Answers to Marchello about Catholic Doctrines # 1.
***The MAJORITY of the Roman Catholic doctrines are UNBIBLICAL and NOT supported by Scripture...and I list them below:(1)The primacy of Peter
(2)Tradition
(3)The priesthood of the church
(4)Mary the "Mother of God"
(5)The Mass
(6)The confessional
(7)Purgatory
(8)The Infallibility of the Pope
(9)Penance and Indulgences
(10)Ritualism
(11)Celibacy
(12)Etc.
Ok I certainly do not have the time to address all these topics but I¡¦ll start with this:
Perhaps I¡¦ll go on with the next topics in the next days.
(1)The primacy of Peter
Let¡¦s start with the Biblical texts that support Peters¡¦ supremacy among apostles.
Note Peter¡¦s supremacy refers only to confirm the faith of the church. He is considered an apostle as the others, but with an additional ministry: Confirm the unity of church¡¦s faith.
¡§Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus.
He first found his own brother Simon and told him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated Anointed).
Then he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon the son of John; you will be called Cephas" (which is translated Peter, Petra, Petrus in Greek, rock )¡¨.
(John 1, 40-42)
Interesting. John is the one bringing this up. Time before Jesus actually changed Simon¡¦s name to Cephas (Peter), he made the announcement. Why did he announce it?
In the Bible a change of name, means that the person has a mission or role assigned directly by God.
e.g.
Abram „³ Abraham Gen 17,3-5
Jacob „³ Israel Gen 32, 27-28
Simon „³ Cephas (rock, Peter) Mt 13, 19
¡§When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"
They replied, "Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"
Simon Peter said in reply, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."
Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.
And so I say to you, you are Peter (Petrus, Petra in greek means rock; traduction of Cephas), and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
Then he strictly ordered his disciples to tell no one that he was the Messiah.
(Matthew 13,20)
I can write a lot about the above text. I¡¦ll keep it brief.
This is, first of all a personal talk started by Jesus.
(1)"Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"
(2) Answer: "Some say John the Baptist, ¡K.¡¨
(3) New Question : "But who do you say that I am?"
(4) Peter answers: , "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."
(5) Jesus now answers "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.
And so I say to you, you are Peter (rock)¡K¡K.)
So the rock in which Jesus church was built is Peter and his faith. It is impossible to separate the person of Peter, and Peter¡¦s faith.
Nevertheless, the more interesting thing here is not the name given to Peter, not even the fact that he gave him the power to bind/loose on earth and heaven, power that was given later to the other apostles. The more interesting thing here is the keys of the Kingdom of Heavens that were given to Peter only,
The only precedent of such a thing in the Bible appears in
¡§I will thrust you from your office and pull you down from your station.
On that day I will summon my servant Eliakim, son of Hilkiah;
I will clothe him with your robe, and gird him with your sash, and give over to him your authority. He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. I will place the key of the House of David on his shoulder; when he opens, no one shall shut, when he shuts, no one shall open. I will fix him like a peg in a sure spot, to be a place of honor for his family;
Isaiah (22, 19-23)
Here the key is a symbol of authority.
The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John;
(Matthew 10, 2)
In fact Peter was not the first apostle called by Jesus, However he is mentioned as the first.
The greek word used for first is ¡§protos¡¨, which stands not only for an chronological, alphabetical or proximity order, stands also for dignity.
Other Texts:
¡§When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." He said to him, "Feed my lambs."
He then said to him a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." He said to him, "Tend my sheep."
He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time, "Do you love me?" and he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." (Jesus) said to him, "Feed my sheep. ¡§
(John 21, 15-17)
Who was the one asked by Jesus to tend and feed his sheep? Peter.
¡§but I have prayed that your own faith may not fail; and once you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers."
(Luke 22, 32)
Who have to strengthen his brothers? Peter.
Is there Biblical Support for Peter¡¦s supremacy? Yes.
You can have objections, different interpretations, you can do whatever you like to deny the texts or twist them, but at least you can¡¦t say anymore that there is no biblical support to Peter¡¦s supremacy,
I will continue with the testimony of Christians through centuries about Peter¡¦s successors (the popes) authority tomorrow.
Remember anyway, that Catholic Church doesn¡¦t have this and other beliefs because of interpretation of the Bible
Catholic church believes in this because is the faith that was transmitted by the apostles, and that was transmitted and guarded by the Church, at least 2 centuries before the New Testament¡¦s canon was defined and approved for good. Catholic Church is older than the New Testament, which was born from Catholic Church Tradition, since as you know, the apostles first preached and transmitted the faith orally, some decades later some of them and his close collaborators wrote the gospels and other documents to help in the preaching of the gospel. If you deny Catholic Tradition (with Capital T, you deny the New Testament)
E.g.
¡§Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and ministers of the word have handed them down to us,
I too have decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it down in an orderly sequence for you, most excellent Theophilus,
so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings you have received. ¡§
Luke 1, 1-4
God bless you Marcello