Where does the Catholic Church get it's authority? The deposit of faith consists of the teachings Jesus Christ has given to us through the Apostles. In exercising its magisterial, or teaching, authority, the hierarchy of the Church does not add or subtract from this deposit, but guards it.
Realizing that the commission to preach the gospel to all nations transcended their persons, the Apostles used the authority they had been given--the authority of Christ himself--to establish successors to this authority: fellow Apostles, and later, bishops.
They did this starting at the very beginning of the Church by electing a replacement for Judas (see Acts 1).
Jesus established Peter as the head of the college of Apostles. Matthew 16
- 13
- Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesare'a Philip'pi, he asked his disciples, "Who do men say that the Son of man is?"
- 14
- And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Eli'jah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
- 15
- He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"
- 16
- Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
- 17
- And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
- 18
- And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it.
- 19
- I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind
- on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
- 20
- Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.
And, since other threads have already discussed the meaning of "rock", I will add the following:
The original words of our Lord were most likely in Aramaic, in which there is only one word for rock.
A fair enough answer but unless you or someone still living today was present during the time our Lord walked the earth then you and I must still depend on what is recorded in the scriptures. The article to which we are posting says that we can not rely on the scriptures being translated or interpreted correctly. I only see a circular argument here.
Someone earlier or later on this thread said they were catholic because logic demanded it. The article and argument are not logical.