I posted this thought at the Derek Webb forum, but I liked the way it came out so I’ve edited it into a blog post. It builds on some previoius thoughts I’ve had.

To do “apostolic succession” correctly, it would have to be done in accordance with the Apostle’s instructions. (I mean ‘correctly’ as in a fashion envisioned by the beginning of the chain.) Paul instructed Timothy to “entrust these things to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2Ti 2:2). The chain then could be broken by entrusting it to unfaithful men and those who couldn’t teach. The point is that the chain, while valid in so far as we see ordained people ordaining others, is not a perfect chain.

My next thought goes back a bit further historically. Who ordained the Apostles? Not the priests and scribes and lawyers, it was Jesus himself. The existing, ordained religious heirarchy didn’t ordain him, they murdered him. According to Hebrews 7, Jesus started a brand new chain, he was ordained according to the order of Melchizedek, not Levi. Of course God is able to reforge the chain as he sees fit. Apostolic succession then doesn’t extend unbrokenly (is that a word?) back to Abraham or Enoch or Adam. God realigns the chain as he desires. By this I am referring to only the laying on of hands from one generation to another. If we consider it in terms of those who hold to the truth of the gospel and tell others, then yes, the chain extends backward despite times in redemptive history when it looked the bleakest.

For me then, the lession is not the importance of a perfectly unbroken chain of hands being laid on but the imporance of “faithful men” who teach and pass on the “faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). What we need is not just a theological geneology of who ordained whom, history makes it clear that such a list doesn’t exist, what is needed is Semper Reformanda. We need to be constantly checking our doctrine and looking back across the ages to what our theolgical forefathers have taught. Where has time proven them right? We need to heed modern scholarship and the illumination they can shed on how best to wrestle though the difficult issues. Above all, we need to be heeding the work of the Holy Spirit as he illuminates his written word to us. Though teacher may be more or less faithful, though traditions may be more or less true, God’s word stands.