Jesus is the Highest Authority
Last updated
Last updated
"The Bible is the highest authority."
Christ is the head of the church.
The Nicene Creed calls the Christian faith "Apostolic" and not "Biblical."
Jesus Christ gave His authority to His Apostles
Jesus says to his Apostles, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." and "As the Father sent me, so I send you."
Apostles who wrote Gospels which became the Bible.
Christ didn’t leave us a Book to govern us.
He left us a Church.
Because without the authority of the Apostles, we have no Bible.
And that authority was handed down to the Church.
"Does that make the Church above the Bible?"
No.
Truth cannot contradict truth, so later bishops cannot teach doctrine or dogma that contradicts the apostles or the Bible.
"I saw on the news that Pope Fran-" So the news is infallible but not the Church? Okay.
"How do we know the Apostles handed down their authority?"
Historical writings from the first century testify the Apostles ordained successors to be bishops.
We even see Judas getting a successor after his death in Acts 1:20
Tradition means "Handing down"
The "handing down" of Apostolic authority is how we got the Biblical canon itself in 382 AD.
It's also how we know if we are interpreting the Bible correctly
Every Ecumenical Council was called in response to a heretic.
The heretic almost always used the Bible to preach his heresy.
The councils appeal to both the Bible and Sacred Tradition to condemn heretical teaching.
Then that council becomes part of Sacred Tradition.
To the extent you believe in the exclusive Authority of Scripture I would ask you to identify:
When did the Christian Scriptural Canon become definitive?
By what Authority?
Even the Scripture is abundantly clear that the Church Christ created is the Ultimate Arbiter between Heaven and Earth.
The Authority of the Church
⁃1 Timothy 3:15 “Church of the Living God, the pillar and bulwark of the Truth.”
⁃Matt 10:40 “who receives you received me, and receives Him who sent me.”
⁃Matt 18:17 “if he refuses to listen to them let him be as a . . . tax collector”
⁃Matt 18:18-20 (binding and loosing; authority given to Apostles).
⁃Luke 10:16 “who hears you hears Me. . . who rejects you rejects Me (and) . . . Him who sent me”
⁃John 20:23 (Jesus gives Apostles the authority to forgive sins)
⁃2 Thessalonians 3:14-15 “if anyone refuses to obey what we say . . . warn him as a brother”
⁃John 16:13 “the Spirit of truth . . . will guide you into all the truth.”
⁃Isaiah 59:21 “Covenant with them . . . my words shall not depart out of your mouth.”
⁃Matthew 16:18 “my Church . . . the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
⁃Matthew 18:17 “if he refuses to listen tell it to the Church.”
⁃Matthew 28:20 “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
⁃Luke 10:16 “hears you hears me (and) rejects you rejects me”
⁃Luke 22:32 “I have prayed . . . that your Faith may not fail . . . strengthen your brethren”
⁃John 14:16 “He will give you another counselor to be with you forever.”
⁃John 14:26 “the Holy Spirit . . . will reach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all I have said to you.”
⁃Acts 15:28 (Identifies Apostles’ decision as identical to Holy Spirit’s decision)
⁃Ephesians 3:10 “that through the Church the manifold wisdom of God might be known.”
⁃1 Timothy 3:14-15 (Church is the pillar and foundation of truth)
⁃1 John 2:27 God’s anointing “abides in you . . . teaches you about everything.”
See also
⁃Isaiah 54:9 ⁃John 17:11 ⁃John 17:20
Importance of Tradition
⁃1 Corinthians 11:2 “maintain the traditions even as I have delivered them to you.”
⁃2 Thessalonians 2:15 “hold to the traditions you were taught . . . by word of mouth or by letter.”
⁃2 Thessalonians 3:6 (Shun those who do not follow the Tradition you received).
⁃Matthew 28:20 “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you”
⁃John 21:25 “other things . . . Jesus did . . . the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”
⁃John 20:30 “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of [his] disciples that are not written in this book.”
⁃Acts 20:35 (A saying of IHS not found in the Gospels).
⁃2 Peter 1:20 “no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation.”
⁃2 Peter 3:16 “some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.”
In the Catholic Church, Mary Magdalene is known as the "Apostle of the Apostles" because she was the first to see the risen Jesus and told the other apostles about it.
In 2016, Pope Francis raised Mary Magdalene's liturgical status from memorial to feast day, making her the only woman other than Mary, the Mother of God, to receive this honor. She is considered a saint by the Catholic, Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, and Lutheran churches, and other Protestant churches also honor her as a heroine of the faith. Mary Magdalene is also considered to be the most important female disciple of Jesus and the second most important woman in the Christian Church, after Mary, the Mother of God.
If the Church of Christ is Apostolic as the Nicene Creed states, then the Catholic Church's Order of the Pope is invalidated as they claim authority and dominion over the teachings of Christ through the apostle Peter.
