Archive: The Lost Authority

By Lon Woodrum, Hastings, Michigan, Contributing Editor of Good News

In today’s widespread crisis of authority, none is more marked than that in the Roman Catholic Church. This is especially evidenced in the universal reaction to Pope Paul’s Humanae Vitae. The dissent to the pontiff’s encyclical on birth control runs counter to that monarchistic form of government by which the papacy has long reigned.

Recently the London Times remarked, “Today, after the heavy qualification given by Vatican II, it seems unlikely that any future Pope will conjure his plenary powers and define ex cathedra a dogma to bind the church irrevocably.”

Reportedly, the Pope is preparing another letter on authority, itself as a response to what has happened. Should this encyclical be as dogmatic as Humanae Vitae, further dissent could be engendered with damage to the entire church. For men in our time have learned to fear totalitarianism; and even in the area known as the “free world” the loss of personal liberty seems too often threatened.

However, man is so constituted that although he resents too much authority he cannot be content without authority. In truth, authority has been, for centuries, that element in the Roman church which vastly contributed to its continuity-as long as men trusted that authority. But with the authority questioned, many constituents are now restless and unhappy.

Indeed, it may well be that much of the turmoil among the peoples of the earth is due greatly to their need for an authority to which they can respectfully submit. Men are at loose ends, both individuals and institutions. The widespread complaint in the late national American election was that none of the candidates appeared qualified for the high office which he sought. Men ask for authentic leadership; they demand a voice fit to command. To be sure, they want freedom, but they want it under proper domination.

Unquestionably, millions of Roman Catholics who wish less dictatorship from the Vatican will nonetheless desire authority from some quarter. Their human nature will force them to it. But where shall they turn?

Was not this same sort of problem posed once before in the history of the Church—at the time of the Reformation? However, then, people departing from  the papal rule found another authority. They found it in Christ, the incarnate Truth, in the Word of Truth and in the Holy Spirit of Truth.

They took up the Old Testament and observed how God had been joined to Israel in a free covenant, the Law needed only because outlaws were present, not because God wanted to rule despotically. They discovered, in the New Testament, that believers were not under Law, but under the love and grace of Christ. Their loyalty was not to a cold, impersonal legislation, but to a Person who cared enough for them to lay down His life for them on Calvary. They were bound to the law of Love—the only Law which could not be broken without breaking the heart of him who broke it.

It has been said that the word “authority” in the New Testament might well be translated “fitness”—as when one speaks of a person being fit to be a king, or a judge. New Testament believers were not bound to an earthly power with political structure; their authority was from the Word, and from the Spirit who gave the Word. We once heard a scholar translate a familiar text thus: “You shall receive competence after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you” (Acts 1:8). Christians are qualified witnesses for Christ, not legally, but charismatically—in the power and wisdom of God’s Spirit, indwelling each true believer.

In the Roman Catholic Church today some of the “modernists” Lean toward this New Testament Sort of authority. Those who Would return to the greater dominion of the papacy are dubbed “traditionists.” But in the Protestant world the order is reversed. It is the “modernist” who wants to forsake the authority of the Word, and the “traditionist” to keep it!

Which brings us to a sober truth. The Roman Catholics are struggling to free themselves from an undesirable authority. But, man being what he is, undoubtedly they will not wish to flee all authority; rather will they seek a more acceptable one. However, in these times, there would appear to be no Luthers or Calvins to turn to! For, disastrously, the Protestant churches, which owe their very existence to the authority of the Word have in far too great an extent jettisoned that authority!

Moreover, illogically and tragically, many Protestants who mutilate the Scriptures, still loudly maintain their championship of the Word! So, where authority once sat, confusion reigns. But silent is the cry that rose when the battle was joined at the Reformation: sola gratia! sola scriptura! (grace alone! Scripture alone!) In that day there remained a court of appeal to which the disillusioned could turn. The Scripture, which Jesus himself said could not be broken, spoke authoritatively to the human conscience.

Many may be impelled to ask in our day, now that authority seems lost in both the Catholic and Protestant camps. “Where shall we tum?” The truth of the matter is, the actual authority which God arranged has not been altered. Christ himself speaks for all time when He says “The Scripture cannot be set aside” (John 10:35). He also speaks to all men when He states that the Scriptures testify of Him (John 5:39).

Man’s age-old discontent with unauthentic authority will not diminish. Nor will his age-old desire for competent authority. But this desire can find fulfillment only in Him whom the Scriptures present as announcing, “Full authority in heaven and on earth has been committed to me.” And only the unchanging WORD can guarantee that this authority will remain unchanging.