Dr. John Bergsma

But after that, they'll be fine.

2,000 years from now, that'll be great.

I mean...

No, we absolutely need that authority structure in every generation.

And the earliest post-apostolic writings like Clement of Rome or the letter that we usually call First Clement nails this down right away.

I mean, this is something that the church had to get clear immediately.

It wasn't women's ordination or LGBTQ or marriage or whatever.

contraception or any of these things that they had to nail down immediately.

What they had nailed down immediately was we got to get the idea of succession down and clarify that.

And so guys who have succession from the apostles, you can't just dismiss them from office lightly, which is what was happening in Corinth.

Well, no, I would say it starts with faith in Christ.

I believe in Christ.

What are my grounds for belief in Christ?

Well, there's a historical case to be made that Jesus is the son of God.

And I believe that historical case is strong.

Maybe it stops short of mathematical proof.

But the case for the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ, which validates him as a true spokesman of God, because it was a work of God to raise him from the dead, I think that's strong enough to validate.

I am willing to put my faith in Christ based on that historical evidence.

Now, the evidence of scriptures is that Jesus established a church and that he invested the church with his own authority, that it is his bride and that has an authority to act on his behalf.

And the scriptures also testify that he shared his authority and his priesthood with the apostles.