THE MYTHICAL CHAIN

 

Once upon a time in a land far, far away lived a man who owned a chain.  But it was no ordinary chain – this was a magical chain that gave him great powers.  It was reported that its links were beautiful and golden and its power was legendary.  The news of it travelled far and wide.  Everyone, young and old, rich and poor, knew about this magical and powerful chain.  No one dared to mistreat this man because of the special power that this chain gave him.  It gave the man great authority and everyone looked up to him.  The only problem is no one ever saw this chain.  He kept it hidden from sight, safely tucked away in a locked box.  If anyone rose up against him, he would hold the box high and shake it vigorously.  The noise of the rattling chain within the box scared the people, and in great fear, they would submit to the man.  But one day the man accidently left the box unlocked and a curious child opened it.  To everyone’s surprise the chain was ugly and rusted and broken in many pieces.  It was not at all what he proclaimed it to be.  All the people saw it, but the man insisted that it was beautiful and magical and that its links were held together perfectly.  The people became very skeptical, yet they still submitted to the man who lied to them. 

And the moral of the story is: Don’t believe anyone who hides the truth from you. 

Many people enjoy a good fairy tale once in a while, but the message in this fairy tale should be disturbing to all, especially Catholics, since it represents a fact about the Catholic Church.  The man in this story represents the line of popes over the centuries and the chain represents the Catholic doctrine of “Apostolic Succession.”

Office Not Biblical

Now, you may be surprised to learn that I believe in apostolic succession – just not the Catholic Church’s version of it.  Biblical apostolic succession is simply about passing down the true teachings of the apostles, those which we find in the Scriptures.  It’s that simple.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted an article on this topic and I would like to remind everyone once again what the Catholic version of this teaching is all about and how utterly false and unsubstantiated it is.

The Catholic Church claims to have an office of “pope,” the supposed “Vicar of Christ” and “Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church,” who is the human head over all Christendom worldwide.  They claim that the apostle Peter was the first of many popes and that a pope could even sometimes, under certain conditions, teach the Church infallibly.  Not only that, but this power and privilege was supposedly passed on to others through the laying on of hands, creating a long line of successors.  As of today, on the official list of popes, there have been 266 popes on the “throne of Saint Peter.” 

See here:    

https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12272b.htm

Ok, so here is the first problem with this teaching – there is no pope in Scripture, and even if there were, Catholics cannot demonstrate that Peter was one.  I have several articles on this here:

https://answeringcatholicclaims.blogspot.com/2016/09/matthew-16-who-or-what-is-rock.html

https://answeringcatholicclaims.blogspot.com/2016/08/matthew-16-have-gates-of-hell-prevailed.html

https://answeringcatholicclaims.blogspot.com/2016/10/

According to the New Testament, there is no single human being who is over the whole church of Jesus Christ.

Continuous and Lawful?

Apostolic Succession (when the term is capitalized like this, I am referring to the Catholic Church’s version of it) is indeed a foundational teaching of the Church.   Catholics believe that the present pope (Francis), or any legitimate pope, can be traced all the way back to the apostle Peter.

According to the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia, the Catholic Church has “an unbroken chain” and an “uninterrupted lawful succession” of popes. 

See here:

https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01648b.htm

Again, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, it is a “continuous line of succession until the end of time” (CCC #77, referencing Dei Verbum, an official Catholic document of the Second Vatican Council.)

Ok, so I want to address this concept from two different angles to prove that their Apostolic Succession is a false teaching.  I want to demonstrate that this “chain” is NEITHER CONTINUOUS NOR LAWFUL. 

Holes in the Record

Let’s start with the claim that this “apostolic chain” is unbroken. 

I am providing two official lists of popes: the first I provide from the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia linked above (which carries the official Catholic seals of approval – the nihil obstat and the imprimatur), and the other from the Original Catholic Encyclopedia.

In both of these we can see that there are obvious unaccounted-for spaces in the years in which the popes reigned.

Notice that there are a number of gaps when there were NO POPES reigning at all.  For example, during the years of 259, 305, 306, 307, 639, 1242, 1269, 1270, 1293, 1315, and 1416, there are strangely no popes listed!  You can see for yourself that there is no “continuous” or “unbroken” line of successors of Catholic popes, as claimed.

