[Cletus.D.Yokel]

Apostolic Succession:
The doctrine that God needs man.

[Dont tread and Live]

never bought into it....perfect for those that want to control....hence...Rome

[rollo tomasi]

An orderly system led by Bishops in various cities/towns to oversee discipleships and that beliefs contrary to the Word are answered then condemned was needed for the Plan God established.

Without Apostolic Succession, the Church would of been consumed by heretics and Gnostics running wild all over the Roman Empire which is why Paul (Through Christ) called for an office (That continues on) for the episcopoi to oversee the action/direction of the Church on earth. We should not be immune to history, a lot of Protestant thinks this all happened by like "magic"; do you know how many Roman cults there were after the Resurrection? Do you think history "did not exist" until the codification of Scriptures? Come on.

God did not create puppets on strings, thus responsibilities are placed on mankind to steward their Faith along with the Church in this temporary realm.

Your confusion lies in primacy of the Bishop of Rome. That has nothing to do with the original definition/meaning of Apostolic Succession.

[Bishop_Malachi]

Apostolic Succession:
The doctrine that God needs man.

_______________________________________________________

How would evangelization take place without man? It seems - at the very least - man IS needed for that.

How were orthodox Christian beliefs even founded to begin with? By listening to those who were Apostles or closely connected to the Apostles.

Now today it seems a lot less necessary. And certainly degenerates in the hierarchy of Catholic and Episcopal churches makes us question the wisdom of loyalty to such institutions. But at one time it was positively essential in identifying truth from error.

[NorthStarOkie]

Mat 16:19 “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”

---

When I read this verse and think of how it has been misused, my primary concern is that the Lord is giving more power to Peter and the other apostles than He keeps for Himself. The conflict is with the Lord’s later statement where He says, “All authority is given to me in heaven and on earth.”

The Lord cannot possibly let men (i.e. Peter) make decisions helter-skelter and then say, “I’ve got your back.”

With regard to another comment that a benefit of the hierarchy is to reduce/prevent apostasy, the independance of separate congregations (with no hierarchy above them) is better able to fend off apostasy since the local eldership can resolve to maintain the preaching of the Word and only the Word. As we have seen, pollution at the top of hierarchies tends to dribble down to pollute those entities below them.

[mbarker12474]

Before jumping in everybody, note this bit:

 II. What Apostolic Succession Is Not
     To clear the floor I note ....

    A. Apostolic succession is part of the papal theory or it is the thesis that all bishops are to be successors of the Pope going back to St. Peter. etc.....

[damper99]

If Peter was the first pope, why did the church start picking non Jewish successors as popes?