Apostolic succession is not found in Scripture. The signs and miracles of the Apostles ceased with the Apostles. That's because the word of God alone is strong enough to convert men and minds and hearts.
Very well put.
Thx.
I don't deny that's true, but I also don't deny that, as the example of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch demonstrates, it helps to have good teachers.
And where the word of God is puzzling, we look to the rest of Scripture to understand that which is difficult to understand.
I agree that allowing the Scriptures to illuminate themselves is possible on most issues, but certainly it helps to look outside the Scriptures to get clarification on contested issues. If I have one group of people telling me that the Scriptures are saying one thing, and another group of people saying they say another thing...well, that doesn't seem to support the idea that the process is so simple as looking at other portions of Scripture.
However, when I see that a person (Ignatius of Antioch), who lived with the apostles, made offhand statements about the three-fold office through apostolic succession, it sort of makes me think that "proving" the opposite from Scripture is a waste of time. The episcopacy existed and was authoritative while the apostles were living, and it appears the church had no problem with that for the first 16 centuries of its existence.