Thoughts on Apostolic Succession

A consideration on preservation of doctrine, and sacramental assurance.

Saint Jude begins his epistle with the sobering admonition to contend for the faith. There is a lot to unpack in such a short passage that I feel often gets overlooked when we only focus on the necessity to defend the faith against heretics. The first of these is that the faith is something concrete and not abstract. It is something secure, and not something to be found. It is definite. Saint Jude says that this faith was “once for all delivered.” It is not something locked away in heaven that we must labor and toil to find. It is something that has come down to us, freely given, to be received. 

The next is that this faith is given to a specific group. Saint Jude tells us not only that this faith exists, and has been handed to us, but also to whom it has been handed to, and where we can find it. “… Contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” Here we begin to see the subject of this essay taking its form. The Christian faith was delivered to the Church (and more aptly, the Apostles and their successors). This means that the Church possesses some authority regarding matters of faith. This authority is found in our Lord’s commission to the Apostles and through them their appointed successors. The Church is not a tyrant withholding divine knowledge from the masses but rather is the divinely appointed organ of dispensing the divine revelation of our faith. That there is such a need for a succession of Apostolic authority is found in the perpetual teaching ministry given in our Lord’s commission. If all the world is to be evangelized, and the Apostles are not preserved from bodily death until that is accomplished, then it is necessary that their authority be continued in their successors until the job is done. The faithful of all ages must have a place where they can seek the true faith, and have the means to nourish and strengthen said faith; we can rest assured that our Lord has provided for just those needs. 

First, we must understand what exactly Apostolic Succession is, and what it is concerned about. Apostolic Succession speaks to the succession of episcopal authority given through the ordination of Bishops that is able to trace back to the Apostles themselves. The reason this is important is that in matters of controversy, it is important for the faithful to discern the voice of their Shepherd against those false ones that Saint Jude warned us about earlier. “My sheep hear my voice…and they follow me.” - St. John 10:27. We see then, that the Apostles and their appointed successors were tasked with the ordering of the Church and the maintenance of sound doctrine. This is found all over the New Testament in its qualifications for those seeking ordination, as well as passages that speak about the Apostolic ministry. This is part of what is conferred in ordination, and it is passed on by the laying on of hands (1 Tim. 5:22; 1 Tim 4:14). If a new convert in Ephesus had a question concerning the faith, would they turn to just anyone, or would they seek answers from their Priest or Bishop? In all areas of inquiry, we seek out the experts and authorities on those given subjects. For matters of faith, the Apostles and their successors are the authority divinely appointed by Christ for us to follow; both in life and in doctrine.

This is further evidenced by the early witness of Saint Ignatius of Antioch. For Saint Ignatius, the Bishop served as the central point of unity for the Church. Obedience and reverence, as well as love, were all due unto the Bishop because, in the Church, the Bishop stood in the place of “the Father of all things.” Nothing was to be done without the Bishop’s approval or involvement, and to oppose the Bishop was to oppose God himself; this hierarchical ordering, as Saint Ignatius says, is “the law of Jesus Christ.” He goes so far as to state that without this hierarchy of Bishop, Presbyter, and Deacon “there is no elect Church, no congregation of holy ones, no assembly of saints.” Just prior to this, Saint Ignatius states something that is pertinent to our inquiry. He says that the congregation is to “reverence them as Christ Jesus, of whose place they are the keepers…” (emphasis mine).  One may ask what exactly these ministers are the keepers of. Ignatius doesn’t specify here, but implicitly within his epistles, it would seem that they are the keepers of the faith, both in its unity and its content. To depart from the Bishop was to be imprinted not with the stamp of Christ, but of the devil. This was because to depart from the Bishop was to depart not only from his appointed oversight but also to depart from his doctrine. Applicable to this is the parable Christ gave of the two sons in Matthew 21:28ff when his authority was questioned. It is important to remember that both sons were disobedient. The one who promised to do his father’s will, but remained inactive; and the one who rejected his father, but then amended his ways. It is better to have gone from the Bishop and his authority only to return with repentance and an amended life, than it is to feign obedience and yet remain obstinate in one’s disobedience. This is what Saint Ignatius gets at when he says that the Bishop, and communion with the Bishop, is integral for the unity of the Church.

So then, we see that the orders of Bishop, Priest (Presbyter), and Deacon are essential for the Church as she gathers in her eucharistic worship and sacramental life. This succession of the Apostles’ ministry is necessary for the maintenance of doctrinal fidelity and its transmission, as well as providing a veritable point of unity for the Church. Apostolic Succession then is not only concerned with transmitting true doctrine but also providing the authoritative means by which it is transmitted.

