The papists claim authority,
based upon their claimed "apostolical succession", declaring that
each succeeding pope receives authority because of his pretentious
"historic succession" from Peter. This pretended, historical
succession is a fanciful delusion; but it is the pope's claim to authority and
infallibility. Many Baptists are also obsessed with a desire to prove a
historical perpetuity of their churches back to the days of our Lord and his
apostles. They think that a historical chain of succession from the apostles is
the key to authority. The efforts to prove such a succession are every bit as
pretentious as the pope's claim to succession from Peter. It cannot be done.
And even if such historical succession could be proven, it would be of no
value.
The only succession that is of any real value is the
succession of gospel truth. I am very interested in this succession. Indeed, it
is the responsibility of every faithful gospel preacher and every local church
to hold the torch of gospel truth high in their own generation, showing men the
way of life and then to pass that torch along to the succeeding generation (I
Tim. 3:15; II Tim. 2:1-2). This is true apostolic succession. It is not a
succession of the apostolic office. It is the succession of apostolic truth,
unchanged, unchangeable gospel truth.
If I fail to teach and instruct men and women in my
generation in the doctrine of the gospel, and fail to pass along to the next
generation the truth of God, exactly as I have received through a long line of
faithful men, beginning with the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, then my
ministry will be an utter failure. I will have to stand before God as an
unfaithful steward of the mysteries of Christ, with the blood of immortal souls
upon my hands! I tremble at such a thought. I am therefore determined to
declare to all men the whole counsel of God, as it is revealed in the crucified
Christ (Acts