Authority

Yes. Jesus left a design whereby His doctrine would be transmitted by a living Church. He granted this Church and its apostles and their successors the authority to pass on His teaching with the aid of the Holy Spirit.

In John 14:16-17, 26 Jesus tells the apostles at the Last Supper, "I will ask the Father and he will give you another Paraclete -- to be with you always: the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, since it neither sees him nor recognizes him; but you can recognize him because he remains with you and will be within you..." "the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will instruct you in everything, and remind you of all that I told you."

Notice that Jesus is speaking to the apostles here. This is truly the beginning of Jesus' establishment of His Church as the teaching office for passing down His doctrine.

Many Protestants seem to think that Catholics believe that the Church is somehow above the Word of God. That idea is false! Vatican II declared:

"The teaching office of the Church is not above the Word of God but serves it, teaching only what has been handed on, listening to it devoutly, guarding it scrupulously, and explaining it faithfully by divine commission and with the aid of the Holy Spirit. It draws from this one deposit of faith everything which it presents for belief as divinely revealed." (Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, no. 10)

Let's back up here and critically examine how Christ began His Church.

Christianity began with no formal organization, protocol, or writings. Scripture does tell us that there were twelve apostles as leaders, and Peter was appointed by Christ as the "leader of leaders," if you will.

Matthew 16:13-19 tells us, "When Jesus came to the neighborhood of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples this question: 'Who do people say that the Son of Man is?' They replied, 'Some say John the Baptizer, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.' 'And you,' he said to them, 'who do you say that I am?' 'You are the Messiah,' Simon Peter answered, 'the Son of the living God!' Jesus replied, 'Blest are you, Simon son of Jonah! No mere man has revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. I for my part declare to you, you are "Rock," and on this rock I will build my church, and the laws of death shall not prevail against it. I will entrust to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you declare bound on earth shall be bound in heaven; whatever you declare loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven.'

For Catholic Christians, these verses illustrate how Christ began His Church by appointing Peter as its earthly head, thus instituting the Papacy and its pastorial authority.

Protestants argue that there is no Scriptural evidence that Christ actually appointed Peter as an earthly head of the Church because Christ is the Church's only head. They look to Matthew 28:18 where Jesus says, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." The papacy, they say, arose out of 3rd century politics. Some go so far to claim that the papacy is the work of the devil, or that the Pope is the Anti-Christ. At any rate, it is an institution Catholics designed to give their church an authority it simply does not have.

Specifically, you hear arguements that the Pope is the Anti-Christ because the Latin equivalent of the Greek 'anti-' is 'vicarius', and therefore, Vicar of Christ is actually "anti-christ".

In New Testament Greek, the principle meaning of the prefix 'anti-' is "against". Therefore, the Greek 'antichristos' is translated as "opposed to the messiah". The Latin equivalent for the Greek prefix 'anti-' is not 'vicarius' but, in fact, is 'anti-'. That is because the Latin prefix 'anti-' is a direct loan-word from the Greek. Thus, the Latin translation of 'antichristos' is 'antichristus'.

However, there is a secondary meaning of the Greek 'anti-', which connotes "substitution" or "correspondence" that translates in Latin to 'vicarius'. 'Vicarius' is an adjective meaning "that which supplies the place of." Hence, the noun 'vicarius' means "substitute, proxy, place-holder, vicar," etc.,. The root of this word is 'vicis', "alternate".

What this implies about the papacy is that the Pope is simply Christ's chief representative here on earth. This in no way reduces Christ's role as Head of the Church.

Another argument heard is that Peter never went to Rome in the first place, as Scripture never specifies such a move. Therefore, Peter could not have been the first Pope, which puts any ideas about "successors" in question.

This brings up the problem with 'sola scriptura' - using only Scripture to gain knowledge of God. Yes, very little is said in Scripture about Peter being in Rome. For example, Scripture never says, "Peter did go to Rome" or "Peter did not go to Rome." Actually, Scripture says very little about where any of the apostles (other than Paul) did go in the years after Christ's Ascension. What of it? We have to rely on books other than the New Testament for history about the early Christians.

However, for the sake of argument, let's see what Scripture does have to say...

There are various passages in the New Testament that allude to Peter's move to Rome. I Peter 5:13 says, "The church that is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you greeting, as does Mark my son." 'Babylon' is known to be a code word for Rome. It is used that way six times in the book of Revelation.

Rev. 14:8 says, "A second angel followed and cried out: 'Fallen, fallen in Babylon the great, which made all the nations drink the poisoned wine of her lewdness!'" This verse anticipates the lamentation over Babylon (Rome) in Rev. chap. 18.

Rev. 16:19 says, "The great city was split into three parts, and the other Gentile cities also fell. God remembered Babylon the great, giving her the cup filled with the blazing wine of his wrath." Clearly, given the context within which this is written, 'the great city' refers to Rome. At this time, the Babylonian Empire was a mere speck after years of military defeat and political subjugation, reasonably seen as no great city. However, the only truly "great city" in New Testament times was Rome!

So by looking at both historical and even Scriptural evidence, we can reasonably conclude that it is likely that Peter was in Rome.

Despite this logic, some contest that Peter never held any authority among the apostles. They say that he was no different than any of the other apostles. However, Scripture does show how Peter did have a leadership role among the apostles.

One can look at passages in Matthew (10:1-4), Mark (3:16-19), Luke (6:14-16), and Acts (1:13) and see how when the apostles were named, Peter usually headed the list. It is also evident that Peter generally spoke for the apostles (see Matt. 18:21, Mark 8:29, Luke 12:41, and Jn. 6:69). On Pentecost, Peter was the one who first preached to the crowds (Acts 2:14-40). Peter accomplished the first healing, as noted in Acts 3:6-7.

Peter's preeminent position is most convincingly highlighted in John 1:42 where Christ tells Simon that his name thereafter would be Cephas (that's Greek, which is a transliteration of the Aramaic 'kepha' that means rock) or Peter, which translates as Rock. 'Rock' as used in the Old Testament only refers to God, and is never used as a proper name for a man. So why would Jesus change Simon the fisherman to Peter if Simon was of equal status?

Of other significance is the fact that Jesus gave Simon this new name at the place of Caesarea Philippi, a city that Philip the Tetrarch built and named in honor of Caesar Augustus. The city lay near the Jordan River and not far from a huge wall of rock 200 feet high and 500 feet long. Clearly, Jesus used this particular location to emphasize the importance of what He was doing.

Let's go back to our passage in Matthew (16:13-19) and examine some important things it says to us. First, Jesus tells Peter "Whatever you declare bound on earth shall be bound in heaven; whatever you declare loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven." This clearly shows how Jesus singles out Peter for the authority that provides for the forgiveness of sins and the subsequent disciplinary actions. Later the apostles as a whole are given similiar power, yet this particular passage shows that it is Peter who receives it first. The use of the words "You are Rock" show that Peter received this authority in a special way. Another symbol of authority used in this passage is the phrase "keys to the kingdom of heaven." Keys were an ultimate symbol of authority back in ancient times. The idea being that a walled city might have one gate, and that gate contained just one lock requiring just one key. So to be given that "key" (to the city) was a great honor. Actually, this is a type of honor we still bestow to certain individuals even today. The significance here is that Peter was given free access to, and authority over, the heavenly city itself!

(Note that this symbolism for authority is used in other Scritural passages such as Rev. 1:18 "the keys of death and the nether world" and Is. 22:22 "key of the House of David".)