Chemo brain? Are you ok, my friend?
At my most recent scans, yes. I thank the Lord (and prayers) for that.
Rhetorical or not, it really doesn’t apply much, as he really never held a hierarchical position. It just isn’t the way Lutheranism developed. Plus, one could call Chemnitz a “successor”, if really looking for one. And there were others.
Jon
Some musings: The leadership of Peter is in the DNA of Catholicism. Since there is so much of both God’s Word as well as the nature of the early Church that just does not appear in scripture, there exists something that was a given - something that was taken for granted; something that was submitted to, in the nature of the early Church. There is a complete list of each successor of Peter, as I do not think exists with any other Bishop. The pre-eminence of the See of Rome is seen as something demanded, when in fact it is something given out of obedience.
As well, the title of another thread provided a hint: The chair (seat) of Moses. It was a position of authority, even if the current occupants behaved poorly. An organization - any organization - remains such only as along as those within it are obedient to, not only its tenets, but also to those in charge. The almost 2,000 year history of obedience to the Bishop of Rome is demonstrated evidence of the primacy and the supremacy of that chair.
I consider not only the sheer number of mentions of Peter in scripture, but also the nature of those mentions. For example, the walking on water, the paying of the tax for himself and Jesus (
Matthew 17:24-27), the giving of the keys to heaven, the devil’s demand to sift Peter like wheat (
Luke 22:31), the prophecy of Peter’s death, combined with the “strengthen your brothers” and the walk with Jesus in
John 21, the first appearance to Peter (
Luke 24:34), as well as his words silencing the assembly
Acts 15 all speak to the unity of the Church, but the primacy/supremacy of Peter. But, primacy counts for nothing without a divine charter behind it. As well, it could become a cult of personality unless there was actual substance to it.
What strikes me is that “Thomas, who is also called Didymus, and Nathanael, from Cana of Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two more of his disciples” could not haul the net of 153 fish into the boat, yet Peter alone dragged it onto the shore (
John 21:17). Of course, this was immediately prior to Jesus commanding Peter to be shepherd of “my sheep.” There was just something special about Peter.
But, the Pope calls himself the “servant of the servants of Christ”, which of course, comes from
Matthew 20, Mark 10 and Luke 22, but this must be coupled with Christ’s command and authority to “strengthen your brothers” in
John 21. Christ, within His capacity to “know all things” (
John 21:17) also knew that the brothers must continue to be strengthened until the Parousia at the end of time.
