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Easiest Defense of Sola Scriptura

AnticipateHisComing

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If you know that your church teaches that the Church is the collection of baptized believers, then why do you repeatedly misquote scripture with your interpretation that scripture is referencing your religious institution when it says the church?
 
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AnticipateHisComing

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I don't need you to interpret Scripture for me. Thanks, though.
Understand this is a forum where a diversity of points are argued. If you wish to just stand on a soap box and present your interpretation without listening to another interpretation than you should really just stand at a pulpit and preach. If you desire to post in my thread, then you need to be able to argue and defend your statements.

I guess that your response means you don't have arguments against my points against apostolic succession.
 
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AnticipateHisComing

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It was the Holy Spirit which guided the council to a consensus, just as the Holy Spirit guided the apostles to chose Mattias to succeed Judas.
Acts 1:24 Then they prayed, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen 25 to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs.” 26 Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.

Proverbs 16:33 The
lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.

Read scripture and see that the Holy Spirit did not guide the apostles to choose Matthias. They cast lots, which put the decision in God's hand. This further refutes the ability of the apostles to choose successors.
 
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AnticipateHisComing

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Actually,not. The Holy Spirit inspired the Church in the councils to adhere to the Truth.
So how is this an indication of any special authority, let alone guarantee of perpetual Truth in one particular religious institution? It certainly does not exhibit your "Traditions" or Papal inerrancy.
 
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Paul Yohannan

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I disagree. Satan believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and he is not part of the Church.

You know, on this point I have pondered strictly as a theolougoumemnon the extent to which Satan in his corruption may have acquired a grossly distorted idea of who God is, or lost an understanding of theology altogether.

Since theology is prayer, and Satan is anti-prayer, it seems to me quite possible that he has forgotten the knowledge he originally had about God and degenerated to the point where he has no knowledge or understanding of God whatosever, to the point where he might be an atheist.

This would explain his completely futile attempts to tempt our Lord Jesus Christ; either he did not know that in His assumed humanity Jesus was hypostatically united with the divine uncreated Son of God, the Logos, or he assumed that he could somehow divide the human will possessed by our Lord in His humanity from His divine will, which might suggest that he had forgotten or had come to reject the fundamental theological fact of divine perfection.
 
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Paul Yohannan

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So how is this an indication of any special authority, let alone guarantee of perpetual Truth in one particular religious institution? It certainly does not exhibit your "Traditions" or Papal inerrancy.

The fact that the Orthodox, the Anglicans, the Lutherans and Calvinists accept some of these councils demonstrates their broad applicability.

For example, the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381 is the Statement of Faith for this website. That creed was the fruit of the Second Ecumenical Council, which was opened by Emperor St. Theodosius and Patriarch St. Gregory the Theologian, Archbishop of Constantinople.

As usual, the Roman archbishop was absent and represented by his legates. Off the top of my head I cannot think of any major church council from the first millennium that was not a local council specific to the Roman church where the Roman Pope was personally present, but there was a valid reason for this: the other autocephalous churches were inconveniently to the East of Rome, Rome was under continual threat of Barbarian attacks, the Pope was needed to provide secular as well as ecclesiastical leadership as the Western Empire fell to pieces, and what is more, the councils were held in Greek, which most Popes could probably speak, but few of them would have had the eloquence in speaking or writing Byzantine Greek one associates with Pope St. Gregory Diologos, who was the Papal Legate (in modern times, the office held by Papal Nuncios) to Constantinople before becoming Pope.
 
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thecolorsblend

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If you hadn't mentioned that, I would've had to. Agreement with that Creed is a pre-requisite for posting.
 
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Berean777

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Very important scriptural evidence to consider, that is if the disciples had a religious structure, like the Pharisical one, then they would have voted and chosen and not left it to the casting of lots.

From this act and within the act of the apostles, one can therefore conclude that no such hierarchical religious structure existed amongst themselves. In fact what can be noted is that the casting of votes was an appeal to the patruarchal office of Jesus. They asked the patriarch to shown them which one he has chosen..

This is further proof that within the disciples church, there was no Peter the patriarch to ask to choose which of the two is to become the disciple. This means that Peter was not considered by the disciples as a patriarch figure and so they didn't go to him, but rather they went to Jesus through prayer and then the casting of lots.

Having established that no such man made transferable patriarchal office existed and no such hierarchy that would enable the disciples as say bishops to make decisions on who to choose out of the two.

Why then would anyone assume that the disciples would establish a hierarchical structure with a patriarch figure in place of Jesus Christ ?

We see no evidence of the claim of succession from Peter and neither evidence that would identify Peter as a patriarchal figure.
 
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Bible2+

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AnticipateHisComing said in post 1443:

This further refutes the ability of the apostles to choose successors.

Also, Jesus himself is the highest apostle (Hebrews 3:1). And he can ordain people directly, without any other apostles having to be involved (e.g. Acts 26:13-20).

Also, Acts 14:14 shows that eventually there were at least 14 apostles, including Paul and Barnabas, and the 12 apostles of Acts 1:26.

Also, if the pope today were the successor of Peter, then who today would be the successors of the at least 13 other apostles besides Peter?

