Question:
I note that you deny the infallibility of the Roman Catholic Church. Do you think that the gift is possessed by your own or any other Christian church? If not, how do you explain Matthew 16:13-19 and John 20:23? Was the Catholic Church in its beginning the true church spoken of in Revelation 2:1 as the church of Ephesus?
Answer:
We do not believe that there is an infallible human church or that there ever was. Infallibility is not one of the characteristics of humanity. But we think that the church has an infallible Leader, our Lord Jesus Christ, and an infallible Guide, His holy Word. Just as long as God’s church follows the Leader and is loyal to His Word, that church is kept. No power on earth or under the earth, human or satanic, can pluck from the Father’s hand those who are trusting in Him.
There are expressions in Scripture that show how God regards His church compared to the world. In His word to Israel, He tells her how imperfect she is. He points out her sins; He brings upon her punishment. That was manifest all through the wilderness journeying. But when He looked upon that church hid in His own righteousness, Balaam declared of that church, through inspiration: “Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it. He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel: the LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them. God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn. Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought!” (Numbers 23:20-23). God looks to the final purpose of His church and sees in the imperfect, fallible material now that church as perfected when the great Master is through with His work.
If we compare Jeremiah 1:10 and 18:7-10 with Matthew 16:18-20, we will have no difficulty whatever. We will see that the binding and the loosing rest in the Word, in that message which God gives that church to bear to the world. Jeremiah’s tearing down and building up of kingdoms was in the word he spoke, which was even true of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. “My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me,” He said. (See John 7:16). And again He tells us: “I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.” John 5:30. And: “If any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.” John 12:47-50. Thus spoke the Head of the church. He did not even declare that it was His word that cleansed, but the word the Father gave. And so again, He tells His disciples, “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” (See John 15:3).
There is an abundance of testimony of this character. All the infallibility there is in church or council, in apostle, or preacher rests in the message of God that he bears to the world. The true church can be found only by the witness of that word in herself. Thus God has given for all ages the great twofold witness of His word in His Book and of that same word manifest in the experiences of His church. Sometimes that church has wandered far from Him, but still holding to Him, yet she is witnessing to His word in her very wandering.
We do not believe that the Ephesian state of the church represents the Catholic Church, but we will say that that church, in her reception of human philosophy and pagan doctrines, became apostate; and when a church becomes apostate, God counts the remnant which He calls out as the true church. Prophetically though, the rise of the Catholic Church, among the seven churches of Revelation chapters two and three, is seen in the transition from Pergamos to Thyatira as “that woman Jezebel.” (See Revelation 2:20).
