Andrew Preslar said,
But I was referring to the visibility of the hierarchy by means of the tactile succession.
Tactile succession is a very mechanistic model of sacramental grace (e.g. the grace of holy orders). Catholicism reduces the grace of God to an electrical current which must run along a continuous circuit or wire. If there’s a break in the circuit, the Holy Spirit can’t jump the break. Everything below the break is a dead line.
Notice
how that trammels God, as if God’s grace is wired. God can’t act outside the
circuitry. This is similar to Deism and Spinozism, which disallows miraculous
interruptions in the uniformity of nature.
Compare this to Pauline ecclesiology:
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills (1 Cor 12:4-11).
Notice on Paul’s view that
God’s grace operates at the discretion of the Holy Spirit. It isn’t confined to
the wiring, where you flip a switch to turn it on or turn it off. God’s grace
is wireless.
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ReplyDeleteIt's been estimated that the succession of 91% of all modern (Latin rite) Catholic bishops go back to Cardinal Scipione Rebiba ( who lived in the 16th century). But it's a known FACT that the ordination records for Scipione Rebiba have been lost. Catholics aren't entirely sure who consecrated him.
ReplyDeleteCatholic apologists argue probabilistically that he was consecrated properly. But they aren't certain. One would think that something so important to Catholicism's claim of authority would be better documented.
http://jimmyakin.com/2012/06/037-unbroken-chain-of-apostolic-succession-bible-software-update.html
http://jimmyakin.com/037-unbroken-chain-of-apostolic-succession-bible-software-update
Catholics claim that we can't document the canonicity of of the NT books we accept and therefore have no warrant to believe and practice what we do. Yet if they were consistent, they would have to be able to document the supposed Apostolic succession of their bishops all the way back to the apostles. Which they can't.
ReplyDeleteIf I were a Catholic, that would serious trouble me. If I seriously believed in the need for apostolic succession, I would convert to Orthodoxy. Since, even Catholicism affirms Orthodoxy's genuine apostolic succession (the present time, even after the Great Schism).