Apostolic Authority

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 23, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 17.

Apostolic Authority.

Peter gives us his understanding of this question in his discourse at the house of Cornelius. In the first place, he forbade Cornelius to do him reverence, stating that he was but a man, thus putting himself on an equality with those whom God had sent him to instruct. Then he spoke of Jesus of Nazareth, whom the Jews had slain, and whom “God raised up the third day, and showed Him openly; not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with Him after He rose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is He which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead.” Acts 10:39–42. Commenting on this discourse, Dr. A. McLaren aptly remarks: “Peter’s notion of apostolic authority was simply that of competent witnesses and messengers appointed to tell a plain story and its necessary implications. Nobody would have been more astonished than he if he had been told what a portentous fabric would be built on the notion of apostolic authority.” To this it is pertinent to add, that the authority of the apostle is really vested in the Word, the Gospel of Christ, which he is commanded to teach, and not in the apostle himself.