Did all the other lines of apostolic succession peter out? And if so, how could this be? How could the church today need only one apostolic successor while the early church needed at least 14 apostles?

What has happened?
 
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PeaceByJesus

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PeaceByJesus

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Not another vain attempt to invoke 1Cor. 3 as supporting purgatory, which it nor any other texts teach. This has already been refuted on this thread, and to save me more typing see here and here and here and interact with these.
If you wanted to save typing, should have stopped typing..
A vain unreasonable retort, but fitting since what is linked clearly refuted your absurd attempt to make 1Cor. 3 describe purgatory.
.How can you ever say that the people who died because they protected the true faith would ever allow paganism in the Church???
A fallacious argument against the fact that they did, for souls will not only die to protect what they see as a threat from foreigners to what they love, but will also incorporate things from foreigners which they see helping their faith.

Those who burned incense to an instrument of Divine deliverance, and turned high places in the OT into places of Jehovistic worship (cf. 2Kg. 12:3; 18:4) were likely well-meaning souls, as were Catholics who adopted the pagan practice of bowing/kneeling before a statue and praising the entity it represented in the unseen world, beseeching such for Heavenly help, and making offerings to them, and giving glory and titles and ascribing attributes to such which are never given in Scripture to created beings (except to false gods).

You can search the Hebrew Scriptures and NT from beginning and you will never find prayer being made to any created beings in Heaven, or for the dead, except by pagans.
" And I don't care who you say Le Goff is. He's not authoritative."
Yes, i believe that you don't care, as evidenced, what even Catholic scholars say that do not support the fantasy you support.
 
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PeaceByJesus

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They cast lots, which put the decision in God's hand. This further refutes the ability of the apostles to choose successors.
As meaning a perpetual infallible ability to choose, esp. generations of only Italians.
 
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Albion

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They are to be found all around the globe and in various churches that have retained bishops.

Did all the other lines of apostolic succession peter out?
Some of them are untraceable, it's true, but there are many lines. Some of them are like tracing your family tree.

BTW, this has nothing to do with the topic here.

AnticipateHisComing said:
Read scripture and see that the Holy Spirit did not guide the apostles to choose Matthias. They cast lots, which put the decision in God's hand. This further refutes the ability of the apostles to choose successors.

No. Apostolic Succession refers to the fact of chosen successors. The precise way in which they are chosen doesn't define the principle..
 
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yeshuaslavejeff

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Why then would anyone assume that the disciples would establish a hierarchical structure with a patriarch figure in place of Jesus Christ ?
People did not assume it. The false teachers and false prophets that Y'SHUA and the APOSTLES warned against
tricked the people and taught them that.
Apparently it wasn't too difficult to deceive so many;
Y'SHUA said most would be deceived (i.e. it is in line perfectly with YHWH'S PLAN, YHWH'S WORD, and YHWH'S PURPOSE).
We see no evidence of the claim of succession from Peter and neither evidence that would identify Peter as a patriarchal figure.
All the APOSTLES refuted this so-called type chain,
so anyone following Y'SHUA on the foundation of the (TRUE) PROPHETS and (TRUE) APOSTLES
would reject it also.
 
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PeaceByJesus

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I think that the original premise of the devil was that God was not singularly worthy of the worship, glory, and uniquely Divine prerogatives, and that one one lifted up in pride, he was.

And thus began the original "Occupy movement," and "share the wealth" demand, of one who despised dominion, and saw it as his right to have what he did not merit, and construed the One who was worthy as the villain, as seen in Act 2, that of the temptation of Eve.

In which the adversary essentially tells Eve that she is being unjustly and malevolently treated by God by being forbidden to eat of a certain Tree, because, serpent said, God knew that eating what He forbade would result in her being as God, having a unique revelation.

The clear intimation was that rebellion against God, and the principal behind it, was needed and justified as obtaining what was rightfully hers. And note that this was not asking for mercy and grace, but that of benefits being a right, and thus a demand of justice - which is very basic and powerful human sense.

Note also that while Christ was the Divine Son of God/Creator from Heaven, yet He was functionally made Lord of all, sitting with the Father in His throne, due to His chosen obedience to the Father, (Acts 2:32-35; Rv. 3:21) and will reward overcoming believers, who are already spiritually made to sit with Him in Heaven, on His account (Eph. 2:6) by making them to sit in His throne, all by mercy and grace.

Yet the devil still seeks the allegiance of God's creation, and works to create an alternative world in which he is Lord, and does so thru proxy servants. Whose appeal is that of the devil's to eat, seducing souls to see themselves as unjust victims of a system that basically, if imperfectly, rewards benefits due to merit, and punishes those who will not, and to whom the devil presents himself as the savior for, promising to obtain for them what they lust for.

But unlike in the Garden, there is much real oppression and injustice to work with, yet nonetheless, it is the very system of benefits by merit, and punishment indolence and immorality (yet shows mercy to those who are victims) that the devil is at war with.

Instead, what is set forth in the demonic society is a system in which all have the same benefits regardless of merit (or indolence, slothfulness, etc.), and not as an act of mercy, but as a right.

