Once again, from the Catholic Catechism, we read:
"In order that the full and living Gospel might always be preserved in the Church the apostles left bishops as their successors. They gave them ‘their own position of teaching authority.'"35 Indeed, "the apostolic preaching, which is expressed in a special way in the inspired books, was to be preserved in a continuous line of succession until the end of time."36
This is a VERY important claim of the Roman Catholic church. But may we ask: by what authority is this claim made? Such an important claim is nowhere found in the Bible. It is true that Jesus taught his disciples to make disciples and teach them to observe all things Jesus commanded them (Matthew 28:19). But this is not the same thing as saying that the church leaders appointed by the apostles would have the same position of teaching authority as the apostles. These church leaders could not and did not write Scripture. Furthermore, many of them clearly disagreed amongst themselves as to what constituted true doctrine and teaching, and they spent a lot of time fighting about what was heresy and what was not. Eventually, the eastern and western branches of the traditional church split and severed completely.
Furthermore, sad to say, it didn't take more than 100 years from the death of the original apostles for the church to abandon the use of the gifts of the Holy Spirit to EFFECTIVELY set people free from demons and disease by the power of the Holy Spirit. Yes, there are exceptions and references to these things in the writings of the early Church Fathers (so-called) but these things were not the rule, but rather the exception. Ecclesiastical power brokers had grieved the Holy Spirit, as many do today, even in pentecostal churches, which are pentecostal in name only in many cases, having squashed the use of the gifts of the Holy Spirit for many years now.
The church down through the years has not replicated the teaching ministry of Jesus, because very rarely has the institutional church produced men of such character and divine charisma as to be anything like the original apostles or to do as they did. A few shining examples stand out nonetheless, but even most of these men did not demonstrate the same kind of authority over Satan's works as did the early apostles and disciples.
The source given as 35 in the Catholic Catechism website is 'St. Irenaeus'. This man was a bishop in the church of Lyon. Church history says he was a disciple of Polycarp, bishop of Smyna, who was in turn a disciple of the apostle John. Some scholars argue that Irenaeus was only a boy when he heard Polycarp preach. We don't know for sure. Irenaeus DID write some useful theology and did combat the gnostic heresies well. But does that mean all that he wrote is gospel truth? We have a bishop saying, "We were given authority to determine church doctrine". How do we know that he was precisely and absolutely right on this? Just because he said so? Just because some other church leaders agreed with him? I contend that this Irenaeus was speaking on his own authority here. If you are going to credit his statement with divine authority, on what basis do you do it? Do we have to agree with EVERYTHING this Irenaeus wrote? Just because some religious teacher CLAIMS authority to speak from God does not mean he really has it from God. Did Irenaeus do the same kind of works as Jesus did, which would back up his claim to be a true believer in Jesus Christ (see John 14:12). If not, why not?
The split of the Orthodox and Roman Catholic church is proof that bishops can and do go astray, because they can't all be correct. All of these guys can trace themselves back to earlier bishops of the church. So why did they end up disagreeing amongst themselves? Because they were not inspired by the Holy Spirit with the same kind of teaching authority as the Scripture writing apostles of Jesus Christ, that's why.
In contrast to Irenaeus' ideas about elders never going astray, in the Acts of the Apostles, Paul told the Ephesian elders that some of them would actually speak wrong things and draw disciples after themselves! (Acts 20).
Act 20:30 "Also from among you yourselves will arise men speaking things having been distorted, in order to draw away the disciples after them. "
Paul told Timothy that in the latter times men would depart from the faith and start
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