The Pope

[CatholicCrusader]

Let's start with the basic: I'm sure we all know THIS scripture, which most Christians argue over, by heart by now:

"...Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven."

I'll try to make clear what the Pope actually is. Many people have mistaken ideas about what the Pope is, which is why they don't see the office in scripture.

Simply, the Pope is the fulfillment of the office of Prime Minister that existed in the Kindoms of David and his successors, just as many things in the New Testament are fulfillments of their Old Testament "types".

"And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call My servant Eliakim the son of Helcias, and I will clothe him with thy Robe, and I will strengthen him with thy Sash, and will give thy Power (authority) into his hand; and he shall be as a FATHER (the word 'Pope' means 'Father') to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. And I will lay the Key of the House of David (the symbol of primacy) upon his shoulder; and he shall open and none shall shut; and he shall shut and none shall open. And I will fasten him as a peg in a Sure Place(the Papal Office), and he shall be for a Throne of glory to the house of his Father. And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his Fathers house, diverse kinds of vessels, every little vessel, from the vessels of cups even to every instrument of music." (Isaiah 22:20-24)

In the Davidic Kingdoms, there was the office of Prime Minister (who actually wore a key on his robe as a symbol of office). This position is what is referred to in the above text and in other historical documents. There were many "ministers" to the king, but only one Prime Minister, sometimes known as the "Vizier" of the House of David.

So now let's fast-forward to the New Testament: JESUS is the King, the "son of David", in the line of David. So, the apostles, steeped in their Jewish culture, knew EXACTLY what it meant when Jesus gave Peter the "Keys". Peter was to be the Prime Minister of Christ's Kingdom, the "Keeper of the Keys".

So this is what the Pope is: Prime Minister of the King's Kingdom: The Kings's representative, or "vicar" if you will. But the Pope also has a pastoral role, which is established in John 21: 15-17, when Christ told Peter: "feed my lambs.. ..feed my sheep.. ..tend my sheep."

This is the Pope: Prime Minister of Christs Kingdom, and Pastor of the flock. With that in mind, the Papacy is ALL THROUGH the scriptures. Now, throw into that mix the fact there is ample evidence in the New Testament that Peter was first in authority among the apostles. Whenever they were named, Peter headed the list (Matt. 10:1-4, Mark 3:16-19, Luke 6:14-16, Acts 1:13) ; sometimes the apostles were referred to as "Peter and those who were with him" (Luke 9:32). Peter was the one who generally spoke for the apostles (Matt. 18:21, Mark 8:29, Luke 12:41, John 6), and he figured in many of the most dramatic scenes (Matt. 14:28-32, Matt. 17:24-27, Mark 10:23-28 ) . On Pentecost it was Peter who first preached to the crowds (Acts 2:14-40), and he worked the first healing in the Church age (Acts 3:6-7). It is Peter’s faith that will strengthen his brethren (Luke 22:32) and, as I said, Peter is given Christ’s flock to shepherd (John 21:17). An angel was sent to announce the resurrection to Peter (Mark 16:7), and the risen Christ first appeared to Peter (Luke 24:34). He headed the meeting that elected Matthias to replace Judas (Acts 1:13-26), and he received the first converts (Acts 2:41). He inflicted the first punishment (Acts 5:1-11), and excommunicated the first heretic (Acts 8:18-23). He led the first council in Jerusalem (Acts 15), and announced the first dogmatic decision (Acts 15:7-11). It was to Peter that the revelation came that Gentiles were to be baptized and accepted as Christians (Acts 10:46-48 ) .

So, as Cyprian of Carthage said in 251 A.D. (almost a hundred years before Constatine):

"The Lord says to Peter: ‘I say to you,’ he says, ‘that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it. And to you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever things you bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth, they shall be loosed also in heaven’ [Matt. 16:18–19]). ... On him [Peter] he builds the Church, and to him he gives the command to feed the sheep [John 21:17], and although he assigns a like power to all the apostles, yet he founded a single chair [cathedra], and he established by his own authority a source and an intrinsic reason for that unity. Indeed, the others were also what Peter was [i.e., apostles], but a primacy is given to Peter, whereby it is made clear that there is but one Church and one chair. So too, all [the apostles] are shepherds, and the flock is shown to be one, fed by all the apostles in single-minded accord. If someone does not hold fast to this unity of Peter, can he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he [should] desert the chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, can he still be confident that he is in the Church?" - The Unity of the Catholic Church 4; 1st edition [A.D. 251]).

