Mark Tabata’s Weekday Devotionals:
Friday October 17 2025
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1 Corinthians 14:37-If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord.
When the Apostle Peter realized that his death was approaching, he made an interesting comment. He told the Christians:
2 Peter 1:15-Moreover I will be careful to ensure that you always have a reminder of these things after my decease.
The Apostle was concerned that the brethren would have a “reminder” of his teachings after his death. Likely, he was referring to the commission of the writing of the Gospel of Mark!
“Peter says that he will take steps to see that what he has got to say to them will be held in their memory even when he is gone from this earth. That may well be a reference to the gospel according to St Mark. The consistent tradition is that it is the preaching material of Peter. Irenaeus, the second-century Bishop of Lyons, says that, after the deaths of Peter and Paul, Mark, who had been his disciple and interpreter, handed on in writing the things which it had been Peter’s custom to preach. Papias, who lived towards the end of the second century and collected many traditions about the early days of the Church, hands down the same tradition about Mark’s gospel: ‘Mark, who was Peter’s interpreter, wrote down accurately, though not in order, all that he recollected of what Christ had said or done. For he was not a hearer of the Lord, or a follower of his; he followed Peter, as I have said, at a later date, and Peter adapted his instructions to practical needs, without any attempt to give the Lord’s words systematically. So that Mark was not wrong in writing down some things in this way from memory, for his one concern was neither to omit nor to falsify anything that he had heard.’ It may well be that the reference here means that Peter’s teaching continued to be available to his people in Mark’s gospel after his death.” (William Barclay, The Letters of James and Peter (The New Daily Study Bible), 356 (Kindle Edition): Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press)
Some of our religious friends believe in something called “apostolic succession.” It is the belief that the Apostles of Christ-before their deaths-laid hands on some of the elders in the churches and conferred their authority to them. Then, before those elders died, they laid hands on others, who passed on their authority, etc. It is argued that some churches today are the direct descendants of such alleged apostolic succession, and thereby attempt to identify themselves as the church which Jesus built.
Members of churches of Christ, on the other hand, while acknowledging that the Word of God was at one time primarily oral tradition in nature (2 Thessalonians 2:15: 3:14), maintain that this gave way to the written Word of God by which the church is reproduced in the world through preaching and teaching of Scripture (2 Timothy 3:14-17; 4:1-5).
So, how is the church identified and reproduced in the world today?
Apostolic Scripture or Apostolic Succession?
Let’s study.
The first thing to observe about the whole idea of apostolic succession is that the very nature of an Apostle prohibited Apostles from passing on their commission and authority to others. As Green points out:
“We saw in Chapter Four that the principle of apostolicity was central to the idea of a canon, and that it stems from the earliest days of the Christian community-indeed from the lifetime of Jesus himself. He appointed the Twelve to be his apostles, his shelichim, a word with very special meaning in Judaism. It meant a representative equipped with the full powers of his principal…“…It is interesting to note that the Jewish shaliach (apostle) could not hand on his commission to anyone else; it was for him alone…There was something unique and unrepeatable about their position. They were the guarantors of the continuity between the incarnate Jesus who walked the streets of Palestine and the glorified Jesus whom the church worshipped.” (Dr. Michael Green, The Books The Church Suppressed: Fiction And Truth In The Da Vinci Code, 84-84; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Monarch Books)
Second, during their lifetimes, the Apostles made it clear that their writings themselves were to become the pattern for the church. The New Testament provides us all things necessary for certainty of faith (Luke 1:1-4); facts and evidence needed to create saving faith in Christ (John 20:30-31); information about all necessary things that Jesus did and taught (Acts 1:1-3); the commands of the Lord (1 Corinthians 14:37); everything that we need for knowledge of church discipline and Christian living (1 Corinthians 5:1-11; 2 Corinthians 7:1-10); what is needed to gain apostolic knowledge into the mysteries of Christ (Ephesians 3:1-5); the perfect rule of faith and practice (Philippians 3:15-16); perfect knowledge of how to live the Christian life as a member of the household of God (1 Timothy 3:14-15); information to make one equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17); what is needed to have full fellowship with the Godhead (1 John 1:1-4); and teaching to prepare us that we may receive eternal life (1 John 5:13). The Apostles understood that their writings were authoritative and binding (cf. Colossians 3:16; 4:16; 3 John
Contrary to the claims of some modern day denominations, knowledge of the New Testament was extremely widespread in the first few centuries before the famous Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.).
Geisler documents:
“What is more, if we compile the 36,289 quotations by the early church Fathers of the second to fourth centuries we can reconstruct the entire New Testament minus 11 verses.”. (Norman Geisler, Baker Encyclopedia Of Christian Apologetics, 532 (Kindle Edition); Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Books)
The New Testament Scriptures began to be recognized as Scripture very early. For example, Paul in1 Timothy 5:18 quotes Luke 10:7 and calls it Scripture, and Peter refers to the writings of Paul as Scripture in 2 Peter 3:15-17.
“We have argued that canon was not a late ecclesiastical development but was something that would have grown naturally and innately out of the earliest Christian movement. Moreover, we argued that even the authors of the New Testament appeared to have some awareness that they were writing Scripture. All of these factors together serve to challenge the “big bang” theory of canon that argues that the canon was forcibly planted within the soil of the church by later ecclesiastical powers (whether Irenaeus or others) who were keen to refute the heresies of their day. Instead, the evidence we have seen here suggests the canon began more like a seed that was present in the soil of the church from the very beginning, growing gradually and consistently over time.” (Michael J. Kruger, The Question of Canon: Challenging the Status Quo in the New Testament Debate, 203 (Kindle Edition): Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press)
We can say with certainty that the idea of apostolic succession just doesn’t work. Indeed, one researcher, David Brattston, has catalogued several problems with the whole idea of apostolic succession. Near the end of his book, Brattston references one of the early “church fathers” (i.e., Christians who lived shortly after the Apostles):
“Irenaeus considered the apostolic succession, and the apostolic tradition for that matter, as of value only if the New Testament were not available…Against Heresies 3.1.1: We have learned from none others the plan of our salvation, than from those through whom the Gospel has come down to us, which they did at one time proclaim in public, and, at a later period, by the will of God, handed down to us in the Scriptures, to be the ground and pillar of our faith.126 Against Heresies 3.4.1: how should it be if the apostles themselves had not left us writings? Would it not be necessary, [in that case,] to follow the course of the tradition which they handed down to those to whom they did commit the Churches?1…..Unlike the ancients, we today possess the apostolic teaching in conveniently-available New Testaments, which are commonly obtainable in inexpensive translations, or even free-of-charge from various Bible societies.” (David W. T. Brattston, Apostolic Succession: An Experiment that Failed, 1301-1322 (Kindle Edition): Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publishers; emphasis added, M.T.)
How thankful we should be for the New Testament Scriptures which are a perfect guide for the Christian life and infallible pattern for the Lord’s church in this world!
Lord, thank You for the Bible. Help us to learn from it and better apply it’s teachings to our lives, and to help teach others. Amen.
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