Sorry, you're not allowed to do that.

This has been on my mind for a long time now.

I am going to be blunt.

You are not the arbiter of Christian doctrine.
You don't get to decide the tenets of Christianity.
You don't have permission to reverse or negate Christian teaching.

You don't have the authority to define Christianity.

Neither do I.

If you are a Catholic, you don't get to pick and choose which parts of the moral law and the Creed are valid. If you are a Protestant, you don't get to personally interpret the Bible and tell us what you are sure Christ meant. If you are a secularist, you don't get remake Jesus in your own image, i.e., a New Agey, non-threatening guru who fits neatly into your own worldview.

Trust me, it's nothing personal.

You just simply don't have that option.

You didn't establish Christianity, and you have no permission to reinvent it.

You see, Christianity is a revealed religion.
It was given. It is handed down.

It is not open to anyone's personal interpretation, whether one's name is Arius, Nestorius, Luther, Kennedy, Pelosi, Chittister, or Miller.

You can choose to accept the whole of Christianity and her teachings, or you are free to reject them. You are even free to start your own religion, teaching whatever you'd prefer.

But you do not have the right to speak in the name of Christ's Church and define authentic Christian belief for yourself or others.

You do not have that right, because you do not have that authority. 

Revelation ended with the death of the last Apostle (St. John) and the entire Deposit of Faith has been handed down intact by the only men to whom Christ delegated His authority: The Apostles and their successors, also known as the pope and the body of bishops. This teaching authority, or Magisterium, is not you, and it's definitely not me.

The Magisterium, guided by the Holy Spirit, protects the Deposit of Faith from any deviation, addition, subtraction, reversal, contradiction, distortion, or destruction offered by those who wish Church teaching to be something it is not.

So, as earnest as you are, as sincere as you are, as studious as you are, as kind as you are, even as holy as you are, you are not allowed in any way to alter, bypass, morph, undermine, negate, or redefine Christian teaching on faith or morals and still insist that it's Christian.

You may receive the Faith, you may accept the Faith, and you may hand down the Faith pure and entire, but you may not be its arbiter.


Sorry, you're just plain not allowed to do that.



Related post: Authority

+++++++

For emphasis, and for the sheer joy and peace that faithful Catholics feel when the millennia melt away as we read the Early Fathers, I give you St. Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, extolling in 189 A.D. the selfsame faith we hold today. He writes of what Christians everywhere already knew… but which the heretics could not accept:

"It is possible, then, for everyone in every church, who may wish to know the truth, to contemplate the tradition of the apostles which has been made known to us throughout the whole world. And we are in a position to enumerate those who were instituted bishops by the apostles and their successors down to our own times, men who neither knew nor taught anything like what these heretics rave about" (Against Heresies 3:3:1 [A.D. 189]). 

"But since it would be too long to enumerate in such a volume as this the successions of all the churches, we shall confound all those who, in whatever manner, whether through self-satisfaction or vainglory, or through blindness and wicked opinion, assemble other than where it is proper, by pointing out here the successions of the bishops of the greatest and most ancient church known to all, founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul—that church which has the tradition and the faith with which comes down to us after having been announced to men by the apostles. For with this Church, because of its superior origin, all churches must agree, that is, all the faithful in the whole world. And it is in her that the faithful everywhere have maintained the apostolic tradition" (ibid., 3:3:2). 

"Polycarp also was not only instructed by apostles, and conversed with many who had seen Christ, but was also, by apostles in Asia, appointed bishop of the church in Smyrna, whom I also saw in my early youth, for he tarried [on earth] a very long time, and, when a very old man, gloriously and most nobly suffering martyrdom, departed this life, having always taught the things which he had learned from the apostles, and which the Church has handed down, and which alone are true. To these things all the Asiatic churches testify, as do also those men who have succeeded Polycarp down to the present time" (ibid., 3:3:4). 

"Since therefore we have such proofs, it is not necessary to seek the truth among others which it is easy to obtain from the Church; since the apostles, like a rich man [depositing his money] in a bank, lodged in her hands most copiously all things pertaining to the truth, so that every man, whosoever will, can draw from her the water of life. . . . For how stands the case? Suppose there arise a dispute relative to some important question among us, should we not have recourse to the most ancient churches with which the apostles held constant conversation, and learn from them what is certain and clear in regard to the present question?" (ibid., 3:4:1). 

"[I]t is incumbent to obey the presbyters who are in the Church—those who, as I have shown, possess the succession from the apostles; those who, together with the succession of the episcopate, have received the infallible charism of truth, according to the good pleasure of the Father. But [it is also incumbent] to hold in suspicion others who depart from the primitive succession, and assemble themselves together in any place whatsoever, either as heretics of perverse minds, or as schismatics puffed up and self-pleasing, or again as hypocrites, acting thus for the sake of lucre and vainglory. For all these have fallen from the truth" (ibid., 4:26:2). 

