Catholicism teaches that the church was founded upon Peter and
that he was the first Pope and head of the church. Both theories
fall apart when they are studied. Going to Matt. 16:18 which is
the verse that they use to try to prove that Jesus built the
church on Peter, "And I say unto thee: That thou art
Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it ."
In the footnote of the Catholic Bible, Douay Version;
"CHAP. 16, ver. 18. Thou art Peter, & c. As St. Peter, by divine
revelation, here made a solemn profession of his faith of the
divinity of Christ; so in recompense of his faith and profession,
our Lord here declares to him the dignity to which he is pleased
to raise him:viz., that he to whom he had already given the name
of Peter, signifying a rock, St. John 1. 42, should be a rock
indeed, of invincible strength, for the support of the building
of the church; in which building he should be next to Christ
himself: the chief foundation stone, in quality of chief pastor,
ruler, and governor: and should have accordingly all fullness of
ecclesiastical power, signified by the keys of the kingdom of
heaven.-"
Now let's discuss verse 18 of Chapter 16 in St. Matthew. Jesus said, "Thou art Peter and upon this rock...." Two different greek words are used in the Bible, one being 'Petros' which was used for Peter and it basically means 'a detached stone or boulder, or a stone that might be thrown or easily moved. or a piece of rock' and when Jesus says, "...upon this rock..", the greek word used is Petra which means 'a mass of rock', an unmovable rock and he was speaking of the revelation regarding himself and himself alone. He is the mass of rock, the immovable rock upon whom the church was built not Peter and there are many scriptures that back this up. So using these thoughts let's see what the verse really says, "I say unto thee that thou art Peter, (Petros,a detached rock, a piece of rock;) and upon this rock (Petra {Jesus Christ himself}, an unmovable rock) I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
I am playing with the Greek and that is supposed to make me look intelligent but to tell you the truth, it is not needed to explain what I am telling you. It will verify what I am telling you but I am not out to try to improve on the book that God gave us. If we have the perfect Bible in the KJV then it will explain itself by cross referencing to other places in the bible and it does.
Now let's see if Peter fits the description that the gentleman gives him in the footnote of the Douay Version as an invincible rock by his lifestyle and decisions that he made after Jesus's words as recorded in Matthew Chapter 16 verse 18. Going just a few verses after verse 18 in Chapter 16 of Matthew. Jesus just finished telling them of the things he is about to suffer,
To give a little background for this next story, the Roman soldiers find Jesus in the garden and arrest him, all the disciples run for their lives except Peter, he hides close by and follows in the shadows as they take Jesus back to Jerusalem to a monkey trial. During the time that they are inside cursing Jesus, stripping him, beating him; Peter is outside denying him,
Now let's look at the life of Peter when he was supposedly a Pope according to Roman Catholic tradition. Going to Acts Chapter 4, verse 12; quoting: "Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved."
So we see by the so-called first Pope of the Roman Catholic Church own admission there is no other way man can be saved except through Jesus. Not by the sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church, not believing that the Roman Catholic Pope is infallible in matters of faith and morals, not by keeping Holy Communion, not by Baptism, not by prayer and good works. Not by anything except what Jesus did for us through his death, burial, and resurrection. We are called to just believe him and walk in that belief and he conforms us more and more into his image. He comes into our lives and makes us a new creature, he gives us the strength, the power, everything that we need to live for him.
Now let's look at some other things in the Bible and see if Peter
fits the description of a Pope. Going to Acts Chapter 8 verse 14,
"Now when the apostles who were in Jerusalem, had heard that
Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter
and John,"
This was approximately 35 A.D. The apostles sent Peter and John to Samaria. Wouldn't you think if Peter was truly a Pope, he would be the one sending others instead of being sent by them. This next illustration was around 44 A.D. This one is recorded in Acts Chapter 12, verses 1-5,
Next we come to the year 52 A.D. and Peter is at a council in Jerusalem. They are talking about how God is calling out a people for his name out of the Gentiles. Paul and Barnabas come back from their missionary trip to ask some questions regarding circumcision and the law of Moses. Peter is at this council because he stayed in Jerusalem a lot since he was called of God to reach the Jews as Paul was called of God to reach the Gentiles. Peter gets up and shares with the others there how God showed him at an earlier date how he (God) was going to be reaching out to the Gentiles and purify their hearts by faith just as he had Peter and the rest of them. So they send Paul and Barnabas and some others back to tell them that they don't have to be circumcised or keep the law of Moses to be saved. Please read Chapter 15 of The Acts.
Now I want you to see an interesting verse in the Bible. The Acts, Chapter 23; quoting: "And the night following the Lord standing by him, said: Be constant; as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome." unquote So we see that Paul was to go to Rome to be a witness for Jesus Christ not Peter and this is further proven by reading To the Galatians, Chapter 2 verses 7,8 where Paul is speaking:
"But when I saw that they walked not uprightly in the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all: If thou being a Jew, livest after manner of the Gentiles, and not as the Jews do, how dost thou compel the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?"
Christianity teaches that Christ Jesus is the one on whom the church is founded and he is the head of the church. We have already discussed St. Matthew Chapter 16, verse 18 and we have seen that Jesus is the rock (Petra) upon whom the church was founded and we have already used the verse in Ephesians 5:23 at the beginning of this pamphlet to show that Jesus is the head of the church. So we see that Peter was never a Pope nor did he ever claim such, using the bible- he was never in Rome, he was a missionary to the Jews not to the Gentiles, he was rebuked by Paul when he missed it in areas of faith and morals, Do yo really want a church built on a man or one built on the eternal God? You decide but now you have some of the facts so that you can make a wiser decision.
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