{"id":42058,"date":"2014-10-28T07:00:51","date_gmt":"2014-10-28T14:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/?p=42058"},"modified":"2015-03-19T22:24:06","modified_gmt":"2015-03-20T05:24:06","slug":"losing-authority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2014\/10\/28\/losing-authority\/","title":{"rendered":"Quick Apology: Losing Authority"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s “Quick Apology” comes from a conversation a friend of mine recently had with a Reformed Protestant. It’s actually a bit of a long response for a “Quick” apology, but oh well…<\/p>\n

Objection<\/h2>\n

“I’ll concede that the case for the historical church being the Catholic church is very strong. However, the chosen people (the Israelites) were consistently disobeying God throughout history and eventually ended up crucifying Christ. Throughout history the chosen people abandoned God. What makes you think that the Catholic Church hasn’t done this or won’t do this?”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Response<\/h2>\n

Here, the Protestant is\u00a0admitting to many of\u00a0the claims of the Catholic Church, but appears to be challenging the Church’s continued status as Christ’s Church, as well as calling into question her\u00a0continued\u00a0authority.<\/p>\n

It must first obviously be admitted that sinners are found in the Catholic Church<\/a>. After all, why else do you think I’m allowed membership?!. However, a few points should be made…<\/p>\n

Old Testament<\/h3>\n

Israel certainly sinned over the course of Salvation History. However, would it\u00a0mean that because of this, it would be better for a Jew or Gentile to abandon God’s people and “go it alone”? Of course not! If one left Judaism, thinking that this couldn’t possibly be the true religion due to the hypocrisy of some of their rulers and many its followers, then one would be making a huge mistake!<\/p>\n

As Saint Paul said, “…to them belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; <\/span>to them belong the patriarchs<\/span>“<\/em><\/span> (Romans 9:4-5<\/a>). The Lord had given to Israel many wonderful gifts for the sake of salvation. It would be crazy to\u00a0reject these gifts and\u00a0walk away!<\/p>\n

However, we actually have an example in the Old Testament of when some members of Israel\u00a0did just that<\/strong><\/em>. After King Solomon’s death, his son ascended to the throne (1 Kings 12<\/a>) who was a complete tyrant. The northern tribes refused to follow him and this resulted in\u00a0the division of\u00a0the\u00a0Kingdom: the Kingdom of Israel in the north and the Kingdom of Judea in the south. This separatist movement received\u00a0the condemnation of the prophets. Not only had they abandoned their rightful king, they had cut themselves off from the priesthood, the Temple and the sacrifices.<\/p>\n

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New Testament<\/h3>\n

Let us also briefly consider some examples from later in Israel’s history. In the New Testament, how does Jesus speak about the religious authorities? As any good Bible Christian knows, Jesus called them “hypocrites”<\/em><\/span> and “vipers”\u00a0<\/em><\/span>(Matthew 23:29-36<\/a>). However, that was not all he said about them. Many people often overlook the verses a little earlier in that chapter:<\/p>\n

Then said Jesus to the crowds and to his disciples,<\/span>\u00a0<\/sup>\u201cThe scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses\u2019 seat;<\/span><\/em>\u00a0<\/sup>so practice and observe whatever they tell you<\/span>, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice.<\/em> – Matthew 23:1-3<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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So, Jesus did\u00a0indeed call the Pharisees\u00a0“hypocrites”,\u00a0<\/em><\/span>but He also told\u00a0His listeners to “practice and observe whatever\u00a0they [say]”<\/em><\/span>. Why on earth would He say that? The reason is because they had\u00a0authority (“sit on Moses’ seat”<\/em><\/span>).<\/p>\n

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The New and Greater Covenant<\/h3>\n

Finally, it is worth pointing out that, in the non-Catholic’s objection, a parallel is drawn\u00a0from Old Testament. It is important to remember\u00a0that the New Covenant is far more magnificent\u00a0than the Old. It is\u00a0infinitely greater and includes tremendous promises never made to Israel:<\/p>\n

\u00a0I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven,<\/em>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven<\/span>, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.\u201d<\/i> – Matthew 16:19<\/span><\/p>\n

So unless one would be willing to say that Luther or one of the\u00a0Reformers was\u00a0some sort of New Christ, capable of wiping out the New Covenant and replacing it with a “Newer” Covenant for a “Newer” People of God, Christ’s promises still stand…as does His Church, founded on Rock, the “the pillar and bulwark of the truth”<\/em><\/span>\u00a0(1 Timothy 3:15<\/a>).<\/p>\n

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Today’s “Quick Apology” comes from a conversation a friend of mine recently had with a Reformed Protestant. It’s actually a bit of a long response for a “Quick” apology, but oh well… Objection “I’ll concede that the case for the historical church being the Catholic church is very strong. However, the chosen people (the Israelites) were consistently disobeying God throughout<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,17],"tags":[711,676,2969,2292,612,2758,1905],"class_list":["post-42058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apologetics","category-faith","tag-authority","tag-church","tag-featured","tag-israel","tag-pharisees","tag-quick-apology","tag-reformation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42058"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49985,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42058\/revisions\/49985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}