Now, of course Catholics have some “reasons” for these discrepancies, and they will try to do damage control using certain arguments.  But I deal with these Catholic counter-arguments in the article I wrote several years ago.  These can be found here:

https://answeringcatholicclaims.blogspot.com/2017/08/those-nagging-gaps.html

Even more crippling to the concept of Apostolic Succession, according to the New Catholic Encyclopedia (1967):

“… the scarcity of documents leave much that is obscure about the early development of the episcopate…” (Volume 1, page 696)

And worse yet, this very same source also says:

“But it must be frankly admitted that bias or deficiencies in the sources make it impossible to determine in certain cases whether the claimants were popes or antipopes.” (Volume 1, page 632)

This is the last nail in the coffin of the Catholic version of Apostolic Succession.  I don’t see how anything can be more damaging to their case than this.

So the fact that there are literally holes in their own list of an “unbroken” and “continuous” chain of popes is very telling and shows their claims to be false. 

How Did You Get That Job???

But there is yet another argument against the Catholic version of Apostolic Succession.  They claim that their “chain” is not only continuous, but they also claim that each link in this holy apostolic chain is “lawful.” 

All right, I want to stress from the beginning that I know that the Catholic Church does not claim that their popes are impeccable or that they are perfect in any way.  We all (Protestants and Catholics, alike) know that the popes are human, and can and do make mistakes.  We also all know that at least some of the popes over the centuries were wicked and lived lives of debauchery, greed and corruption.  But this is NOT the point I wish to make here.  I want to say this up front so no one misunderstands me or tries to use this argument as a straw man.

The point that I am making here is that it is an absolute fact that some popes have OBTAINED THEIR POSITION as pope through ungodly means.  I am not pointing to any lifestyle of wickedness before or after they got into office, but I am focusing on, and pointing to, the METHOD itself by which some have acquired the very office of pope.  Please understand the difference.

With that said, I want to demonstrate that some (not all) popes have acquired their office 1) by the use of simony (buying their office), 2) through the use of prostitutes who were highly influential, and 3) through the use of force.

Simony

If anyone wants to try and deny these facts, please note the following Catholic sources addressing simony:

“To uproot the evil of simony so prevalent during the Middle Ages, the Church decreed the severest penalties against its perpetrators. Pope Julius II declared simoniacal papal elections invalid, an enactment which has since been rescinded, however, by Pope Pius X.” (New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia, online, under “Simony”)

“The worst period was from the ninth to the eleventh century when simony pervaded the monasteries, the lower clergy, the episcopacy, and even the papacy.” (New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. XIII, page 228)

“He [Pope Benedict IX] was a son of Alberic III, leader of the Tusculani, and he simoniacally succeeded his uncles, Benedict VIII and John XIX.” (New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. II, page 274)

“Then on May 1 Benedict sold his papal office to his baptismal sponsor, the reforming archpriest John Gratian, Pope Gregory VI.” (New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. II, page 275)

Benedict IX not only purchased his office, but he later sold it to another pope-to-be when he was finished with it. Remember, for every “transaction” in simony, there are two guilty popes, a “buyer” AND a “seller.”

Influential Prostitutes

Secondly, in addressing the issue of prostitutes tampering with the results of the papacy:

The prostitute Marozia, who was the mistress of Pope Sergius III, during the era commonly known as the “pornocracy” (Rule of the Harlots):

“She imprisoned Pope John X in Castel Sant’ Angelo, where he died in 928 either by assassination… or from other causes. In 931 she had her son, probably by Sergius III…elected to the papacy as Pope John XI.” (New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. IX, page 253-54)

Concerning the prostitute Theodora (the mother of Marozia):

“Besides being personally avaricious, she – together with her family – exercised undue influence on Pope Sergius III and Pope John X, thus causing grave harm to the authority of the popes.” (New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. XIV, page 15-16)

Here, influential prostitutes were able to place in office the pope of their choice, or put him in prison, if they so desired. Indeed, “grave harm” was done to the papacy, exposing the false nature of this claim of Catholic “Apostolic Succession.”

