The Vindication of the Church Apostolic

Summing up the challenge of the major heresies of the 2nd century, Pelikan said, ‘In one way or another, each of the three controversies … dealt with the question of continuity … Each of these systems of doctrine asserted that authentic continuity lay with it, and that the catholic claim to continuity was illegitimate. The question was: What are the criteria of doctrinal continuity.’ (The Christian Tradition, I, pp. 108–09)

The answer was given toward the end of the century by St Irenæus of Lyons in Against Heresies: the three criteria of apostolic continuity, no one of which stands alone and that, taken together, make the orthodox and catholic Church apostolic.

First is the complete continuity of the Old Testament with the New. ‘It is clear that they are the patriarchs and prophets, who even prefigured our faith, and disseminated through the earth the advent of the Son of God, who and what He should be: so that posterity, possessing the fear of God, might easily accept the advent of Christ, having been instructed by the prophets. … For this reason, too, did the Lord Himself read at Capernaum the prophecies of Isaiah: [Luke 4:18] ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me; to preach the Gospel to the poor has He sent Me, to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and sight to the blind.’ [Isaiah 61:1] At the same time, showing that it was He Himself who had been foretold by Esaias the prophet, He said to them: ‘This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears’.’ (St Irenæus of Lyons, Against Heresies, IV, xxiii, 1, trans. Alexander Roberts and William Rambaut, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1 (1885), from the New Advent website.)

The Old Testament in the fullness of its canon is in complete harmony with the New Testament in the fullness of its canon because it was Christ himself, the Logos, who spoke through the prophets. ‘But since the writings of Moses are the words of Christ, He does Himself declare to the Jews, as John has recorded in the Gospel: ‘If you had believed Moses, you would have believed Me: for he wrote of Me. But if you believe not his writings, neither will you believe My words.’ [John 5:46–47] He thus indicates in the clearest manner that the writings of Moses are His words. If, then, this be the case with regard to Moses, so also, beyond a doubt, the words of the other prophets are His, as I have pointed out.’ (Ibid., IV, ii, 3)

The second criterion is the continuity of the apostles with each other. Irenæus, after recounting the miracle of healing and the appearance of Peter and John before the council in Acts 4, said that they returned to ‘the rest of their fellow-apostles and disciples of the Lord, that is, to the Church, and related what had occurred, and how courageously they had acted in the name of Jesus. The whole Church, it is then said, ‘when they had heard that, lifted up the voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, You are God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is …’ Irenæus then continues, ‘These [are the] voices of the Church from which every Church had its origin; these are the voices of the metropolis of the citizens of the new covenant; these are the voices of the apostles; these are voices of the disciples of the Lord, the truly perfect, who, after the assumption of the Lord, were perfected by the Spirit, and called upon the God who made heaven, and earth, and the sea—who was announced by the prophets—and Jesus Christ His Son, whom God anointed, and who knew no other [God]. For at that time and place there was neither Valentinus, nor Marcion, nor the rest of these subverters, and their adherents. Wherefore God, the Maker of all things, heard them. For it is said, ‘The place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spoke the word of God with boldness’ [Acts 4:31] to every one that was willing to believe. ‘And with great power,’ it is added, ‘gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus,’ [Acts 4:33] saying to them, ‘The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you seized and slew, hanging Him upon a beam of wood: Him has God raised up by His right hand to be a Prince and Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And we are in this witnesses of these words; as also is the Holy Ghost, whom God has given to them that believe in Him.’ [Acts 5:30] ‘And daily,’ it is said, ‘in the temple, and from house to house, they ceased not to teach and preach Christ Jesus,’ [Acts 5:42] the Son of God. For this was the knowledge of salvation, which renders those who acknowledge His Son’s advent perfect towards God.’ (Ibid., III, xii, 5)

And the third criterion is the continuity of the apostolic tradition from their day to ours, as manifested in the apostolic succession. This tradition is not secret, confined to an elect, but public, open to all. ‘It is within the power of all, therefore, in every Church, who may wish to see the truth, to contemplate clearly the tradition of the apostles manifested throughout the whole world; and we are in a position to reckon up those who were by the apostles instituted bishops in the Churches, and the succession of these men to our own times; those who neither taught nor knew of anything like what these [heretics] rave about. For if the apostles had known hidden mysteries, which they were in the habit of imparting to ‘the perfect’ apart and privily from the rest, they would have delivered them especially to those to whom they were also committing the Churches themselves. For they were desirous that these men should be very perfect and blameless in all things, whom also they were leaving behind as their successors, delivering up their own place of government to these men …’ (Ibid., III, iii, 1)

‘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 intercourse, and learn from them what is certain and clear in regard to the present question? For how should it be if the apostles themselves had not left us writings? Would it not be necessary, [in that case,] to follow the course of the tradition which they handed down to those to whom they did commit the Churches?’ (Ibid., III, iv, 1)

Irenæus concluded: ‘True knowledge is the doctrine of the apostles, and the ancient constitution of the Church throughout all the world, and the distinctive manifestation of the body of Christ according to the successions of the bishops, by which they have handed down that Church which exists in every place, and has come even unto us, being guarded and preserved without any forging of Scriptures, by a very complete system of doctrine, and neither receiving addition nor suffering curtailment; and reading [the word of God] without falsification, and a lawful and diligent exposition in harmony with the Scriptures, both without danger and without blasphemy; and [above all, it consists in] the pre-eminent gift of love, which is more precious than knowledge, more glorious than prophecy, and which excels all the other gifts.’ (Ibid., IV, xxxiii, 8)