265 Popes in 1,973 Years

The Papacy is significant. Protestant evangelicals have theological objections to the office of the Pope. One of their objections has to do with the doctrine of infallibility. While Catholic doctrine teaches that the Pope is infallible when he speaks on matters of doctrine, evangelicals believe that only the scriptures are infallible. Because they believe that the scriptures are the Word of God, and since God cannot lie or make a mistake, then the Scriptures are inerrant and infallible. Another theological objection is the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. While Catholic doctrine teaches that the Pope is the Vicar of Christ, the personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ on earth, evangelical Protestants believe that Christ is present in every believer, and that there is a democracy of faith. “The ground is level underneath the cross of Christ,” i.e., not one human being has a special standing when it comes to being right before God. Every human being can come to Christ without any other human intermediary.

However, I believe that the Papacy performs an enormously significant role today. The Papacy, with all the pomp and circumstance that has grown around it, demonstrates the historical continuity of the New Testament to our time. It is true that the Canon of Scripture is complete in the New Testament, i.e., all the books of the New Testament comprise all the truths we need to know about God’s final revelation and we need no other tradition. With the Papacy, however, a historical link is made through the centuries back to Peter, who was an eyewitness and apostle, and is mentioned in the Gospels. There have been two hundred sixty five popes since Peter, although the original office of Peter is debatable as to whether it was the first papacy. For a list of all the popes and their biographies, click here: Popes.