He was martyred in Rome in 107 AD. He was the disciple of the apostle John. That is, he was directly taught the faith by the beloved disciple who learned the faith from Jesus himself. He said:
“You must all follow the bishop as Jesus Christ follows the Father, and the presbytery as you would the Apostles. Reverence the deacons as you would the command of God. Let no one do anything of concern to the Church without the bishop. Let that be considered a valid Eucharist which is celebrated by the bishop, or by one whom he appoints. Wherever the bishop appears, let the people be there; just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church (Letter to the Smyrnaeans 8:1 [A.D. 110]).”
We can see here that the authority of the bishop was serious matter in the early church, also they were calling themselves Catholic just decades after Christ’s ascension. Just one more quote for you.
St. Irenaeus was the Bishop of Lyons and a famous Church historian. He died in 202 AD. In his famous work “Against Heresies” he said:
It is necessary to obey those who are the presbyters in the Church, those who, as we have shown, have succession from the Apostles; those who have received, with the succession of the episcopate, the sure charism of truth according to the good pleasure of the Father. But the rest, who have no part in the primitive succession and assemble wheresoever they will, must be held in suspicion.(ibid 4:26:2).
Not only can we see apostolic succession here but also the fact that the early Church regarded those without it suspiciously. Makes one think...
Thank you so much for watching. I will link an abundance of sources for you below so you can dig into this topic for yourself. Please like and share the video with all your friends and enemies, and I’ll see you next time. Sam Bolton - March 2016 The Finished Video
Comments
Post a Comment