The Roman Catholic Church teaches that Jesus personally appointed Peter as the leader of the church, and the pope is Peter’s successor to that position. At the root of this doctrine is the claim that Jesus appointed Peter as leader when he called him a “rock.” But is this really what the Bible teaches?
Jesus Referred to Peter as a “Rock”
In Matthew 16, Jesus was speaking in front of a rather large cliff face near Caesarea Philippi. There is no doubt that this is historical, that is, it actually took place.
Pope Francis arriving to celebrate Mass at the Las Palmas Air Base in Lima, Peru
The Pope visited Chile in January 2018 (click here for a news article about it). A prominent priest in Santiago had been exposed as a serial child molester. The Pope had appointed this serial molester’s understudy as Bishop there, under much protest, due to the fact that victims say this newly appointed Bishop witnessed personally, and was obviously well aware of such atrocities, but never voiced any opposition to it. The Pope, in response to these protesting voices, accused these Catholics of slandering the new Bishop. After much protest against his calloused attitude, the Pope has now apologized. So much for “papal infallibility”, despite the fact that he “exalts himself above every so-called god and object of worship, so as to seat himself in the temple of God, claiming that he is a god” (2 Thessalonians 2:4 NAB)! Also, the fact that the Roman Catholic Church has tolerated and covered up their grossly immoral, pedophile priests for centuries, makes it an abomination in the sight of God. Notice the principle expressed at Deuteronomy 23:18: “You shall not bring the hire of a harlot or the wages of a dog into the house of the LORD your God” (NASB), “dog” is footnoted as being “male prostitute, sodomite”. This Hebrew word for “dog” also likely refers to “a pederast, one who practices ANAL INTERCOURSE, ESPECIALLY WITH A BOY”. This is exactly what the RCC has done by allowing these predatory pedophiles to remain in the service of the church! Romans 1:26,27 tells us exactly what God thinks of such: “God gave them over to shameful lusts . . . the men . . . were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men” (NIV). What will God do about this? In his due time, he says “I will remove them from tending my flock so that the shepherds will no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them” (Ezekiel 34:10 NIV). The RCC with its pedophile, immoral priests will be exterminated by God permanently!read more
New Covenant – ‘Good Things Now Already Here’ – Access to God
Do we need to go through some human intermediary, or hierarchy, to get to Almighty God? – No! Why not? We certainly do not want to in any way diminish the need of “meeting together” with those of like faith (Hebrews 10:24,25 NIV), nor do we want to downplay the importance of Christlike spiritual leadership (Hebrews 13:7,17). What does the New Covenant have to do with any of this?
However, we need to keep in mind that “there is only one God, and there is only one mediator between humanity . . . Jesus Christ” (1 Timothy 2:5 NJB). read more
The Book of Revelation is without doubt the most complicated, controversial, and esoteric of the entire Bible! Some even doubt that it should even be in the Bible at all, and assert that its place in the Bible Canon was controversial from the start. This is false. Why? The early acceptance of Revelation by the Christian Church is proof that the book is divinely inspired.
We have early, widespread and consistent reception of Revelation. Papias (c 125), Justin Martyr, Irenaus, the Muratorian Fragment, Hippolytus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and Origen all accepted Revelation as authentic. That’s impressive! Every one of these accepted Revelation as inspired, on the basis that John, the apostle was the recorder. B W Bacon was so impressed with the initial widespread acceptance of Revelation, that he wrote: “There is no other book in the entire NT whose external attestation can compare with that of Revelation, in nearness, clearness, defintiteness, and positiveness of statement” (The Making of the New Testament, 190).
Objections to Revelation were later and limited. Gaius in the early 3rd century rejected Revelation, thinking it was a forgery of the apostate Cerinthus. This is the first real objection.
Objections to Revelation were not on any historical basis. Gaius rejected the literal millennnial reign of Christ, so he thought the reference in chapter 20 of such had to be a product of the apostate Cerinthus.
Any such objections were resolved early. It was accepted by the synods of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397), by Philastrius of Brescia (c 385), Rufinus of Aquilia (c 404), Jerome (c 414), and Augustine (c 426). They accepted Revelation as authentic because it was accepted by the early Christians as authentic.
