Expert: J.M.J. West - 5/4/2009

Question
What is the meaning of Apostolic Christianity and where did Apostolic Christianity originate?

Answer
This is a very good question, and the crux of the Christian faith and how one responds to the call of Christ is buried within the answer.  Christ came to fulfill all that was foreshadowed in the Old Testament (OT).  Just as the OT had a priestly line of succession, so too ought we to expect this in the New Testament (NT) and indeed find it there.  

Apostolic Christianity refers to the faith, authority, and power given by Christ to his apostles, and which they in turn passed on to their successors.  It originated with Christ, who said called his 12 to replace the pharisees who weren't doing their jobs.

Matthew 9:35-10:3 shows us Jesus lamenting that Israel, God’s people, were “like sheep without a shepherd”, and he said to pray that the master of the harvest sends out more laborers, for the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few, and then he immediately called his 12 and gave them a unique authority.  This confirms in part what he said about preparing new wineskins for the new wine, (the church for the holy spirit), because the new wine would burst old wine skins (the Levitical priesthood, set up in Exodus).  To these 12, with Peter at their head, he gave much authority: he gave them the authority that “whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven,” (Matt 18:18); he gave them the authority to forgive sins (John 20:20).  

And to one of them, Simon, he gave the name of “Rock” (“Kepha” in Aramaic, “Petros” in Greek, both meaning “rock”) and the promise that “upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”  He then gave Peter the “keys to the kingdom of heaven”, with a special reiteration of the blessing that “whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Matt 16:16ff).  These keys hearken directly to the keys the Davidic king would give to his prime minister, who oversaw the king’s duties in the kings stead, including leading the other ministers when necessary (Cf. Isaiah 22:22).  These keys symbolize very clearly an office, and all of the apostles shared in a similar office (though only Peter and his successors bear the aforementioned keys).  We can actually see the office of Judas being passed to another, Matthias, in Acts 1, at the behest of Peter!  Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit, the “spirit of truth”, would guide the Church “into the remembrance of all that I have said.” (John 14, 16).  For this reason St. Paul rightly says that the church is “the pillar and foundation of the truth” (1 Tim 3:15).   And all of the bishops in the church have been thus been ordained in a line of bishops stretching all the way back to Christ calling his 12 in Matt 10 above, including the Pope who is the direct successor of Peter, the bearer of the keys!

So Apostolic Succession is Christ’ very safeguard on the truth.  And we can see this very early on in the life of the Church.  Hence Ignatius of Antioch could write, “Let no one do anything of concern to the Church without the bishop…Wherever the bishop appears, let the people be there; just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church” (Letter to the Smyrneans 8:2 [A.D. 110]).  Without valid apostolic succession, belonging to the Church in the authority to bind and loose, we’d have no authoritative canon of the books which belong in scripture.  If we didn’t know what books belonged, we’d not know what books didn’t belong, and would read only what we supposed was scripture, and always with the caveat that any particular book may contain errors (even grave ones!).

The Church is the Body of Christ, and the body is one.  So, for this reason (amongst many others) it is fitting to belong the Catholic church, which stretches back through time to Christ Himself, the Head of the Church!

This being the case, only one Church can make the claim to be the fullness of Apostolic Christianity, and that would be the Catholic Church.  Here's what the earliest Christians said:

"Through countryside and city [the apostles] preached, and they appointed their earliest converts, testing them by the Spirit, to be the bishops and deacons of future believers. Nor was this a novelty, for bishops and deacons had been written about a long time earlier. . . . Our apostles knew through our Lord Jesus Christ that there would be strife for the office of bishop. For this reason, therefore, having received perfect foreknowledge, they appointed those who have already been mentioned and afterwards added the further provision that, if they should die, other approved men should succeed to their ministry" (Clement of Rome, Letter to the Corinthians 42:4–5, 44:1–3 [A.D. 80]).

"It is possible, then, for everyone in every church, who may wish to know the truth, to contemplate the tradition of the apostles which has been made known to us throughout the whole world. And we are in a position to enumerate those who were instituted bishops by the apostles and their successors down to our own times, men who neither knew nor taught anything like what these heretics rave about" (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3:3:1 [A.D. 189]).

"But since it would be too long to enumerate in such a volume as this the successions of all the churches, we shall confound all those who, in whatever manner, whether through self-satisfaction or vainglory, or through blindness and wicked opinion, assemble other than where it is proper, by pointing out here the successions of the bishops of the greatest and most ancient church known to all, founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul—that church which has the tradition and the faith with which comes down to us after having been announced to men by the apostles. For with this Church, because of its superior origin, all churches must agree, that is, all the faithful in the whole world. And it is in her that the faithful everywhere have maintained the apostolic tradition" (ibid., 3:3:2).

"Let no one do anything of concern to the Church without the bishop. Let that be considered a valid Eucharist which is celebrated by the bishop or by one whom he ordains [i.e., a presbyter]. Wherever the bishop appears, let the people be there; just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church" (Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Smyrneans 8:2 [A.D. 110]).

Hope that helps!

Pax Christi,

-J.M.J. West