Much more info can be found here if you are interested:
Catholic Answers: Library: Church & Papacy (http://www.catholic.com/library/church_papacy.asp)

[Churchwork]

Let's start with the basic: I'm sure we all know THIS scripture, which most Christians argue over, by heart by now:

"...Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven."
It was revealed to Peter, Jesus is the Christ. The large rock is what the Church is built on, the cornerstone. What is done must be done in His name.


I'll try to make clear what the Pope actually is. Many people have mistaken ideas about what the Pope is, which is why they don't see the office in scripture.

Simply, the Pope is the fulfillment of the office of Prime Minister that existed in the Kindoms of David and his successors, just as many things in the New Testament are fulfillments of their Old Testament "types".

"And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call My servant Eliakim the son of Helcias, and I will clothe him with thy Robe, and I will strengthen him with thy Sash, and will give thy Power (authority) into his hand; and he shall be as a FATHER (the word 'Pope' means 'Father') to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. And I will lay the Key of the House of David (the symbol of primacy) upon his shoulder; and he shall open and none shall shut; and he shall shut and none shall open. And I will fasten him as a peg in a Sure Place(the Papal Office), and he shall be for a Throne of glory to the house of his Father. And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his Fathers house, diverse kinds of vessels, every little vessel, from the vessels of cups even to every instrument of music." (Isaiah 22:20-24)

Jesus is the Everlasting Father (Is. 9.6) not say He is God the Father, but to say that he is the founder, ruler, chief. The Temple is in Jerusalem not in Rome. The caretaker of the Temple could be David when he returns when Jesus returns but really we don't know how will fulfill this role. This "sure place" is the Temple in Jerusalem. Rome is both political Rome and religious Rome that will be destroyed. Religious Rome is destroyed in Rev. 17.16 and political Rome is destroyed in Rev. 18.18. "Inhabitants of Jerusalem" and "house of Judah" have nothing to do with Rome. The Bible considers the Roman Church, which I believe the Vatican will be nuked before 2020 (17.16), for she is the great harlot that makes drunk the nations with the wine of the wrath of her fornications (14.8). She is the harlot that sits on the beast.


In the Davidic Kingdoms, there was the office of Prime Minister (who actually wore a key on his robe as a symbol of office). This position is what is referred to in the above text and in other historical documents. There were many "ministers" to the king, but only one Prime Minister, sometimes known as the "Vizier" of the House of David.

So now let's fast-forward to the New Testament: JESUS is the King, the "son of David", in the line of David. So, the apostles, steeped in their Jewish culture, knew EXACTLY what it meant when Jesus gave Peter the "Keys". Peter was to be the Prime Minister of Christ's Kingdom, the "Keeper of the Keys".

So this is what the Pope is: Prime Minister of the King's Kingdom: The Kings's representative, or "vicar" if you will. But the Pope also has a pastoral role, which is established in John 21: 15-17, when Christ told Peter: "feed my lambs.. ..feed my sheep.. ..tend my sheep."

Peter was one among a number who were leaders in the first generation of the church that was built on Christ (Acts 15.13-31; Gal. 2.9,14; 1 Cor. 3.11; 1 Pet. 2.7). The context demands that the binding and loosing had especially to do with the opening or closing access to the kingdom, through the preaching of the gospel, confessing Christ and proper authority and submission in the Church.

But the Church is organized based on Apostles and Elders. The Apostles worked regionally and appointed Elders of a locality. This prevented any popery or archdiocese of United States or Africa.

The keys to the kingdom is given to any of the Apostles and Elders and other workers for the Church. The principle behind this is that God knows man's flesh so He does not allow a man to be a pope of the planet, but limits the work of the Apostles to regions, e.g. churches of Texas or the churches of Switzerland. In so doing the Apostles is restrained from being exalted higher than that.

So this Peter obsession is really an idol. There is no succession of Apostles; rather Apostles are directly chosen by God not by men. They rise up where God sees fit.


