Is The Pope God's Voice On Earth?
The churches of Christ Greet You (Romans
If you are a member of the Roman Catholic Church,
please be
assured that our only motivation in this web site is to accurately
present the
truth of God as we see it presented in the Bible. Our allegiance must
be to
Christ and His truth, as revealed in God's Word (John
The Roman Catholic Church teaches the doctrine of
papal infallibility.
This doctrine is defined by Bertrand L. Conway: "The Roman pontiff,
when
he speaks ex cathedra, that is, when in discharge of the office of
pastor and
teacher of all Christians … he defines a doctrine regarding faith and
morals …
is possessed of that infallibility with which the Divine Redeemer
willed that
His Church should be endowed for defining doctrine regarding faith and
morals." (The Miniature Question Box, p. 99)
The above teaching affirms that the Roman Catholic
Pope has
been given authority by Christ to determine issues of faith and morals
over the
church when he speaks ex cathedra, i.e., "when he speaks officially as
supreme pastor of the universal church." (Conway, p. 99)
In answer to the subject question and to respond
to
the
Catholic assertion, we pose two important questions: (1) Where in the
Bible did
Christ authorize the office of the Pope - i.e., one who would be
universal
bishop over the church? (2) What did Christ authorize in the way of
church
organization? Both questions could involve lengthy answers, but our
brief comments
below will hopefully begin to open your eyes to the truth.
We return to the basic question of AUTHORITY time after
time
as we seek to find Bible answers to our questions. Christ has been
given all
authority in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18). He is the head of His
spiritual
body, the church (Eph.
Where can we go in God's word (the Bible) to find
authority
for a universal bishop over the church built by Jesus (Matt.
The Catholic positions are based on two
assumptions. First,
that the Church is infallible, and therefore must have an infallible
mouthpiece. Second, that Peter was given a special place by Jesus over
the
church which would continue to be handed down to his successors
throughout the
church's history. For an answer to this second assumption see the
question,
"Is The Church
Built On Peter?"
The fatal flaw in the first assumption is
Catholicism's
misunderstand of the nature and definition of the church. Catholicism
has
turned the church into an institution or ruling organization with
several
levels of hierarchy above the local congregation. Then it proclaims
this
organization to be an infallible guide over the membership. The New
Testament
nowhere defines the church in that way, nor does it give to her that
kind of
power.
The church organization that Jesus authorized looks very different from the organization of the present day Roman Catholic Church. There was no regional, national, or universal church organization in the first century. The only church organization that we see in the New Testament was local in nature.
In the New Testament, the church was simply people
(1 Cor.