The Authority of the Church (Part 3)

In our previous two articles we looked at the Scriptural support for the Authority of the Church and the support found both in The Didache and the writing of the Ante Nicene Fathers. In this last part we move on to considering the Councils of the Church that established much of what many Protestants and all Catholics affirm. We begin with the first major Council after the Jerusalem Council of Acts 15…Nicaea. It should be noted that one of the major reasons for these Councils was to give answer to many heretical teachings and movements that popped up in the first 500 years of the Church’s existence.

The First Council of Nicaea (325 AD)

This Council is a major milestone in Christian history for several reason. First and foremost it was when the Canon of Scripture was delineated for the first time. It’s also known as “The First Ecumenical Council” It was called to combat the error of Arianism. Arius was a Bishop in Alexandria, Egypt who maintained that the Son of God was created by the Father and was therefore neither coeternal with the Father, nor consubstantial. In short, denying the Deity of Christ. The error persists today in the teachings of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

St. Athanasius played a key role in this Council as he produced both the Creed that bears his name and the list of Books that became accepted as the Canon of Scripture…the Bible. There was 73 books on the list including the Old Testament and Inter-Testamental books known as “The Apocrypha”. The history of the Bible will be the subject of another article, but suffice it to say this Canon was accepted until the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther removed The Apocrypha as they didn’t fit in well with his theology.

The Creed served as a handy, easily memorized Statement of Beliefs that the laity could be taught that summarized what we believe about God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) about Mary (virginity and conception of the Lord), about the Incarnation, life, death,  Resurrection, Ascension and eventual Second Coming of the Lord, the Holy Spirit, the nature of the Church and the promise of eternal life.

This showed that the Church had the Authority to set doctrine and pronounce a set of writings as “Scripture. Those who deny the Authority of the Church in these matters today must, to be consistent, also deny the Authority of this and later Councils. In other words, they must deny not only the Athanasian Creed but the very Canon of Scripture itself… for both were determined by men they consider to not really be Christians and following the teachings of men.

There is a handy, easy to read guide to the Councils of the Church on Daily Catholic website and you can access it here. The first Council after Nicaea was Constantinople about 50 years after it. It reaffirmed the work of Nicaea and also tried to deal with the growing schism between the Eastern and Roman parts of the Church…which eventually produced the Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches.

To draw things together we have seen in the Scriptures that the Lord Jesus established a Church, laid the foundation in the Apostles and empowered them to have Authority in this world to forgive sin, to bind or loose things and to be His appointed shepherds over the Sheep of His flock. We saw that Authority exercised in the Book of Acts in first setting a means of replacing themselves in the event of their passing and then in deciding what form the Gospel to the gentiles should take. Although not discussed in that article we also see Saint Paul and Saint Peter both give instruction on church discipline and the electing of deacons and bishops.

Then we saw the post-apostolic church set order of service in the Mass, Confession and the Eucharist (using the latter terms in a much early time than many Evangelical Christian Apologists would have you believe they were used) as well as the selection of Bishops. We looked at this Authority being very much continued in the writings of the Ante Nicene Fathers and, finally, in the work of the Councils that defined the divide between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of the Cults and established the Canon of Scripture accepted (with the exception of the Apocrypha) by all Christians of any stripe today.

It’s important to establish this Authority because in later articles we’ll be talking about doctrines not outlined in the Scriptures and the place of Sacred Tradition as well as the decisions of the Magisterium and the Popes on matters of faith and practice. The final word on this is: even if we don’t completely agree on certain doctrines and dogma if the Church truly has the Authority to set them then it’s we, not them, who must adjust out thinking.

In our previous two articles we looked at the Scriptural support for the Authority of the Church and the support found both in The Didache and the writing of the Ante Nicene Fathers. In this last part, we move on to considering the Councils of the Church that established much of what many Protestants and all Catholics affirm. We begin with the first major Council after the Jerusalem Council of Acts 15…Nicaea. It should be noted that one of the major reasons for these Councils was to give answer to many heretical teachings and movements that popped up in the first 500 years of the Church’s existence.

The First Council of Nicaea (325 AD)

This Council is a major milestone in Christian history for several reason. First and foremost, it was when the Canon of Scripture was delineated for the first time. It’s also known as “The First Ecumenical Council” It was called to combat the error of Arianism. Arius was a Bishop in Alexandria, Egypt who maintained that the Son of God was created by the Father and was therefore neither co-eternal with the Father, nor consubstantial. In short, denying the Deity of Christ. The error persists today in the teachings of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

St. Athanasius played a key role in this Council as he produced both the Creed that bears his name and the list of Books that became accepted as the Canon of Scripture…the Bible. There were 73 books on the list including the Old Testament and Inter-Testamental books known as “The Apocrypha”. The history of the Bible will be the subject of another article, but suffice it to say, this Canon was accepted until the Protestant Reformation. Martin Luther removed The Apocrypha as they didn’t fit in well with his theology.

The Creed served as a handy, easily memorized Statement of Beliefs that the laity could be taught, that summarized what we believe about God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) about Mary (virginity and conception of the Lord), about the Incarnation, life, death, Resurrection, Ascension and eventual Second Coming of the Lord, the Holy Spirit, the nature of the Church and the promise of eternal life.

This showed that the Church had the Authority to set doctrine and pronounce a set of writings as “Scripture". Those who deny the Authority of the Church in these matters today must, to be consistent, also deny the Authority of this and later Councils. In other words, they must deny not only the Athanasian Creed but the very Canon of Scripture itself… for both were determined by men they consider to not really be Christians and following the teachings of men.

There is a handy, easy to read guide to the Councils of the Church on Daily Catholic website and you can access it here. The first Council after Nicaea was Constantinople about 50 years after it. It reaffirmed the work of Nicaea and also tried to deal with the growing schism between the Eastern and Roman parts of the Church…which eventually produced the Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches.

To draw things together, we have seen in the Scriptures that the Lord Jesus established a Church, laid the foundation in the Apostles and empowered them to have Authority in this world to forgive sin, to bind or loose things and to be His appointed shepherds over the Sheep of His flock. We saw that Authority exercised in the Book of Acts in first setting a means of replacing themselves in the event of their passing, and then in deciding what form the Gospel to the gentiles should take. Although not discussed in that article, we also see Saint Paul and Saint Peter both give instruction on Church discipline and the electing of deacons and bishops.

Then we saw the post-apostolic Church set order of service in the Mass, Confession and the Eucharist (using the latter terms in a much earlier time than many Evangelical Christian Apologists would have you believe they were used) as well as the selection of Bishops. We looked at this Authority being very much continued in the writings of the Ante Nicene Fathers and, finally, in the work of the Councils that defined the divide between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of the Cults, and established the Canon of Scripture, accepted (with the exception of the Apocrypha) by all Christians of any stripe today.

It’s important to establish this Authority because in later articles we’ll be talking about doctrines not outlined in the Scriptures and the place of Sacred Tradition, as well as the decisions of the Magisterium and the Popes on matters of faith and practice. The final word on this is: even if we don’t completely agree on certain doctrines and dogma, if the Church truly has the Authority to set them, then it’s we, not them, who must adjust our thinking.