However, unlike true deliverers, the devil does not not sacrificial serve the oppressed, nor do his proxy servants, but uses the powerful victim-entitlement ploy to selfishly obtain power and glory for himself, but in the end he and his elite (but tenuous) servants are the only ones with such benefits, and the rest are compelled to give them homage to obtain what remains, including supporting their ideology.

In contrast, God, who needs nothing, (Acts 17:25) yet calls man to make Him their God, and worship Him, because it is simply right and best for man (who will worship and serve something anyway) to worship the only One who is perfect, almighty, all-knowing, and can never fail, and whom man was designed to know and worship.

And who, instead of simply letting rebellious man go his merry miserable way to Hell, became man, endured our pain, faced every kind of temptation we do, and then became sin of us, paying the price for our forgiveness with His own sinless shed blood, and rose victorious as man's present savior and future judge.

And who in His unique omniscience and omnipotence, makes all things work together for the good of those who choose the Good, that is God. Glory be to Him.
 
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PeaceByJesus

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Just read this today which is pertinent:

As of last Thursday, the Joint Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church announced that it had reached substantial agreement on the questions of primacy and synodality in the Church....

It should be said at once that the document has accepted a reading of the first Millennium which is more in tune with the way Orthodoxy has tended to see it than that favoured by Catholic apologetics until recent times. Until such confessional readings of history became unfashionable after Vatican II, Catholics would commonly urge Orthodox to return to the unity of the first centuries from which they were alleged to have gone into schism by rejecting the Roman Primacy which they previously accepted. In line with this view, every sign from the early Church of the East accepting a leading role for the bishop of Rome was interpreted as recognising for him the kind of role he came to play in the post-schism West.

The Chieti document unambiguously rejects this simplification of history. It recognises that even in the West the understanding of Roman primacy was the result of a development of doctrine, particularly from the fourth century, and that this development did not occur in the East: “The primacy of the bishop of Rome among the bishops was gradually interpreted as a prerogative that was his because he was successor of Peter, the first of the apostles. This understanding was not adopted in the East…” The East, in other words, rather than reneging on a common heritage, simply never accepted a development it had not been part of....

Recent scholarship, led by Catholic scholars who have freed themselves from the shackles of a one-sided apologetic no longer in favour with the Magisterium itself, have concluded that papal authority in the form it has taken in the Second Millennium West, can only be properly understood as a doctrinal development in which the East had no part...

The Chieti document, if it is ratified by the Holy See, becomes the official Catholic position. - http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/com...nt-is-a-landmark-but-theres-a-long-way-to-go/
 
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AnticipateHisComing

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No. Apostolic Succession refers to the fact of chosen successors. The precise way in which they are chosen doesn't define the principle..
So wrong. There are APOSTLES and there are apostles. Understand the difference between the first 12+1 apostles and all others. What is unique about the 13 is the very way in which they were chosen. They were chosen by God. All the following ones were chosen by man. These first 13 had special authority from Jesus.

Certainly the first 13 apostles called on others to be "apostles". They may have even laid their hands on them, like they did to many others. This was done to bring power of the Holy Spirit on them, and the Holy Spirit does bring certain gifts. But, the laying on of hands does not transfer the authority they had received from Jesus to another. No where does scripture teach this. There is nothing like what Elijah did with Elisha when he left this earth where Elisha was so bold to even ask for more power and authority then what his predecessor had. So, the following apostles that the first 13 called did not have the same authority as they had. It is only deception that people use the fact that they are both called apostles to imply them equals.

Please also note this distinction in the OT. While the priesthood went by lineage and one high priest succeeded another; prophets who spoke for God were always chosen by God. Prophets did not chose successors, lay their hands on them and transfer their authority to them.

Now, realize that the Catholics base their right to truth and authority as being succeeded from Peter. Any scripture support for this is purely fabrication. So yes, it is most important how one is chosen; whether from God or from man makes a huge difference in the authority that one has.
 
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AnticipateHisComing

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So much for the Catholics never changing the one true doctrine traced to Peter.
 
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Albion

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You can say that, but it doesn't show any understanding of what Apostolic Succession means--whether one agrees with the idea or not.

Apostolic Succession is not about the Roman Catholic Church in particular, it does require men to act, and it isn't solely about the successors of Peter (in case you have any interest in learning what it's all about).
 
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AnticipateHisComing

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This thread begs the question in point 4, for another source of incontrovertible truth. Catholics have argued in this thread that apostolic succession from Peter provides this. My response is to refute this; stating that scripture does not show Peter being inerrant or having the authority to pass his authority on to another.

As to other uses of "apostolic succession" and learning what it is all about, I really don't care. I am not Catholic and it is irrelevant to this thread. The only reason it is being discussed here is because a Catholic brought it up with certain implications and application. If you think that use of "apostolic succession" in error than you can argue with him about it. Don't fault me for refuting another's use of it. Further you have not offered a rebuttal to the scripture and points I used to refute this.

I will again quote my point. If you can argue this point, then feel free to, hopefully with scripture.

AnticipateHisComing said:
Now, realize that the Catholics base their right to truth and authority as being succeeded from Peter.
 
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