Faith, Beer, and Other Things That Interest Geoff

Problem With the Papacy

Look, I know this is a poor time to bring this up but the papacy will be in the news. What is wrong with the papacy? Excerpts from here.

The Reformers viewed the pope as an anti-Christ, because he took authority that properly belonged to Christ alone. (using the more common meaning of anti-Christ) Before you get too shocked at the statement, I would read "Pope" Gregory I's comments below. I would like to submit for your consideration that the papacy is one of the main causes of disunity. Furthermore, the papacy was not present in the primitive church.

Now, when the word "anti-Christ" is used don't think some demonic being. I like the current (as of this writing) pope. He helped bring down the Soviet Union. He seemed genuinely nice. But the pope claims authority over the entire church which belongs to Jesus alone.

Cyprian (200-258): Neither does any of us set himself up as a bishop of bishops, nor by tyrannical terror does any compel his colleague to the necessity of obedience; since every bishop, according to the allowance of his liberty and power, has his own proper right of judgment, and can no more be judged by another than he himslef can judge another. (Seventh Council of Carthage, paragraph 1)

Gregory I, bishop of Rome (540-604): None of my predecssors ever wished to use this profane word. For clearly if one patriarch is called "universal," then the name "patriarch" is taken away from the rest....To consent to this wicked word is nothing less than to destroy the faith....It is one thing that we should preserve unity of faith; another, that we ought to repress self-exaltation. But I say it confidently, because whoever calls himself "universal bishop," or wishes to be so called, is in his self-exaltation Antichrist's precursor, for in his swaggering he sets himself before the rest. (Epistle 18, emphasis mine)

The word "catholic" means "universal."