So I’m debating a Protestant who’s very anti-Catholic and anti-Pope, and I tossed out the “Who’s your Authority?” question everyone keeps telling us to pose to Protestants.
Their answer was “Jesus is my authority”…how do I counter that???
Even for Catholics, Jesus is the ultimate authority. However, Catholics recognize that Jesus delegated some of his authority to men, to Peter and His other apostles, who in turn delegated some of Jesus’ authority on those men whom they ordained by the laying on of their hands as church elders/presbyters/priests (
presbuteroi), also known as bishops/overseers (
episkopois). Bishops were ordained in every local Church either by apostles or by other bishops previously-ordained in a line of succession from the apostles (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5), a practice (the ordination of bishops) that continued throughout Church history down to the present day in the Catholic Church and Orthodox Churches.
In Acts 15, Peter, other apostles and bishops (“elders”) who were ordained in a line of succession from the apostles, exercised their God-given authority when they met together in council in Jerusalem to settle the dispute about whether or not Gentile Christians must adopt certain Jewish practices, such as circumcision. Their decision against requiring the adoption of such practices was regarded not only as their own human decision but as also the decision of the Holy Spirit and all Christians were expected to abide by it. This was the first of many such authoritative church councils of ordained bishops throughout the Church’s history.
It was these ordained “bishops” or “elders” the New Testament writers spoke of, saying:
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons. (Philippians 1:1)
So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker in the glory that is to be revealed. Tend the flock of God that is your charge, not by constraint but willingly, not for shameful gain but eagerly, not as domineering over those in your charge but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd is manifested you will obtain the unfading crown of glory. (1 Peter 5:1-4)
Now a bishop must be … an apt teacher… He must manage his own household well, keeping his children submissive and respectful in every way; for if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how can he care for God’s church? (1 Timothy 3:2,4-5)
For a bishop, as God’s steward, must … hold firm to the sure word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine … (Titus 1:7-8)
It was concerning these ordained bishops (“leaders”) that the author of Hebrews wrote of, saying:
Obey your leaders and submit to them; for they are keeping watch over your souls, as men who will have to give account. Let them do this joyfully, and not sadly, for that would be of no advantage to you. (Hebrews 13:17)
It was to these ordained bishops (“elders”) at Miletus that St Paul said:
Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you bishops (
episkopous), to feed the church of the Lord which he obtained with his own blood. (Acts 20:28)
It was concerning these ordained bishops (“pastors and teachers”) that St Paul said:
And [Christ’s] gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the equipment of the saints, for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ; so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles. (Ephesians 4:11-14)
It was concerning these ordained bishops and their God-given “authority,” that Jude wrote of, saying, “Yet in like manner these [ungodly] men in their dreamings … reject authority… Woe to them! For they …perish in Korah’s rebellion.” (Jude 1:8,11) Remember, in the Old Testament, Korah and other Levites rebelled and tried to usurp the God-given authority of Moses and Aaron. (See Numbers 16)
New Testament authors warned against those who, relying on their own private interpretation of Scripture, “twist [Scripture] to their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:16) and against those who " will not endure sound teaching [such as taught by ordained bishops, like Timothy], but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings… (2 Timothy 4:3-4)
Even St Paul eventually submitted the gospel that he was preaching among the Gentiles to the peer review of those who were apostles before him, namely, “James, Cephas and John,” “lest somehow I should be running or had run in vain.” (Galatians 2:2,9)
