The Bible only gives two church leaders, the pastor (also called bishop or elder) or the deacon. A priest is not in context of a New Testament church, and monk, nun, cardinal, pope, etc. all do not occur in the Bible. If it is not in the Bible, it ought not be accepted for the church because the Bible is the sole authority for faith and practice in church. Thus, the pope is an unbiblical position. Regarding that specifically, there was no pope position until about the year 606. For the church in Rome, up until that point there were only bishops over it. The year 606, Emperor Phocas, the emperor of the Roman Empire, bestowed upon the Roman Bishop Boniface III the title of Papa, meaning the Pope, or supreme father, as in over all churches. It had not existed before then. In fact, the previous head of the Rome church, Gregory III (d. 604), had resisted that being made of him, and said, “If a bishop, whoever he be, is called a general bishop (that is, pope), the whole church decays.” He also said, “I candidly say that any one who calls himself a general bishop, or desires to be called such, is, in his exaltation, the forerunner of antichrist.” His words were prophetic! The pope has been called the antichrist by many, many groups through the centuries.