This is the Pope: Prime Minister of Christs Kingdom, and Pastor of the flock. With that in mind, the Papacy is ALL THROUGH the scriptures. Now, throw into that mix the fact there is ample evidence in the New Testament that Peter was first in authority among the apostles. Whenever they were named, Peter headed the list (Matt. 10:1-4, Mark 3:16-19, Luke 6:14-16, Acts 1:13) ; sometimes the apostles were referred to as "Peter and those who were with him" (Luke 9:32). Peter was the one who generally spoke for the apostles (Matt. 18:21, Mark 8:29, Luke 12:41, John 6), and he figured in many of the most dramatic scenes (Matt. 14:28-32, Matt. 17:24-27, Mark 10:23-28 ) . On Pentecost it was Peter who first preached to the crowds (Acts 2:14-40), and he worked the first healing in the Church age (Acts 3:6-7). It is Peter’s faith that will strengthen his brethren (Luke 22:32) and, as I said, Peter is given Christ’s flock to shepherd (John 21:17). An angel was sent to announce the resurrection to Peter (Mark 16:7), and the risen Christ first appeared to Peter (Luke 24:34). He headed the meeting that elected Matthias to replace Judas (Acts 1:13-26), and he received the first converts (Acts 2:41). He inflicted the first punishment (Acts 5:1-11), and excommunicated the first heretic (Acts 8:18-23). He led the first council in Jerusalem (Acts 15), and announced the first dogmatic decision (Acts 15:7-11). It was to Peter that the revelation came that Gentiles were to be baptized and accepted as Christians (Acts 10:46-48 ) .

I have no doubt when Jesus returns He may have a prime minister in charge of certain affairs but that time has not yet come. Peter was an Apostle of the churches of Judea and he was also an Elder of the church locality of Jerusalem. This was the jurisdiction of his work according to already established governmental boundaries. If there was a dispute in another locality, as an Elder he could not have a say in how they handled their affairs, but as an Apostle responsible for the region of Judea he could weigh in and give advice to those church localities and appointed Elders to each church locality.

There is always a first followed by a second and third. Don't be surprised by this or because of it give extra weighting needlessly to Peter. Peter is just one of many Apostles. You should be able to find several verses where he was the first in these regards. But don't violate biblocality.


So, as Cyprian of Carthage said in 251 A.D. (almost a hundred years before Constatine):

"The Lord says to Peter: ‘I say to you,’ he says, ‘that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it. And to you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever things you bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth, they shall be loosed also in heaven’ [Matt. 16:18–19]). ... On him [Peter] he builds the Church, and to him he gives the command to feed the sheep [John 21:17], and although he assigns a like power to all the apostles, yet he founded a single chair [cathedra], and he established by his own authority a source and an intrinsic reason for that unity. Indeed, the others were also what Peter was [i.e., apostles], but a primacy is given to Peter, whereby it is made clear that there is but one Church and one chair. So too, all [the apostles] are shepherds, and the flock is shown to be one, fed by all the apostles in single-minded accord. If someone does not hold fast to this unity of Peter, can he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he [should] desert the chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, can he still be confident that he is in the Church?" - The Unity of the Catholic Church 4; 1st edition [A.D. 251]).

Much more info can be found here if you are interested:
Catholic Answers: Library: Church & Papacy (http://www.catholic.com/library/church_papacy.asp)
Verse 18 speaks of the gates of Hades; this is in contrast to the door of the kingdom of heaven. The subject in verse 18 is the church while that of verse 19 is the kingdom of heaven. The church in verse 18 is built by the Lord himself ("I will build my church"). Yet the kingdom of heaven in verse 19 seems to be built by men. Hence the keys are not those of the church, rather they are the keys to the kingdom of heaven as the verse itself says. Otherwise, Peter could really be a pope.

[CatholicCrusader]

It was revealed to Peter, Jesus is the Christ. The large rock is what the Church is built on, the cornerstone. What is done must be done in His name.

This is incorrect. Let me use first the evidence from some prominent Protestant scholars:

The IVP Bible Background Commentary New Testament, p. 90: ‘In Aramaic, ‘Peter’ and Rock are the same word; in Greek (here), they are cognate terms that were used interchangeably by this period. For the idea of a person as the foundation on which something is built, cf. Isaiah 51: 1-2; Ephesians 2:20 (the promise is made to Peter because Peter was the one who confessed Jesus, v. 16).