Force

Thirdly, concerning the papal office being taken by force:

“In the beginning, the Bishop of Rome was elected by the local clergy and laity along with neighboring bishops. In time, this process came under the influence of secular leaders with negative results. Influencing papal elections, powerful lords and kings hoped to manipulate the office of the papacy in order to advance their temporal ambitions.” (The Modern Catholic Encyclopedia, Liturgical Press, page 653)

“From the fourth to the eleventh century the influence of temporal rulers in papal elections reached its zenith… This civil intervention ranged from the approval of elected candidates to the actual nomination of candidates (with tremendous pressure exerted on the electors to secure their acceptance), and even to the extreme of forcible deposition and imposition.” (New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. XI, page 572)

Note again that these are all Catholic sources. 

“Anything Goes” For Popes!

If this office of pope were indeed of God, the point is that the man who desires to get into such an important religious office should have acquired it in a God-ordained and God-approved manner. 

Would any sane person argue that God actually approves of a pope who got into office by simony, by killing the previous pope, or by the manipulations of prostitutes?  This is sick!  There is no justification whatsoever for such a thing.  No argument can make it right.  Every one of those men who got in by these methods were, BY DEFINITION, unlawful and illegitimate holders of this office.  You can’t just casually brush aside these significant and embarrassing facts of history and say it doesn’t really matter.

Does the term “anything goes” apply when it comes to acquiring (what Catholics consider) the highest spiritual office in the world?  I have talked to many Catholics about this and none of them could give a meaningful and coherent answer.  They refuse to see this behavior as illegitimate.

Double Standard

What if the Catholic claims that God did not approve of it, but “allowed” it?  So, if it’s ok for the pope to do this, then why would it not be allowed for cardinals, bishops and priests, as well?  I’d like to know. 

The New Testament has lists of church offices (e.g., 1 Timothy chapters 3 and 5; Titus chapter 1; 1 Corinthians chapters 11-14; Ephesians chapter 4), but absolutely none of them allow for such maneuvers to obtain a Christian office.  The apostle Paul insisted on certain requirements for office in the church.  Do none of these requirements apply to the office of “pope” (which doesn’t even exist in the apostle Paul’s lists in the first place)?

You may say, yes, but there were “only” a few bad apples in this line of popes.  But that’s no excuse!  Even if only ONE pope achieved his office in such an illegitimate way, the so-called “unbroken” and “uninterrupted” chain of successors is STILL BROKEN!

Catholics should understand where I am coming from.  The strange thing is, they would actually accept my line of reasoning here when compared to the concept of annulments: If a couple gets married in the Catholic Church, but later discovers that some part of the marriage was “illegitimate” (underage, mentally incompetent, coercion, etc.), the marriage will be considered INVALID.  So, in essence, “they were never really married to start with.” 

In the same way, if a man becomes pope, but it is later discovered that he acquired the office illegitimately or in a corrupt manner, then he should be removed, because his office is also invalid.  It’s the same principal, but these corrupt popes seem to be untouchable.

Why does this concept work for annulments, but not for a church office?

Conclusion

Some might say, “But there was no constant and specific ‘God-ordained manner’ in selecting a pope, since it has been done in different ways over the centuries.”  But that doesn’t excuse ungodly methods like the ones I mentioned!  Just because it was done in different ways doesn’t mean every way is legitimate!

Some try to justify it by saying, “The fact that a priest may be unfaithful in his duty does not negate the power of the sacraments that he administers.”  But (aside from the fact that the concept of sacraments isn’t biblical) that’s like comparing apples and oranges.  We are talking about the legitimacy of the method of entering his office, not the fact that he can make mistakes. 

The question here would be, has that priest entered the priesthood in an illegal and God-dishonoring way?  Did he buy his way in?  Did influential prostitutes get him in?  Would that be acceptable?  Absolutely not, and THAT’S the point!  Why does this fact not apply also to the position of pope? 

The eternal implications of this false doctrine are no fairy tale, but once again, the moral of the story is the same: Don’t believe the Catholic Church, who is hiding the truth from you.