There are many quotations from Revelation by early writers, who quoted it as being authentic.
First of all, when people ask, “Why is faith required if God is real?”, they are using a different definition of “faith” than the the Bible does. The average person thinks “faith” means: “blind faith”, or belief without any evidence, zero, zippo, nada. That is not Biblical “faith”. So let’s clarify what we mean Biblically by faith.“Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidenceof things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1 NAB). Biblical faith has evidence in support of it, in fact, lots of it!read more
The Bible says God cannot die. Yet Trinitarians assert that Jesus must be God himself in order to die for the sins of mankind stands in stark contradiction to all scriptural evidence. It was Jesus, not God, who died for sins.
It was Jesus – not God – who died for the sins of mankind
“LORD [Yahweh], are you not from everlasting?My God, my Holy One, you will never die” (Habakkuk 1:12 NIV)
From this scripture, we can see that it is impossible that Jesus could be the God who would die for the sins of mankind, since the prophecy of Habakkuk was written over 600 years prior to Jesus and clearly states that God will never die.read more
Are the Doctrines of Purgatory and Hellfire in the Bible?
“Those who contend with you shall be as nothing and will perish . . . Those who war with you will be as nothing and non-existent”—Isaiah 41:11,12 LSB; NASB
The Bible teaches that death is non-existence. Purgatory is a Catholic doctrine which teaches there is an intermediate state after physical death in which some of those ultimately destined for heaven must first undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven, holding that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come. But what does the Bible teach? Let’s compare some Catholic claims about the doctrine of Purgatory to the Scriptures.read more
Jehovah’s Witnesses (JW’s) have historically been best known for their public and door-to-door witnessing, distributing literature such as The Watchtower and Awake! magazines. But how could Jehovah’s Witnesses be reasoned with about Biblical beliefs? How can a Christian witness to Jehovah’s witnesses?
First, you will not be able to prove JW’s wrong on such things as:
Trinity
Hell
Immortal Soul
Birthdays
Christmas
Political Involvement
War/Fighting for Country
JW’s are taught that these are some primary reasons they’re the only true Christians. JW’s are very well trained on these subjects and armed with scriptures. The scriptures actually do support their positions on the above issues, except for birthdays. How can a Christian witness to Jehovah’s Witnesses?read more
Must Christians Completely Obey? What Does the Bible Say?
The Old Testament was full of commandments to which the Israelites were obligated to be obedient. But what about the New Testament? Must Christians completely obey? Let’s find out what the Scriptures have to say.
SCRPTURES ABOUT OBEDIENCE
“Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching.” (John 14:23)
“Give yourselves completely to God… use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.” (Romans 6:13 NLT)
“We will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.” (2 Corinthians 10:6 NIV) “After you have become fully obedient.” (NLT)read more
The huge ancient city of Corinth was full of idols and idol temples. There was much readily available there to entice and tempt people into various forms of idolatry. The apostle Paul warned Christians:) He didn’t just say to “avoid” idolatry – he said to run from it! “Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.” (1 Corinthians 10:14 NIV)
The Bible warns Christians to flee from idolatry
In most places in the western world today, idolatry does not seem so apparent or visible. Nevertheless, the warning is just as important. In the Old Testament (OT) Israel was warned to keep the laws of the Old Covenant, or they would lose God’s favor. The first two of the ten commandments involve having no other gods but Yahweh alone, and not honoring any idol or image. (Exodus 20:2-5) Israel broke this covenant because “they worshipped other gods” and “they worshipped idols.” (2 Kings 17:7, 12 NIV) This idolatry led to numerous other gross sins against Yahweh. The result was that the covenant was finally terminated by God.read more
First of all, when people ask, “Why is faith required if God is real?”, they are using a different definition of “faith” than the the Bible does. The average person thinks “faith” means: “blind faith”, or belief without any evidence, zero, zippo, nada. That is not Biblical “faith”. So let’s clarify what we mean Biblically by faith. “Faith is the realization of what is hoped for and evidence
