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THE POPE AND CHURCH ORGANIZATION

The attention of millions of people has been on the passing and the funeral of Pope John Paul II. We certainly acknowledge that he seemed to be a good moral man. We must remember our faith in what is right and wrong in religion doesn’t rest on any man, but the revealed standard of truth in the Bible. The Bible alone supplies us with “all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Pet 1:3, cf. 2 Tim 3:16-17). God’s Word is what will judge us all in the end (Jn 12:48).

Church Organization

We wonder, with the college of cardinals meeting to select a new pope or earthly head of the Roman Catholic Church, do many question where this elaborate ecclesiastical organization originated?

1. The Voice of History. By the time of the 2nd ecumenical council of Constantinople in 381 A.D., the church had evolved into having 5 patriarch bishops over area churches: Rome, Constantinople, Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch. The Roman bishop was called “first among equals.” One reason for the emergence of the bishop of Rome’s power was due to his successful negotiation with Attila the Hun in 452 A.D. to not sack the city of Rome, and Atilla soon died afterward which some attributed to divine intervention. With the crumbling Roman Empire, the Roman Bishop filled a power vacuum. History tells us that the first universally recognized bishop over the whole church was Boniface III in 606 A.D. “Pope” means “universal father,” despite Jesus’ command to call no man a spiritual “father” (Matt 23:9).

2. The Pattern of Scripture. However, the organization of the Lord’s church is very simple in the New Testament. The rise of centralization in the papacy is a departure from Scripture. We find no universal earthly bishop over local churches, nor a college of cardinals, but rather independent, autonomous local “churches of Christ” (Rom 16:16).

There is only one universal bishop over the Lord’s church, and that is Jesus Christ Himself. He alone is chief “bishop of your souls” (1 Pet 2:25). Jesus alone is the head of the church, which is His body (Eph 1:22-23). There is nothing taught in the New Testament about the primacy of Peter over all other apostles. Peter called himself, besides one apostle among the twelve, simply “a fellow elder” (1 Pet 5:1). He wasn’t even a presidinG elder over the other elders in that local church.

The only collective organization of God’s people in the New Testament began and ended with the local church, such as Philippi: “the saints in Christ Jesus...with the bishops and deacons” (Phil 1:1). The terms elder, bishop (overseer) and pastor (shepherd) were all used interchangeably to describe the same position in the local church (Acts 20:32, 1 Pet 5:1-2).

Each local church, if mature enough to be scripturally organized, had a plurality of men serving the active leaders of the congregation (Acts 14:23, Rom 12:8). The oversight of each eldership was limited to the local church, “to the flock of God among you” (1 Pet 5:2). From this, we understand the concept of independent, autonomous churches. Each local church of Christ and self-governing under Christ, not subject to the oversight of other men elsewhere.

– By W. Frank Walton