Why Believe in a Formal Church Structure?

A point of contention between Catholics and many Protestant denominations is the concept of a formalized church hierarchy. A significant number of Protestants, particularly of the nondenominational variety in the United States, hold that when Jesus talked about “the Church”, or that the early apostles made reference to the same, that He was referring loosely to the collective body of believers. Their argument rests on the notion that each church is localized, specific to the needs of the individuals in the area, and needs no overlapping authority to follow the will of God.

Given that this line of thought is a significant source of opposition for many Protestants when considering the idea of entering into the fold of the Catholic Church, and given that Pentecost as the birthday of the Church looms up at the end of the Easter season, it seems appropriate to address the topic now. So why is it necessary for the Church to have a formal structure, and why does the Catholic Church represent that formal structure in the fullest sense?

Without Order, There is Anarchy

It is true that our God is a God of free will and independent thought. He gave man the ability to exercise the gift of reason, and entrusted him with the free will to accept (or reject) the free gift of eternal life that He offers. While every human being is called to seek God and enter into that loving relationship with Him, how that relationship is formed is specific to the individual gifts and experiences of the person in accordance with how God made them. This individuality is the basis upon which nondenominational Protestantism essentially rests: that because God desires a personal relationship with each human being as a member of His creation, the structure of the Church is redundant and unnecessary.

But this assumption about God and how we are to have a relationship with Him flies in the face of what we understand of God’s nature. Our God is a God of order. How many times have we heard that particular sentiment expressed? Look at the planet Earth. It is perfectly balanced on its orbital trajectory. A shade too far in one direction, and it becomes a frozen, inhospitable tundra. A shade too far in the other direction, and it becomes a planet in the mold of a Venus: oppressive, hot, and stifling the flourishing of all existence. The orbit of the Moon around the Earth is also balanced perfectly to allow the changing of the tides, so that the shores can be replenished and eroded in accordance with the laws of nature. I could go on, but there is ample evidence pointing to God’s righteous order in the universe.

So if God is a God of order (which we know Him to be), how is it possible that He would have established a structure in the economy of salvation by which there exists a high potential for anarchy? The answer is that He did not. To suggest otherwise is to, once again, defy a fundamental principle that Christians have understood about God’s nature from the dawn of our existence. Jesus came in the fullness of time, when God deigned the time appropriate, and perfectly brought the world back into the balance of salvation by His Passion, death, and Resurrection. There was a plan, there was balance, there was structure. It makes zero sense that for the practice of the faith Jesus sought to establish on the Earth, He would abandon a central tenet of how God has eternally been for the sake of satisfying the whims of His followers.

Without Central Authority, There is No Truth

In the United States, the central authority is the Constitution, the highest law of the land. The Constitution spells out the fundamental rights and principles of each American citizen, and the obligations that the respective levels of government have to the body of those citizens. But even with the strengths that the Constitution demonstrates in its construction, there have frequently been times throughout American history where a situation arose that was not explicitly addressed by the Constitution. How were those crises resolved? The Supreme Court issued rulings on how the Constitution ought to be interpreted in light of those issues!

As the governing law of the United States is the Constitution, the governing law of Christianity is the deposit of faith. The difference between the two is that the worst outcome possible for misunderstanding or disobeying the Constitution is imprisonment. The worst outcome possible for misunderstanding Christianity is eternal damnation. Prison terms eventually end, whether by the conclusion of the passage of time of the particular sentence or by the death of the prisoner while incarcerated. There is no end to eternity. That makes the stakes infinitely higher, and the consequences for misunderstanding significantly more dramatic. How do people follow Jesus with such significant decisions at stake along the road to salvation?

Remember, again, that our God is a God of order. Is it really consistent with the nature of a God of order, as ours is, to leave something like that up to the blind chance and guesswork of an individual? Or is it more realistic that Jesus would have appointed an institution that can assist in discerning those difficult questions of the practice of the faith, and assist those who desire to seek Him on the path to eternal life?

Because of the eternal consequences of the decision-making power that such a body would wield, would Jesus allow such a body to be merely mortal, not possessing any of the authority of the Holy Spirit or Himself? No! Jesus Himself tells the apostles at the Last Supper, “When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own, but will speak whatever He hears, and will declare to you the things that are to come” (John 16:13). Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit upon the apostles after He returns to Heaven, and also promises that this same Spirit will lead them into the fullness of truth. He tells this to His most intimate circle, hours before His death, not to the body collective of believers. Why is that? Because He wants them to understand that the great responsibility with which they will be charged will not be undertaken alone!

Having a Referee is Important

Right away, after the foundation of the Church, in the Acts of the Apostles we see how important this new decision-making and discernment power bestowed on the apostles by the Holy Spirit is. In Acts 15, some members of the early Church authoritatively say that without circumcision, the salvation Jesus promises cannot be extended to the believers. The apostles, seeing that there was growing confusion in the Church, met together to discuss the issue; after discussion, Peter stands up in his capacity as head of the Church and issues an authoritative statement to the believers to settle the issue once and for all.

