The Scriptural testimony
against the Papalist interpretation of St. Luke xxii. 32.
154. Additional evidence
that St. Peter had no office of strengthening the brethren other than that
which, as has been said, he shared in common with the rest of the Rulers of the
Church, is afforded by the fact that the word στηριζειν, used by St. Luke in the
passage (or its compounds) is also used by the same writer with reference to
the work of St. Paul and others in the Acts of the Apostles.
So St. Paul and St. Barnabas are
related to have confirmed [επιστηριζοντες] the disciples of Lystra, Iconium,
and Antioch. [Acts 14:22] So St. Jude and St. Silas confirmed [επεστηριξαν] the
brethren of Antioch. [Acts 15:32] So St. Paul confirmed [επιστηριζων] the
Churches of Syria and Cilicia, [Acts 15:41] and the disciples in Galatia and
Phrygia, [Acts 18:23] whilst St. Paul used the word GK to describe the purpose
for which he sent Timothy to the Thessalonian Church. [1 Thess 3:2]
155. It is, moreover,
specially worthy of note that the Apostle in his Epistle to the Romans says of
himself: 'I long to see you that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift,
that you may be established,' [Rom 1:10] εις το στηριχθηναι υμας, words which
show that he regarded himself as one who should be the instrument whereby a
gift of strength should be conferred on the Christians of Rome. A fact which is
specially interesting, as the Roman Christians on Papalist principles were the
peculiar charge of Peter, who was actually at this very time, according to the
Papalist figment of his twenty-five years' tenure of the Roman See, seated in
'the Chair' which he had placed there. St. Paul's statement therefore would
have been, if the Papalist interpretation of St. Luke xxii. 32 were true, in a
very special manner an infringement of the prerogatives of Peter, whilst, on
the other hand, it would accurately describe the result of the faithful
discharge of that Apostolic office which he held in common with St. Peter and
the rest of the Apostolic College, and be perfectly consistent with the
position of joint-founder with St. Peter of the Church at Rome, which was his
privilege. (Edward Denny, Papalism: A Treatise on the Claims of the Papacy
As Set Forth in the Encyclical Satis Cognitum [London: Rivingtons, 1912], 77-78)
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