| Acts 1 and verses 16
through 26 gives the account of Peter
standing in the midst of the remaining
Apostles, explaining that the scripture
concerning Judas (who was numbered with
the apostles, but had died), needed to
be fulfilled. The scripture (which
the Holy Ghost gave to David) that Peter
was referring to can be found in Psalm
109:8 ” Let his days be few, and
let another take his office”.
Acts 1:23-26 gives us
the account of the choosing of the “new
apostle” to take the place of Judas.
Two were chosen; Justus and Matthias.
Then a prayer was offered to invoke the
hand of God to control the lots and
reveal which of these men were to be the
next apostle to be numbered with the
eleven. After they gave forth their
lots, the lot fell on Matthias.
The Catholic Institution
takes this event as being a valid vote,
and assumes that the will of God had
been done when Matthias was announced as
the successor to Judas’ office of
Apostle. This is actually one of the
“proofs” for the Catholic teaching
of “Apostolic” succession, and the
validity of the the Papal office.
Typically it is taught
that Matthias was the successor to
Judas' office because the scripture
tells us that he was numbered with the
eleven. Well, there is much more
to the interpretation of that portion of
scripture, and by understanding it
more clearly we will see that the
Catholic teaching of Apostolic
succession is pure “false teaching”,
and more than that… a perversion of
the will of God.
When Peter stood up and
stated that the scripture needed to be
fulfilled (Psalm 109:8), the idea is
usually neglected that possibly the
remaining Apostles were not the ones who
were to fulfil that scripture.
Furthermore, the two that they chose as
worthy (Justus, and Matthias), were only
worthy in the eyes of the apostles…
not necessarily in the eyes of God.
So when the lots were
cast to enable God to chose between
Justus and Matthias, it may not have
been Matthias that God chose, but that
Matthias was simply the one on whom the
lots fell. Now, I agree that God does
move in such ways as to manipulate
tangible objects, but did the eleven
apostles actually have the liberty to
only give God two candidates? Of course
not, and God (since He is not a magic
genie in a lamp) was not bound to move
in the exact way in which He was invoked
to move by Peter’s prayer.
Matthias was chosen by
men, not necessarily by God. Even though
the lots were given… God’s
intervention was prayed for… and the
lots cast, it is still within God’s
power to chose someone whom the Apostles
had not candidated. Proverbs 16:33
“The lot is cast into the lap; but the
whole disposing thereof is of the
Lord.” This verse means that you can
cast lots all you want, but God is still
going to do what He wants to do.
An Apostle, in the
traditional definition, is one that is
sent. In the case of the early apostles
they were sent by Jesus Christ
Himself… personally. We see the act of
Jesus sending the apostles before He
ascended in Acts chapter 1 verses 4-8. I
must interject a question here; was
Matthias present with the Apostles when
Jesus sent them out? We find the answer
to that question in 1 Corinthians 15:7.
Paul said that Jesus was seen of over
500 people at once, then of James, then
all the Apostles (except Judas who had
died and vacated his office). This was
all before Jesus ascended. Even if
Matthias was present when James and the
remaining apostles were sent by Jesus,
Matthias had not yet been elected to
succede Judas’ office, so according to
1 Cor. 15:7 Matthias wasn’t counted
with the Apostles. Also, Acts 1:26
verifies that “according to the
Apostles”, Matthias was not numbered
with them when the apostles saw Jesus.
The next verse in 1
Corinthians 15 is very pertinent to
finding out if the vote for Matthias was
valid. Paul wrote in verse 8 “And last
of all he was seen of me also, as one
born out of due time”. Paul was
referring to his experience on the road
to Damascus (Acts 26:16), at which time
Paul was sent to be a “minister and a
witness”. This qualifies Paul to be an
Apostle… which he himself verified in
the very next verse of 1 Corinthians 15,
verse 8 “For I am the least of the
Apostles”. And verse 10 of that same
chapter verifies that it was not the
vote of the other eleven apostles that
he was claiming as his title of apostle
but the “grace of God” which was
bestowed upon him.
Jesus Christ chose Saul
(Paul) to “replace” Judas as being
numbered as one of the twelve apostles. Paul
did not succede Judas, as Judas didn’t
leave a work to carry on, Paul was a
replacement to the office. Acts chapter
1:20 quotes Psalm 109:8 and both of
these places use the word “take” in
reference to the office that was to be
filled. Paul “took” Judas’ office
of Apostle, he did not succede him.
What Peter and the other
Apostles did in Acts chapter one, was to
circumvent God’s will and do “what
seemeth right to a man”. What the
Catholic Institution has been doing
since the 5th century by electing a
successor to Peter’s Bishoprick is
just that… an election… a
fulfillment of the will of man, and not
necessarily a fulfillment of the will of
God.
John Hardin
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