PAPAL PRIMACY OR BIBLE PRIMACY

by Thomas S. McCall, Th.D.

The Associated Press reported that the new Pope Benedict XVI has reasserted Papal primacy, indicating that the Roman Catholic Church is the only true church because it has apostolic succession. The Pope’s teaching is that the Catholic Church can trace its successive line of bishops from the Apostle Peter to today:

Protestant and evangelical churches have not concerned themselves with succession, but rather with adherence to the doctrine of the Apostles in the inerrant Word of God, the Bible. The question then is do we follow Papal Primacy or Bible Primacy?

To follow Papal Primacy we have to accept all of the following underlined points:

1. Peter was the supreme Apostle. The Lord Jesus did call Simon Peter (petros, pebble) because he recognized Jesus as the Christ, and upon that confession of faith in the Rock (petra), Christ said He would build His church (Matt. 16:18-19). Peter recognized the Rock, but he was not that Rock.

The Lord also gave Peter the keys of the kingdom. Peter was indeed the first to evangelize the Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles, but having opened these doors, his unique role was over, and the emphasis shifted to Paul and John. Paul did not recognize Peter as being a superior Apostle. In fact, Paul rebuked Peter when he deviated in practice from the doctrine of grace both knew to be true (Gal. 2:11).

2. Peter went to Rome. There is no Biblical evidence that Peter ever was in Rome. He was in Jerusalem and Antioch, and he wrote a letter from Babylon (I Peter 5:13). Those who believe Peter was in Rome say that he used Babylon as a code word for Rome, but this is speculation. However, the Scriptures never say that Peter was in Rome. The idea that Peter was in Rome comes from the traditions of some of the church fathers, which may or may not be accurate. This is slim evidence upon which to base a doctrine as to what is or is not a true church.

3. Peter passed on his Apostolic authority to the succeeding bishop of Rome. There is no Biblical evidence that Peter passed on his Apostolic authority to a successor. Indeed, the testimony of Scripture is that when the Apostles died, their Apostolic authority ceased. All authority from then on was in the completed canon of the Scriptures: nothing was to be added, and nothing was to be taken away (Rev. 22:18-19).

4. The Roman bishops were recognized as supreme. There is no indication that the churches around the Roman Empire recognized the successive Roman bishops as supreme. There were centers of Christian learning and influence in Alexandria, Caesarea, Asia Minor and even France during the first Christian Centuries that did not defer to Rome. In the Fourth Century, when Emperor Constantine was converted and wanted to call a Church Council, he did not have the Roman bishop convene a Council in Rome, but rather they met in Asia Minor (Turkey), which was then one of the major centers of Christianity.

5. Papal edicts. Papal primacy brings along with it much unscriptural baggage. There are layers upon layers of tradition about salvation, sanctification, purgatory, the saints and indulgences that have no Biblical basis but have been added by Papal edicts in one form or another.

6. The denial of salvation by grace through faith alone. The Catholic teaching on salvation is a confused mixture of grace and works that is unscriptural, along with the institution of priestly ceremonies as means of grace, which can only be distributed by the church authorities.

7. Corruption of the Lord’s Supper. The Papal traditions have corrupted the Lord’s Supper in to a superstitious belief that the bread and the wine are actually transformed into the body and blood of Christ by the chanting of the priest, through a process known as Transubstantiation. They see this as a recurring sacrifice on the church altars, and anyone who does not receive the elements from the priest is considered outside of the church. This gives the priests the power of heaven or hell over the people, and is a total perversion of the remembrance of the once for all sacrifice of Christ through the partaking of the unleavened bread and the fruit of the vine in the Lord’s Supper.

8. The deification of Mary. The papal edicts have also gone so far as to almost deify Mary, to whom the Catholics pray and consider to be the Co-Redemptrix with Christ. They even believe that Mary was born without sin, and for this they have coined a new term, the Immaculate Conception. What a corruption of the simple and beautiful story of Mary, a Jewish descendant of King David (through Nathan), who needed a Savior herself, but she was used by the Lord to give birth to the promised Messiah through the Holy Spirit.

On the other hand, to follow Bible Primacy, we must accept what the Bible teaches about itself:

1. Jesus rebuked Temple priests for being unscriptural. The Sadducees were a priestly sect of Judaism who ruled in the Temple and claimed their authority by genealogical succession from the Tribe of Levi. Yet Jesus rebuked them, not for straying from their succession, but from the Word of God. He said they were in error because they did not know the Scripture or the power of God (Matt. 22:29).

2. The Apostle Paul taught that Scripture was the minister’s authority. In 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Paul explained that all Scripture was inspired by God (God breathed), and was capable of supplying the minister of the Gospel with all the authority and equipment he needed to do his work of evangelism and teaching.

3. The Scriptures were a check even on the Apostles. The Jewish people in the Berean synagogue were commended for "searching the Scriptures daily" to see whether or not the teachings of the Apostle Paul were accurate (Acts 17:11). Even the proclamations of the Apostles were subject to the Scripture. Churches founded by the Apostles sometimes went astray and had to be corrected, such as the Galatian and Corinthian churches, so just having an association with the Apostles did not guarantee spiritual authority or truth. The Old and New Testament Word inspired by the Holy Spirit was the only arbiter of truth.

4. The Reformation rediscovered Bible Primacy. The Reformers of the 16^th Century rediscovered the doctrine of Bible Primacy, and rejected the traditions of the Catholic Popes. The flaming byword of the Reformation was sole fide, sole scriptura – Only faith, Only the Scriptures. To go back to Papal Primacy would be to undo all the great work of the Reformers and to return to the dismal Dark Ages in which Bibles were chained to the desks of the monasteries.

Thus we must conclude that the churches which are true churches are not those that adhere to some hierarchy, but those which most closely adhere to the plain truth of the Word of God.