The Protestant denies that the Church or the pope can teach infallibly — and grounds the denial in Scripture alone. Dave Armstrong takes the Protestant at his word. If the Bible alone is the rule of faith, and the Bible itself testifies to an infallible Church and an infallible papacy, then by his own principle the Protestant is bound. That is the project of this book.
16 chapters in two parts. The Church covers submission to apostolic tradition, apostolic succession, Paul’s place under Church authority rather than over it, conscience formed by the Church, excommunication, the indefectibility of the Old Testament religious system as analogous to the Church, and a featured chapter on 1 Timothy 3:15 — “the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth.”
The Papacy answers Protestant critics on the primacy of Peter, the Paul-rebukes-Peter passage, the titles “Holy Father” and “Vicar of Christ,” the “rock” and the “keys” (with Protestant scholars cited), inspired prophets as an analogy to papal infallibility, and the biblical and logical case for papal succession.
Inside this book
- 1 Timothy 3:15 and the biblical case for an infallible Church
- The indefectibility of the OT religious system as analogous to the Church
- Peter as the “rock” and holder of the “keys” — with Protestant scholarly support
- Paul’s rebuke of Peter, in its proper relative-authority context
- Inspired prophets as an analogy for papal infallibility — and the biblical-logical case for papal succession
