Apostolic Succession
Apostolic succession is true
Yes I would say apostolic succession is true.
The belief that there is an unbroken chain of bishops from the apostles is both biblical and historical. I would also argue that the basis of this discussion is a false dichotomy because the author is treating two things as alternatives when I understand them as complementary: apostolic succession involves both continuity of ordained leadership and fidelity to apostolic teaching. I bring a few points to argue in favor.
1. Christ establishing a visible church with the apostles as leaders.
2. Apostles demonstrating authority on behalf of God and passing it onto successors which is very similar to the old testament in the transfer of authority.
3. Paul’s writings which include an institutional layout rather than merely spiritual or symbolic.
4. Historical evidence of the early Christian church, the beliefs they held, and the authority they also displayed in the disputes of the early centuries following the death of Jesus.
5. Teachings of the apostles being held to this day in the apostolic churches.
Support
1. Christ in the gospels speaks of creating his own church and himself gives authority to those apostles to act in persona of him. (Matthew 16:18-19) “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
This shows this church isn’t merely symbolic or spiritual but rather built upon Peter( Cephas, Petros) whom is the rock. Jesus gives a promise that the gates of hades will not prevail against this church meaning this church can not fail or go into error. Christ then gives the keys to heaven with the special authority to bind and loose.
John 20:22-23
“22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”
Again, Jesus gives the apostles the ability to forgive and withhold forgiveness which only God is supposed to do but because Jesus himself gave them this ability they were able.
2. So now we can see the apostles have a special authority because of Christ. The question is does this authority pass on to successors. Absolutely it does just how authority was also passed in the Old Testament. Here are some examples of the apostles instituting successors being a parallel to the Old Testament.
(Acts 6:3-6)
“Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. 4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” 5 And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. 6 These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.”
This here shows there was a least a system of the laying on of hands that the apostles did themselves to institute good men of faith to take care of the congregation while they were gone. This is very similar to the levitical priesthood and David royal office in which authority was passed to the successors of successors rather than all clergy.
3.Pauls writings also reflect the church being a physical institution in many cases in which there is congruent truth.
( 1 Timothy 3:15) 15 if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.
Now that we know the church is physical and includes apostles directly giving people authority to care for the congregation with the laying on of hands, we must say that this congregation must have the truth just like Paul says in 1 Timothy. Truth can not be merely subjective and dependent on different people’s interpretation of scripture but there must be a truth that the apostles taught in which they would teach there successors. We see this in (Acts 15:27) “We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth.” and ( 2 Thessalonians 2:15) “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.”
Here again we see the same principle, apostles teaching and sending people whom they choose to teach others and hold fast to the traditions they were taught from the apostles whether by word of mouth or letter. This succession allows for the church to remain the pillar of truth and prevent others from creeping in and distorting the gospel of the Lord. Without succession everyone battles as to who’s right and who’s wrong.
4. So now we come to the history of the early church after the time of Jesus Christ and the apostles. What happened after the apostles deaths if succession was not instituted? Who would safeguard the truth of Jesus? Since the time of the apostles there was disputes about the truth and especially after. This brings us to the first council of Nicea in which brought together around 300 bishops historically and the divinity of Jesus was discussed. Whether individually someone agrees with this or not does not matter because at this time this was the majority of the church represented by the bishops of the bishops of the apostles. They all came together and came to an agreement which would be defined as the collective truth. This is a perfect example of authority using its abilities to define doctrine just as Peter did in acts 15. To add to this, this took place in 325 AD. To put into perspective the bible canon you are reading today was first formally defined not until 367 because of the disputes against hebrews, revelation, and so on. So again this is another appeal to authority because not everyone believed these books were legitimate, meaning they wouldn’t have been canonized, meaning they wouldn’t have been “gods inspired word” that you read today. Bishops from all around came together again to speak collective truth again that those books were inspired and put into a formal bible. You would not have those books in the canon today if it wasn’t for this authority that came from the succession of the apostles.
5. The trace of this apostolic succession to today’s world. These bishops of the apostles that came together in the beginning defining who Jesus was, and giving the infallible canon of the bible was the united church Jesus Christ planned of at that time. Through men’s disagreements and imperfections, these churches eventually split from each other starting with the Assyrian church of the east in 431 then oriental Orthodox Church in 451, to lastly the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church splitting in 1054. Before these splits, there were still 3 councils that all churches agreed upon. And even up to today even while these churches are not formally united, ALL of these churches have traces back to the apostles themselves and ALL agree on the gospel of Jesus Christ. All churches agree to the divinity of Jesus, all churches hold the 7 sacraments, and all churches agree on salvation. I am not claiming a one true church dilemma but rather claiming that the biblical and historical evidence shows the apostles had successors and those successors would then pass on the authority in an unbroken chain to today. Although not perfect, being imperfect as men always are, does not disapprove that truth was able to be preserved for the last 2000 years because of the apostolic succession that Christ instituted.
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Conclusion: In a short way to sum up everything, without bias and only looking to a logical answer. It only makes sense that the apostles taught to successors who of course taught to their successors. This upholds truth and these successors have the authority to defend against heresies in these gatherings or councils as seen in the history of the early church after the deaths of the apostles. The idea that all “true” believers in Jesus can uphold the apostles faith is simply not the world we live in. Ask around and see that there is so many different interpretations of the same words that Jesus spoke. So who has the true apostolic faith? Why would we choose to interpret scripture ourselves when we have people who were taught by the apostles? It just makes no sense to disregard what they were taught. There has to be an objective truth about Jesus and it can’t just be up to believers interpretation. Apostolic succession helps safeguard the truth and there is lot of evidence to back it up both biblically and historically