Note at the end of the public announcement of the decision, Peter utters a key statement. Peter says, “Therefore I have reached the decision that we should not trouble those Gentiles who are turning to God…” (Acts 15:19) Even in the King James version, which is hardly a pro-Catholic translation, the translation reads, “Wherefore my sentence is…” Note the use of the singular here. Peter is not talking as though he was appointed a spokesperson to publicly announce the decision of the Church leadership. Peter is invoking a particular, singular authority to address the faithful and announce what his ultimate decision has been, after taking counsel with the other leaders of the Church.

Even if one were to make the argument that that does not prove Peter was the first pope or that the Church was right about having the fullness of the apostolic succession, one cannot deny reading that part of Acts that the Church demonstrated the importance of a central leadership. And you can see the rotten fruits of lacking a central leadership structure even today. Look at some of the decentralized Protestant denominations: some factions argue that same-sex marriage and homosexuality, long defined by the Christian faithful as being sinful practices, cannot reasonably be defined as sinful because they are supposedly expressions of true love. Or look at the differences between the denominations regarding artificial contraception, and whether or not that ought to be allowed within the body of believers. They cannot make up their minds definitively because they have no central authority.

Without an Authority, Worship of God Turns to Worship of Self

Without having an interpretative, authoritative structure to help guide us on our faith journey, we open ourselves up to all sorts of possibilities for trouble. A number of nondenominational Protestants will argue that they are guided by the acts of the Holy Spirit, and that the Spirit will lead them to the correct decisions. But history is filled with examples of men and women who believed that they had been assigned a unique role by divine Providence, and believed that they were righteously fulfilling God’s instructions even as they carried out horrifying acts of barbarism against humanity. Consider Adolf Hitler, who from the start of his participation in politics talked incessantly about having a mission from Providence and who – along with his followers – fervently believed that he was destined to be the savior of Germany. Hitler’s regime was responsible for the deliberate, willful destruction of millions of human lives in the Holocaust, to say nothing for the tens of millions of dead from the war that he launched to prove German superiority over Europe.

Or consider Jim Jones, the preacher who possessed a Messianic complex of his own. Jones was convinced he was doing the work of God, and became so convinced that ultimately he stopped consulting God at all, and persuaded his congregation to treat him as though he was God. Jones led his dedicated group of followers out of the reach of the United States, and then used his oratory to persuade nine-hundred-plus people to take their lives so that he would not have to face retribution for his crimes.

This is not to say those in an authoritative governing body are incorruptible and without sin. Certainly, Church history (and especially recently) is littered with stories of Church hierarchy figures abusing their offices for privileges or horrifying crimes. But the authority of the collective hierarchical body allows the Church to endure through those crimes, and ensures that even in the midst of the worst of the abuses the Church’s authority continues to trumpet moral teachings to the faithful. There is no opportunity for correction in an individualistic, self-centered form of Christian worship.

Without a central authority to guide, one’s belief that they are “guided by the Holy Spirit” can easily be corrupted and turned to evil ends. One can look at the transgender movement and go from recognizing that it acts as a fundamental violation against nature to believing that God’s love calls them to validate people in their false perceptions of self. Others can look at the growing euthanasia movement and believe that “God’s mercy” allows them to justify endorsing or directly supporting the practice of people voluntarily killing themselves. All of the Christians who have vocally demanded that the leadership structures of the various denominations rally behind these practices do so ironically, not recognizing how far they have wandered off the path because they refuse to submit to a central authority.

Obedience to Authority is Obedience to Christ

Some might question how submitting to a religious authority can prepare one at all for submission to Christ. But the truth of the matter is that, as Christ says, those who cannot be entrusted with small things are incapable of being entrusted with greater things. If one rebels against a legitimate religious authority, defined by Christ Himself as the holder of the keys to the kingdom, on the grounds that they are of human origin, how much more difficult will it be for them to submit to the will of God? Rebellion in small ways sows the seeds for rebellion in more significant ways. Ask Satan and his fallen angels how that ultimately turns out for a person.

Treat the Church’s authority not as an unfair imposition on the lives of individuals Jesus is calling to Himself. Rather, look at it as the installation of guardrails along the sides of the road to Heaven. There are still many unique ways people can express themselves in their faith along that road. Some will be great speakers. Others will be wonderful teachers. And still others will lead wholesome families. The function of the Church is not to dictate how to live one’s life on the road: she helps and guides when people seek her advice, but ultimately the way one lives along the road is dependent upon how Jesus calls them to do so.

The function of the Church is to keep people plummeting off the road into the abyss, into eternal damnation. And is not to save us from that eternal damnation the entire reason why Christ came?