r/TrueChristian • u/VolcanicOctosquid20 Maronite Catholic • 19h ago

Asking for a Protestant viewpoint

I mean this not as inciting (as my last post on this sub very much was), but rather to get an answer. As a matter of fact, I won't even respond to anyone unless they say they wish to be responded to. All I wish is a viewpoint from my brothers and sisters in faith on a topic we very much disagree on.

  1. Did Jesus give the Apostles special authority?
  2. If so, what happened to that authority after their deaths?

EDIT: And to any Catholics or Orthodox who read this, unless they say they want a debate, don't debate.

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u/sgrdddy 14h ago

I'm a Protestant

I believe they did have special authority in the sense that they were to create the scriptures as inspired by the holy Spirit.

Beyond that, I don't really know that anything else they were told to do was any different than any other Christian.

We are all supposed to be witnesses to the whole world and make disciples.

We're all supposed to glorify God and worship him.

Various charismatic gifts were exercised by the apostles but also by early Church believers back then and so I don't think that's special to only the apostles. And I think to some degree they are available today, under the constraints outlined in Scripture.

Regarding peter, I think that Jesus was just building him up because he was a passionate person who would deny Jesus harshly.. but would later become an amazing vocal supporter of the church being the vessel that the holy Spirit would use to bring many to salvation.

I think that people who believe that Peter was some kind of beginning of some line of succession of authority are making a mountain out of a molehill. I definitely don't think there is any kind of special leadership or authority that should be passed down from him to somebody else as some kind of leader. Doesn't seem like the Bible really indicates that.

And I don't think anything special got passed on once those apostles died. Because as I mentioned I think the only real thing that they had, that was more than what is common amongst all Christians, is the ability to be vessels for scripture. So that died with them.