Furthermore, please recall the apostasy of Korah written of in Jude was to gainsay the authority of Moses.
“Furthermore, please recall the apostasy of Korah written of in Jude was to gainsay the authority of Moses.”
Is your point that the Pope, in addition to being the “Vicar of Christ on Earth”, is also a latter day Moses?
For anyone else reading who is confused about what this debate entails, here is the passage in Jude, as translated by in the ESV:
” 8Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. 9But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” 10 But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. 11Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion. 12These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; 13 wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.”
Now, while a child of the Reformation, and thus one who “...believ[es] on the whims of the day, the contents of our stomachs, and the opinions of our wives”, I haven’t had any alcohol for a month or more, just ate some pizza, and my wife is at work - she was hired a couple of weeks ago at St Mary’s Hospital in Tucson - so take all this into account and give my thoughts the lack of respect they undoubtedly deserve...
No one doubted Moses was the single authority for Israel, and rebellion against him was rebellion against God. However, citing that as evidence that the Pope is the undoubted single authority for all Christianity is an impressive stretch.
It isn’t found in Scripture, and no, one verse in Matthew with disputable meaning is NOT the way God ordains a perpetual office...look at the care God took in setting up the priesthood in the OT.
Nor did ‘church fathers’ consider the Bishop of Rome supreme over them. I believe - and those of you whose opinions are NOT being influenced by pizza & Diet Coke can tell me if I’m wrong - that the Vicar of Christ was, in the early church, the Holy Spirit.
I probably shouldn’t stick my nose into the ecumenical thread discussion, particularly one where all agree I’m an alcoholic, wife-obeying (aren’t we all?), unstable pepperoni pizza-demon, but it seems odd that someone would use Jude to show rebellion against the Pope is dangerous when the same NT doesn’t show Papal supremacy in the first place.
Just FWIW, which probably isn’t much, given the audience. Still, it reads more like a passage on Rome than on the Orthodox...