Apostolic Succession

In the formal way, apostolic succession means a linage of people that have been ordained through the laying on of hands that would originate with the early apostles. Note that Aaron's staff became a snake (Exodus 7:7-9), note the use of it with turning water into blood (Exodus 7:19), caused frogs to appear (Exodus 8:5), related to the plague of gnats (Exodus 8:16), and when the Israelites questioned who should be the spiritual leader, then Aaron's staff budded and produced almonds (Numbers 17:1-5). Also in regard to the staff of Judah what is said regarding an early prophecy of Christ is that, "The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his." - Genesis 49:10 (NIV) Overall, the point is that the staff represents spiritual leadership, and this is eventually fulfilled in Christ.

The fact however that the staff of Aaron had budded and produced almonds (Numbers 17:1-5) is important because the staff was something dead and cut off but yet it produced fruit. From the fall we are cut off from God, but through the Holy Ghost we produce fruit. The staff actually represents the Holy Ghost. Hebrews 9:3-5 describes the contents of the ark of the covenant (including Aaron's staff that had budded), and it says, "…we cannot discuss these things in detail now." (NIV) The fact of the matter is that Hebrews 9:3-5 describes the manna, staff and law as being inside the ark, and these correspond to the Son, Holy Ghost, and Father.

The fact of the matter is that Acts 6:7 describes how a large number of priests actually became obedient to the faith, and these would have been Jewish priests that came about as a result of some type of succession. Matthew 13:52 shows Jesus presenting the principle that teachers of the law that convert to the faith bring out both old things and new things, and this principle would have been equally matched by the Jewish priests that became obedient to the faith. Overall, the point is that the scripture gives a lot of evidence that ordination of Christian priests and bishops likely has some root in earlier Jewish practices.

One can argue that the blood line of the High Priest (this was fulfilled in Christ) had both Moses and Aaron as its family heads. Exodus 28:41 shows Aaron and his sons anointed with oil (ordained), and this shows the early ordination of a high priesthood. The fact of the matter however is that Samuel anointed Saul as king (1 Samuel 10:1), and this is the origin of the kingly line. Psalm 105:8-17 goes so far as to associate anointing with prophets, and it thus goes on to describe God's protection of the patriarchs as if to suggest that they had been prophets and had been anointed (ordained). Overall, Christ fulfilled all three types of anointing (prophet, priest, and king), so now that Hebrews 7:11-13 is in force to describe a change of priesthood under Christ the result is a new type of succession that occurs from the priesthood of Christ.

Just as Israel had a High Priesthood with priests serving the High Priests, so too Christ has priests serving him because he is the High Priest. If no type of apostolic succession existed, then people simply would not know who to listen to. The fact of the matter is that the early creeds of the church give evidence for succession from the apostles because church leaders from around the world all got together and recognized the authority of one another. If no type of succession existed, then more time could have been spent on fighting one another instead of time spent on creeds.