Someone could ask, what about Scripture? Can’t we use these as authoritative documents to discern the truths of the faith? The answer is yes. There is nothing necessary for man to believe other than what can be found and deduced from the Scriptures. However, it must be noted that not every believer is equally gifted to study and discern the unfathomable depths of Scripture. It is the work of the Church, after all, and not the individual alone, to interpret the meaning of the Scriptures. When we say this, we are not forced into a false dilemma wherein we must either choose the perspicuity of Scripture, or the authority of the Church, as if either of the two were necessarily opposed and at odds with one another. Rather, we can affirm that the Scriptures are indeed clear in providing all that is necessary for man to believe in order to be saved all without doing any harm or denigration to the divinely appointed authority of the Church. The maxim that no man is an island is especially true in matters of theology. Theology is the work of the Church and not merely that of an individual. Theology, as the Queen of sciences, is not something that can be conducted by just anyone. It deals with supernatural and not merely natural truths, and therefore must of necessity take place within a supernatural forum, and by supernatural means. This, then, is why Theology is the work of the Church, and why it must be done by one within the Church itself. One cannot claim to be doing theology if they are not an active participant in the Mystical Body of Christ. 

If the Church as both organism and institution is the pillar and ground of truth, what are we to think of those who are outside of this Apostolic Succession? There are doubtless many believers who find themselves outside of these ecclesial boundaries that nevertheless profess the true faith to some degree or another. What are we to make of this fact? How are we then to understand their ecclesial bodies? We must begin with the general principles at play, and then move into the particulars. We’ve already established that the Apostles and their appointed successors are the ones to whom our Lord gave the commission to teach and instruct the nations. That various sects break away from the true body for some reason or another is an unfortunate reality we find ourselves in. It is important to note that while these ecclesial bodies are not “churches” in the strictest sense, many of their members are nevertheless truly united to the mystical body of Christ and possess various graces by virtue of that union. It should be no surprise to us then that these members of Christ’s body are able to retain and adhere to much of the true faith. Much if not all of what they retain of the catholic faith must be recognized as not coming from themselves but is ultimately what they have received from the Church herself. The local Baptist church down the road has no claim to Apostolic Succession and has no desire to have any connection to a Bishop. Yet, whenever they seek to expound on the mysteries of the Holy Trinity and the Incarnation, they will inevitably turn to definitions and documents approved by the Church to explain these truths. This point is extremely salient when we consider the objection that Apostolic Succession is not about a succession of office, but of doctrine. Those who would adhere to this view would say that those who are successors of the Apostles’ teaching, and not merely a successor to their office, have the rightful claim to be the Apostle’s successors. However, this falls short and ultimately puts the cart before the horse. We’ve already established that the Apostles and their successors were tasked and divinely gifted to maintain sound doctrine. How then should we expect that those who claim the be the heirs of the Apostles and nevertheless reject and attack Apostolic teaching have any air of legitimacy? Again, Apostolic Succession is not only concerned with the transmission of true doctrine but also the authoritative means by which it is transmitted. The Apostles and their successors are that authoritative means appointed by our Lord. Just as Moses and Aaron were the appointed authorities under the Old Covenant, we should not seek to follow after the rebellion of Korah seeking to overthrow appointed authorities upon the basis of us all being holy in Christ. 

I have previously written about sacramental efficacy and how it pertains to those bodies that lack Apostolic Succession, so I do not wish to rehash all of that again here. You can find the link to that article connected above. To briefly reiterate my points in that article, I would like to maintain that upholding a high view of Apostolic Succession does not necessitate the view that all who lack it, therefore, lack grace and are not Christians at all. Rather, it is mostly a matter of sacramental assurance. As our Lord teaches, the Spirit moves where He wishes. It is of the benevolence of God that he honors and bestows grace outside the bounds of Apostolic Churches, but it is the duty of the Christian to live as faithfully as he can to the commandments and appointments of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is in these Apostolic communions that the believer can find the fullness of the Church’s sacramental life, and therefore come to have the greatest degree of sacramental assurance— that is, assurance that they truly are recipients of sacramental grace. As noted at the start of this inquiry, Apostolic Succession is also concerned with the nourishment of the Christian’s life. The sacraments were given for the strengthening of the faithful to aid them in their walk of obedience to Christ, and therefore assurance of sacramental grace is important for the Christian. This is most poignantly true when it pertains to the Eucharist and absolution. 

There is much more that could be said on the subject of Apostolic Succession, such as the proper matter, form, and intent of ordination, as well as how this plays out in ecumenical councils; but that will have to be done elsewhere and at another time. My hope and aim in writing this is to invoke dialogue on this subject and to present the position that I have come to as cogently as possible. It is my hope that this, and any subsequent writing on this, will prove to be helpful.