False Catholic Church Teaching About Apostolic Succession
False Catholic Church Teaching About Apostolic Succession
“Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;” Ephesians 2:19-20
Here we are taking a look at the claim of the Catholic Church about how their entire line of popes is part of an unbroken chain of apostolic succession from the apostle Peter, whom the Catholic Church falsely claims was their first pope. Nowhere in the New Testament are any of the twelve apostles recorded as having passed on their apostolic authority to ANY successors. Nowhere do any of the apostles mention that they had any plans to pass on their apostolic authority. NO, Jesus ordained the apostles to build the foundation of the church (Eph. 2:20). And this is the one crucial issue that the Catholic Church appears to clueless about, and instead they focus on spreading their false stories about apostolic succession, rather than focusing on the FOUNDATION of the Church:
What exactly is the foundation of the Church (the true worldwide Christian Church, not the Catholic Church) that the apostles built?
The foundation of the Church is the New Testament – the record of the deeds and teachings of the apostles. Therefore, the true Church has no need for apostolic successors. The true Church needs the teachings of the apostles accurately recorded and preserved, as they have been. And that is exactly what God has provided in His holy inerrant Word (the Holy Bible). And our conclusions about this matter are repeated over and over again in the Bible:
“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,” Ephesians 1:13
“For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;” Colossians 1:5
“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15; 4:2
“Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.” 2 Timothy 4:2
The way that the Catholic Church deceives their members about the issue of apostolic succession, is by claiming that every bishop of Rome who came along after the apostle Peter, was a pope. However, that is nothing more than one of many false CLAIMS that the Catholic Church uses to attempt to give legitimacy to their equally false claim of being the one true Church started by Jesus Christ. The early Church didn’t have some supreme leader (pontiff) running the entire Church from the city of Rome. There were bishops, pastors, elders and deacons local to every city and town where there were Christians. And that is still true today. There are no priests in the New Testament Church either, other than the worldwide body of Christ that is referred to as a “royal priesthood” in 1 Peter 2:9. The sacrificial priesthood was abolished at the cross of Calvary when Jesus cried out “It is finished!” and at which point the temple curtain was supernaturally split in two, thus symbolizing the direct access to God now provided by the ONE mediator between God and man, the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:5).
Sadly, Catholics don’t even realize that they are not even members of the true Church that Jesus established. Theirs is a huge counterfeit of the true Church, a counterfeit that shares something in common with ALL false religions: a man-made, man-centered, works-righteousness plan of salvation, that denies the COMPLETENESS and EFFECTIVENESS of the work of salvation that the Lord Jesus Christ fully accomplished on the cross of Calvary, when He shed His precious blood as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Salvation is found in the Lord Jesus Christ and His merits alone. All that a saved sinner (a true Christian) can do in response to receiving salvation through Christ is to live a life of thankful obedience to God. And that does NOT – and never will – involve bragging about being a member of the “one true Roman Catholic Church”. When it comes to salvation, the only thing that ANYONE on earth has the “right” to brag about is being a hell-deserving sinner, as we see so clearly pointed out here by the prophet Isaiah:
“Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” Isaiah 6:5
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