How can we show apostolic succession from the apostles to the present time? A Protestant friend of mine would consider the Catholic Church if he could document authority passed on from the apostles to the present time. Are there any sources that show us the lineage of apostolic succession throughout time?
Apostolic Succession Proved from Scripture and History
Many people deny that the successors of Peter and the Apostles had Apostolic Authority because they believe that the idea of “Apostolic Succession” is not found in the Bible. Is this really true?
In fact, the Bible clearly reveals that the Apostle Paul taught Apostolic Succession to his disciples and fellow workers, Timothy, Titus and Clement. Here are the relevant passages:
2 Timothy 2:1-2
You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.
In the passage above, there are four generations of believers contained in this one passage: 1. Paul himself, 2. Timothy, who was Paul’s disciple, 3. Those whom Timothy would disciple, and 4. Those to whom Timothy’s disciples would preach. Paul commanded Timothy to hand on the gospel and to ensure that those men also passed on the gospel reliably.
Titus 1:5
The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.
In the passage above, we see that Paul was not only concerned with the handing on of the gospel message but with the appointing of leaders in the Cretan church, as well.
Philippians 4:3
Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow, help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with
Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
In the Letter to the Philippians, Paul mentions one of his “fellow workers”, Clement. Clement was ordained by the Apostle Peter and later became the fourth Bishop of Rome (after Peter, Linus, and Anacletus). Later, Clement wrote his own Letter to the Corinthians, and in that letter, Clement stated:
“Through countryside and city [the apostles] preached, and they appointed their earliest converts, testing them by the Spirit, to be the bishops and deacons of future believers. Nor was this a novelty, for bishops and deacons had been written about a long time earlier. . . . Our apostles knew through our Lord Jesus Christ that there would be strife for the office of bishop. For this reason, therefore, having received perfect foreknowledge,
they appointed those who have already been mentioned and afterwards added the further provision that, if they should die, other approved men should succeed to their ministry” (*Letter to the Corinthians *42:4–5, 44:1–3 [A.D. 80]).
“We are of opinion, therefore, that those appointed by them,
or afterwards by other eminent men, with the consent of the whole church, and who have blamelessly served the flock of Christ, in a humble, peaceable, and disinterested spirit, and have for a long time possessed the good opinion of all, cannot be justly dismissed from the ministry. (
ibid.)
From these two passages, we can see that Clement had witnessed his mentors, the Apostles Peter and Paul, not only naming men to the office of Bishop but he had also received their instructions that other men should succeed the Bishops appointed by the Apostles in the event that these first Bishops should die. Thus, history records that Clement, Timothy and Titus followed the pattern of appointing successors to the Apostles just as the Apostles had directed them to do.
While many seem to believe that anyone with a Bible may become a “pastor” by simply gathering around himself a group of fellow believers to form a church, the Bible itself teaches that true leaders in the Church of Jesus Christ must be ordained by those who were ordained before them. This process, known as Apostolic Succession, maintains an unbroken chain of continuity from Jesus, Peter and the Apostles down to the present day.
