The Biblical Foundations of The Papacy
(Part 6)
Paul Newcombe
Endnote
By what authority do we determine the truth of God? How do we determine Christian doctrine? By the bible alone? By private opinion? Christ did not command or commission or establish a Church-of-the-book. Christ did not preach or prepare the apostles to seek the bible alone as their pillar and foundation of truth. In order that the glad tidings of salvation might be faithfully preserved and rightly preached to the whole world, Christ promised his own authority and guidance in the Holy Ghost to his Church through his prime minister — the one commissioned to sit upon the chair of Moses as the voice of God’s authority upon earth. Only in this way could Church tradition and the infallible word of the Scriptures be correctly interpreted and understood until the end of time.
What good is an infallible bible if it has no infallible interpreter? It very quickly becomes the play-toy of any self-styled theologian who “thinks” he understands. The Protestant predicament where thousands of different denominations engage in endless debates over the true meaning of Scripture is a tragic reminder of the error of “private judgment” and “self-authority”. These churches all claim that the Holy Spirit has illuminated them with the truth of the bible on very important matters, and yet, they all contradict each other.
The bible is not always an easy book to understand, and it does not magically interpret itself. In the letters of St. Paul “are certain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable twist, as they do also the other scriptures, to their own destruction” (2 Pet 3:16). Private interpretation in the hands of every man and woman was not Christ’s plan.
Instead, Christ maintained the continuity of the Jewish system of authority which was but a preparation for the universal Church of Christ in every nation.
“Do not think that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets. I am not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matt 5:17).
Christ did not intend the destruction of the Old Law but intended a certain preservation of it by way of continuity. Thus, we know the Church He was about to establish in the New Testament could be recognized by its resemblance to the Church of the Old Testament — the Church of the Jews.
We need to ask ourselves several questions: What Church, claiming to be established by Christ and in existence since the first century A.D., would bear resemblance to the religion practiced by the Hebrew high priests in the Holy Temple? The Roman Catholic Church would. What denomination is the living extension of the Davidic Kingdom with a cabinet of ministers under the teaching authority of a Davidic prime minister? The Roman Catholic Church. Moreover, in what Church will one find a preservation of the Jewish central teaching authority reigning from Moses seat? Again, the Roman Catholic Church.
Are we really to believe that it is the Bible, privately interpreted, that constitutes the pillar and ground of Christian truth? Not at all. The Scriptures, history, and logic testify unanimously to the office of authority contained in the seat of Moses (now known as the seat of Peter). We can rest assured that it is this authority, exercised by the Popes in succession of Peter, that correctly governs and directs “the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim 3:15).
Occasionally non-Catholic people who have been presented with the biblical data in support of the Papacy will blockade the whole endeavour by stating — "The pope teaches heresies that are not in agreement with Scripture! Therefore, none of this can be true”. Is the pope teaching heresy? Or does Catholic doctrine merely not agree with the interpretation of Scripture propounded by your particular denomination, or that of your own personal theories? Do you have experience in bible studies that depict Catholic theology from the affirmative position? Those who don’t, at the very least, must admit to having a one-sided education regarding whether the Bible supports Catholic theology. Do they therefore have a strong position from which they can safely declare that Catholicism teaches unbiblical heresy? No. Prior to asserting anything about the supposed heretical nature of the Catholic faith, a sincere effort to study the biblical foundations in support of distinctively Catholic doctrines must first be undertaken. Just as we have unpacked the Scriptural evidence for Peter and the papacy, the non-Catholic student who studies Catholic theology will also discover that the same can be done regarding other controversial doctrines as well. Sacred tradition; Catholic justification; the Eucharist; the Catholic Mass; the communion of Saints; purgatory; penance; the Blessed Virgin Mary; and baptismal regeneration all have potent Biblical foundations which, it must be noted, correspond to the historic Christian faith — i.e. the way historic Christianity has read and understood the Scriptures for twenty centuries.
A final word may be said about the honour that Catholics give to the pope. The bible frequently exhorts Christians to honour and respect the elders of the Christian community (1 Thes 5:12-13; Rom 13:1; 2 Tim 2:2, 24-25), and this would certainly include the pope. But the pope is not God, and Catholics do not honour him as God. Catholics respect the pope as a human representative of Jesus Christ. The pope is called “holy father” because he has a fatherly care for all of God’s people, like a good shepherd, and because his ministry reflects in an imperfect yet real way the perfect love and care of God the Father for all his people. Most of all, Catholics respect the pope because they believe that he has been given a special gift to proclaim and defend the word of God, as it has come to us in the bible and the authentic Christian tradition. Catholics believe that in so respecting the pope and other Christian leaders, they are thanking God, who has raised them up as leaders of his Church.[60]
Catholic Christians rejoice and bend in awe before God that he has shown his love by using imperfect human beings to transmit and proclaim his perfect truth, and so guide us to the Father through Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit.[61]
Footnotes:
[60] Schreck, Alan. Catholic and Christian, Michigan, Servant Books, 1984, p.97-98.
[61] Ibid.