One of the most plausible arguments in favor of traditional churches like the Roman Catholic church is that they have a long history. They argue that they can trace their roots back right to the apostles. They argue that the bishops received special grace and authority from the original apostles. Before these bishops died, they ordained other bishops and so on. This process continued to the present day. It is argued that only those in this chain of succession have true authority in God's church.
While these doctrine has a certain appeal, it is not directly taught in the Scriptures. The related doctrine of the ordination of special priests to do Christian sacraments is especially contrary to the Scriptures. This doctrine creates two classes of disciple of Jesus - the common ones, and the ones with special grace to administer the Lord's supper and baptize people. The Roman Catholic church talks about "common priesthood" whilst the Bible talks about "royal priesthood" (1 Peter 2:9). Peter told all the believers they were a royal priesthood - so why should we listen to anyone who tells us we are only "common priests".
Where did Jesus say to His disciples, "Go, make disciples, baptize them, and teach some of the disciples you make to obey some of my commandments, but not necessarily the one I've just given you here"? He taught his disciples to teach ALL them to obey "all things I have commanded you" and that includes the command to baptize. (Matthew 28:18-20).
If having a long history was a guarantee of truthfulness and integrity in church traditions, then BOTH the Roman Catholic AND the so-called Orthodox church should both have equally valid traditions and authority. This is because they have both been around for about the same time. If pressed, I would say the Orthodox has a longer church history and tradition, because the bishops of Rome did not make claims to supreme authority over the church until perhaps the 6th century. Until that time, church traditions were growing up in both the Eastern and Western parts of the Roman empire.
The fact that these traditions evolved differently and the church leaders of the respective factions ended up condemning each other in the 11th century proves that churches with long histories tracing back
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