Dr. John Bergsma

We see that,

In Acts 1, Judas, who has died, is referred to as having held an office.

And the word for the office in Greek is an episcopane, literally an episcopacy, or as the King James translated, a bishopric.

And so they cast lots and they appoint somebody to take Judas's position.

That establishes the principle that the apostles occupy an office that can be replaced by another when they die.

So that not just the first generation of the church, but all the generations of the church would have the benefit of divinely authorized leadership and interpretation.

And that's clearly what's reflected in the early fathers, like in Clement of Rome, who talks about apostolic succession.

men who succeed to the authority that the apostles have.

So in both the Old and the New Covenants, the point is, Matt, that we have a continuing interpretive authority

that succeeds down through the generations.

In any given generation, we have either the apostles or men who are successors of the apostles who have divine authority to interpret the word of God for us.

It is not up to us as individual Christian believers to just decide what God's word means.

We consult the church because as St.

Paul says in 1 Timothy 3.15,

The church is the pillar and the bulwark of the truth.

That is a dramatic passage.

And from it, we know that St.

Paul was not a Protestant because no Protestant would ever say that the church is the pillar and the bulwark of the truth.

Pillar means a support or a foundation.

and bulwark means a defense.