All Authority on Heaven and Earth

The Bible and the Plot to Destroy American Democracy, Part 5

This series is about the exploitation of the authority of Scripture. Where did that authority come from?

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20, NRSVue)

The basic premise of Christianity is that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Word, the one who is authorized to speak on behalf of God. But then he left, so who’s in charge after Jesus?

In these verses, Jesus commissioned the eleven remaining close disciples to go and carry on his work. He did not tell them to go and write anything down, and scholars do not believe any of them wrote any of the books of the Bible.

One of the first decisions that had to be made was to replace Judas. The disciples nominated two qualified men, prayed, and then cast lots to decide. (Acts 1)

I used to think this meant they believed that God would choose for them, now I suspect that they believed either men would do, but there was only one spot. Rather than choosing in such a way that one was “better” and the other was “less than,” they flipped a coin.

About 15 years later, a question developed that needed resolution: do Gentile converts have to be circumcised?

A council was convened made up of the apostles and elders to debate the matter and reach consensus. (Acts 15)

Elders were generally appointed by an apostle with consensus of the church.

We have to remember that the first few generations of Christians thought Jesus was coming back in their lifetime, they weren’t setting up a permanent institution.

I wonder if it’s analogous to the teacher who steps out of the classroom and picks someone to be “in charge” while they’re gone. They understood that the teacher was still in charge.

Over the next couple of centuries, a few regional councils met to settle disputes, but even as Christianity expanded, there was no empire-wide council until Constantine, because of the danger in such gatherings.

By 325 AD, Christianity was growing throughout the Roman Empire, but there were factions and disputes, so Constantine called a Council to meet in Nicaea (modern day Turkey).

The Council gathered over 200 bishops from around the Empire to work toward consensus on issues like: the trinity, the divinity of Jesus, when Easter should be, and to pick one bishop to be the “first among equals” and resolve small matters without a full Council.

The Council of Nicaea produced the Nicene Creed as a means of settling questions and disputes.

The Councils that met between 325 and 787 AD were the primary authority and decisions made are considered by some churches to be infallible.

Authority over theological matters transferred from Jesus to these Councils.

During this time, a lot was happening outside the realm of the Church, which allowed the Church to grow in influence and power. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, the Church stepped in to the fill the vacuum.