Even the Apostles Erred before
Receiving the Promised Spirit
Before receiving the Holy Spirit
on the day of Pentecost, all the apostles clung to the error of an earthly
kingdom of the Messiah. Before Christ’s resurrection, all labored under
ignorance of the true meaning of the predictions concerning his resurrection.
All maintained that Elijah would return in his own person.
But if all the apostles could
error before the infallible assistance of the Holy Spirit was given to them,
then certainly all the remaining doctors of the Church—to whom that immediate
assistance of the Holy Spirit does not belong—can also err. (Johann Gerhard, Confessio
Catholica, The Catholic Confession: Book I General, Volume IV, Part II, Chapter
XIII: The Fathers, ed. James D. Heiser [Malone, Tex.: Repristination Press,
2026], 15)
