Gospel Prism

Perhaps one of the most notable aspects of the RCC is the fact that there is only one voice for the Church, the Bishop of Rome, also known as the Pope. This is appealing to many because it seems at the outset that to have one and only one perspective speak on behalf of any organization is a good thing. And the RCC takes a text like Matthew 18:17-19 which says: “Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven,â€? as the pivotal groundwork that establishes the papacy through the line of Peter. So this is the first aspect of the Pope’s power:

1. The first aspect of the Pope’s power is thought to be a transference of power and authority, directly from Jesus’ commissioning of Peter.

Without going into the exegetical details of this text (which clearly show that Jesus is not commissioning Peter as the Pope here), it seems quite tenuous to establish papal authority on the basis of this text. But this is exactly what Pope Boniface the VIII contends when he writes:

But this authority, although it be given to a man, and though it be exercised by a man, is not a human but a divine power given by divine word of mouth to Peter and confirmed to Peter and to his successors by Christ himself, whom Peter confessed, even him whom Christ called the Rock. For the Lord said to Peter himself, ‘Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth,’ etc. Whoever, therefore, resists this power so ordained by God, resists the ordinance of God, unless perchance he imagines two principles to exist, as did Manichaeus, which we pronounce false and heretical. For Moses testified that God created heaven and earth not in the beginnings but ‘in the beginning.’

Furthermore, that every human creature is subject to the Roman pontiff,—this we declare, say, define, and pronounce to be altogether necessary to salvation.

These incredible words, subjection to the pontiff as necessary to salvation, are given as a Papal Bull, a pronouncement of truth.

Then Vatican I (for more on Vatican Council I and its significance, read the Catholic Encyclopedia) stated that Peter was given the role of the primary bishop of Rome, and his successors through the laying on of hands, would carry on the leadership of the church. So Vatican I, Session IV, Chapter II says:

Whence, whosoever succeeds to Peter in this See, does by the institution of Christ himself obtain the Primacy of Peter over the whole Church. The disposition made by Incarnate Truth therefore remains, and blessed Peter, abiding through the strength of the Rock in the power that he received, has not abandoned the direction of the Church.

2. The second aspect of the Pope’s power is that it is supreme and he acts as a direct conduit of Christ and His authority. Thus Vatican One pronounced:

Hence we teach and declare that by the appointment of our Lord the Roman Church possesses a superiority of ordinary power over all other churches, and that this power of jurisdiction of the Roman Pontiff, which is truly episcopal, is immediate; to which all, of whatever right and dignity, both pastors and faithful, both individually and collectively, are bound, by their duty of hierarchial subordination and true obedience, to submit not only in matters which belong to faith and morals, but also in those which appertain to the discipline and government of the Church throughout the world, so that the Church of Christ may be one flock under one supreme pastor through the preservation of unity both of communion and of profession of the same faith with the Roman Pontiff.

This is the teaching of Catholic truth, from which no one can deviate without loss of faith and salvation.

However, not only is this bestowed power on the Pope abiblical, it assumes that the Pope has the power to grant salvation and faith, clearly two elements of power that only belong to the Lord, who is God. The presumption in this statement is so great, that it can’t be anything but unnerving to anyone who attempts to faithfully adhere to God’s Word.

3. The third aspect of the Pope’s power according to the RCC is the power to forgive sins, as stated by the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

The ‘power of the keys’ designates authority to govern the house of God, which is the Church. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, confirmed this mandate after his Resurrection: ‘Feed my sheep.’ The power to ‘bind and loose’ connotes the authority to absolve sins.

For those who do not believe solid biblical exegesis has any importance in today’s church need only look to this example of eisogesis to see why faithful exegesis is so essential. How the RCC gives the Pope this kind of power is utterly unfathomable from one text of Scripture that ultimately says nothing about the power of the papacy.

4. The fourth aspect of the Pope, perhaps the one aspect that supercedes all of the others, is his infallibility. Here are the words of Vatican Council 1:

Therefore faithfully adhering to the tradition received from the beginning of the Christian faith, for the glory of God our Saviour, the exaltation of the Christian religion, and the salvation of Christian people, the sacred Council approving, we teach and define that it is a dogma divinely revealed: that the Roman Pontiff, when he speaks ex cathedra, that is, when in discharge of the office of pastor and doctor of all Christians, by virtue of his supreme Apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine regarding faith and morals to be held by the universal Church, by the divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, is possessed of that infallibility with which the divine redeemer willed that his Church should be endowed for defining doctrine regarding faith or morals; and that therefore such definitions of the Roman Pontiff are irreformable of themselves, and not from the consent of the Church.

But if any one—which may God avert—presume to contradict this our definition: let him be anathema

Again, from pure fiat the RCC simply decides that the Pope is infallible. And should any one dare disagree to this fiat, that person is to be considered accursed and damned. The caveat here would be that this infallibility only refers to the times the Pope speaks ex cathedra (on behalf and representative of the church), but any claim to infallibility by a human being would go against so much of what the Bible speaks about the limitations of any man. We know that all have sinned and fall short of the Lord’s glory (Romans 3:1ff., 23). The Lord tells us in Isaiah 55:8 that His thoughts far supercedes all the thoughts of any human being.

The ultimate danger here is that the RCC’s contention for papal infallibility is to attribute that which belongs solely to God to a human being. 2 Peter 1:21 makes it quite clear: “For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.� Only the Holy Spirit through God’s Word (2 Tim 3:16-17) speaks infallibly.

Conclusion
John Armstrong sums up well the problems of the papacy of the RCC:

My reason for opposing the Catholic doctrine of authority in the papacy and the magisterium, and the more recently developed doctrine of infallibility is not because I desire to foster rebellion, much less willful independence. It is because this very doctrine, like so many others we have observed, is simply not grounded in the New Testament. In fact, I would suggest that it runs counter to the teaching and spirit of the Scriptures.

A study of the biblical texts reveals that the Bible and the NT does not advocate a monolithic, all-powerful, sin forgiving, infallible papacy. The RCC goes to great lengths to argue on very shaky grounds that both the Bible and tradition, as two equal bookends, support the validity of the papacy. But tradition can no more and should not validate the papacy any more than a human declaration should. It must be the Bible, God’s inerrant, infallible Word that does this. And simply put, the Bible does not give the RCC warrant for the Pope and his power. Popes in history have taught us how fallible these infallible men truly are.

For more reading on the Pope, see:

John Armstrong, “Who Really Speaks for God?”

“>Richard Bennett and Robert J. Nicholson, “The Certainty of the Written Word of Truth The Lord Christ or the Pope of Rome?”

Norman Geisler and Ralph MacKenzie, “What Ye Think of Rome?” (Part 4)