"The true knowledge is the doctrine of the apostles, and the ancient organization of the Church throughout the whole world, and the manifestation of the body of Christ according to the succession of bishops, by which succession the bishops have handed down the Church which is found everywhere" (ibid., 4:33:8). 

For more Fathers on Church authority and apostolic succession, go here.

.

What I Never Learned, Part VII: Authority

Years ago, I sent out some "catechesis emails" to interested friends and family. They, like me, never really learned much in Catholic religious education and CCD classes (I was catechized in the 1970s and '80s). What I wrote was pretty basic stuff, and I thought some of the Bubble readers might like the overview. 

Part I: The Fall

Part II: After the Fall

Part III: The Trinity

Part IV: Why it had to be Jesus, and Why He Had to Die
Part V: Jesus as the "Lamb of God"
Part VI: Jesus, the Mass, and the Eucharist

It all comes down to the "A" word: Authority.

Many years ago, my friend Kim and I were on the phone one evening, having a friendly debate about the Pope. She, a Protestant, asked me a sincere question about something that made no sense to her: “America was built on the idea of freedom and independence, and the right of a person to think for himself. So, how, as an American, can you submit yourself to the authority of the Pope? How can you give up your own will in obedience to a mere man?”

Coming from an American Protestant perspective, she was understandably perplexed. And frankly, many American Catholics have acquired the same sentiments, rejecting the idea that they owe filial obedience to the Pope ("Papa") when he speaks as the head of the universal Church. He is, in the minds of many American Catholics, just one more opinion among many. Perhaps he deserves greater respect than others, they might say, but to submit in pure and humble obedience to his teachings? Um, no thanks.

However, let’s look at what God thinks of authority and our obligation to submit to it.

From the very beginning (remember the Garden and the Fall?), man’s big problem has been the refusal to submit to legitimate authority. Pride is the culprit, of course, as pride makes us believe that we are somehow above authority, and that we are able to declare what is good and evil for ourselves, which is exactly what Adam and Eve attempted to do. Humans are always forgetting their place in the hierarchy of created order (yes, God is the author of hierarchy!), and that is what gets us in trouble.

Let’s look at a specific incident in the Bible which really illustrates the point well. If you read Numbers chapter 16 (Numbers is one of the Old Testament books), you will read the story of Korah’s rebellion. Korah was a man who had that streak of stubborn independence that we tend to admire here in America and which is good in proper context; however, that rebel attitude doesn’t always fly with God Almighty. Korah and his supporters decided that they did not like being under Moses’ authority and were upset with his leadership. They confronted Moses and said, “Enough of you! The whole community is holy! Why should you set yourself over the Lord’s people?” (Today we might say it more like this: “We are all equal, and you are no better than us. You can't tell me what to do!”)

In reply, Moses warned Korah and his supporters that if they were conspiring against Moses, then they were really conspiring against God Himself. After all -- and this is key -- it was God who gave Moses authority over His people.

Sooooooooo, to make a long story short (although it’s really not that long of a story, and I highly recommend you go to Numbers 16 and read the entire account), some pretty dramatic things transpired, and God made quite clear whose side He was on by making the earth open up and swallow Korah and his followers whole. Yep, the earth swallowed them up with all their possessions and closed over them and they were never to be seen again. Let's just say that God is not a big fan of open rebellion against those He sets in authority.

God's delegation of that kind of authority is not unique to Moses. In fact, there is never a time when God does not delegate authority from the top down. We see that in every covenant He makes with mankind over the course of history, the Lord always works through mortal, sinful men, setting those men apart and giving them the power and jurisdiction to govern the people in God's name.

Consider these powerful words of our Lord Jesus (speaking of the sinful, hypocritical religious leaders of His day): 

“The scribes and the Pharisees have succeeded Moses as teachers; therefore, do everything and observe everything they tell you. But do not follow their example.”  -- Matt. 23:2-3

Think about that for a minute! Jesus Christ (i.e., the Lord God, the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity) is saying that even if God's appointed teachers are great sinners, we still must submit to their legitimate authority. We must not follow the example of their sin, but we must obey their teachings because their authority to teach comes from God. Therefore, when we obey them, it is really God Whom we obey.

The moral of today’s catechesis is: Don’t be a Korah! Prideful disobedience, rebellion, and a refusal to submit to legitimate authority are not attributes of a faithful child of God. Obedience and humility are, as every saint's life can attest.

Oh, and by the way, my friend Kim became a devout Catholic within a year of our "authority" discussion. She went on to teach the Catholic faith formally for six years after that, at the parish level and beyond. She was able to remain a great American patriot as well. :)

Next time, we will talk more specifically about the establishment and the authority of the Church. Finally understanding what the Church is really blew me away and kept me Catholic when I was ready to bolt.

+++++++

PS: If you still balk at rules, check out this past post:

What the heck is so bad about "rules" anyway?

.