Jesus promised that he and the Holy Spirit would guide his Church as it proclaimed the Faith to the world. This means that the divinely appointed teachers in the Church—the bishops—have a special form of guidance, and thus a special teaching authority or “magisterium” (Latin, magister, “teacher”).

Church's Teaching Authority

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, . . . teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. . . .

So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, beware lest you be carried away with the error of lawless men and lose your own stability.

← Church's Teaching Authority

2 Peter 3:15–17

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