D.A. Carson, Trinity Evangelical Seminary, author of The Expositor’s Bible Commentary on Mathew: ‘Although it is true that ‘Petros’ and ‘Petra’ can mean ‘stone’ and ‘rock’ respectively in earlier Greek, the distinction is largely confined to poetry. Moreover, the underlying Aramaic is in this case unquestionable; and most probably ‘kepha’ was used in both clauses (‘you are ‘kepha’ and ‘on this ‘kepha’) since the word was used both for a name and for a ‘rock’. .. Expositors, Vol. 8, p. 368.

One Volume Commentary: ‘Thou art Peter’ – At his first calling, this new name was announced to him as an honour afterwards to be conferred on him (John 1:43 [sic]). Now he gets it with an explanation of what it was meant to convey. ‘And upon this rock’ – As ‘Peter’ and ‘Rock’ are one word in the dialect familiarity spoken by our Lord – the Aramaic or Syro-Chaldean, which was the mother tongue of the country – this exalted play upon the word can be fully seen only in languages which have one word for both…’ pp. 47-48.

The distinction [petros – petra] is almost entirely confined to poetry in earlier Coine Greek. The common word for little pebble was not petros but lithos. In Matthew 4:3 we read, "the devil cajoles Jesus to perform a miracle and transform some stones [lithoi] the Greek plural for lithos, into bread. In John 10:31, certain Jews pick up stones [lithoi] to stone Jesus with. In 1 Peter 2:5, St. Peter describes Christians as 'living stones,' [litho] which form a spiritual house. If St. Matthew had wanted to draw a distinction between a big rock and a little rock in Matthew 16:17-19, he could have by using lithos, but he didn't.

By the time of Christ, both petros and petra were cognates in coine Greek, meaning that they were interchangeable words meaning the same thing. And both words come directly from one word in Aramaic: [I]kepa, the very name Jesus gave to Peter in John 1:42.

The thing is that in Greek you have grammatical feminine and masculine words, like in Spanish [silla (chair) is feminine and vaso (cup) is masculine]. In translating the Aramaic Khepa to Greek, the author had to use the masculine petros for Peter.

And the Aramaic name Jesus gives to Peter in John 1:42 is Kepa, which means rock in Aramaic.

Go to your Strong’s Lexicon and check it. Here it is:

4074. Petros pet'-ros apparently a primary word; a (piece of) rock (larger than 3037); as a name, Petrus, an apostle:--Peter, rock. Compare 2786.

4073. petra pet'-ra feminine of the same as 4074; a (mass of) rock (literally or figuratively):--rock.

Here you have it. Both mean the same and petra [4073] is the feminine word for petros. We are also told in Strongs to compare petros, the name of Peter in Matthew 16, with # 2786. Well, here it is:

2786. Kephas kay-fas' of Chaldee origin (compare 3710); the Rock; Cephas (i.e. Kepha), a surname of Peter:--Cephas.

As it should be very clear from Strong’s, Petra is the feminine of Petros and Petros comes from the Aramaic name Cephas. Cephas is the name Jesus gave to Peter in John 1:42. All these words mean the same, rock.

What is even more important to notice is that the words petros and petra meant the same thing in Greek, they are cognates. In fact, Petra is used for little stone in other places in Scripture not just for Rock or boulder. For example, in Romans 9:33 it is written: [I]"See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." Petra is used here in the image of a man stumbling and falling by kicking a rock on the road. Here we see how petra is used for a smaller rock on the road, not a boulder.




Jesus is the Everlasting Father

Well, that is just outright wrong. Jesus is the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity. He now sits at the right hand of the Father. Please.




The keys to the kingdom is given to any of the Apostles and Elders and other workers for the Church. The

Again, not true. The keys were given to Peter alone in Matt 16:18, and to the twelve as a group in Matt 18:18. Read any early Christian work, and you will see that the Bishops are the successors of the Apostles. That is why, today, either the Pope alone OR the Bishops as a whole in Council, can "bind and loose".

Contexrt is everything, and you are skewing the facts in order to squeeze the square peg oif scripture into your round hole of protestant error.

[Churchwork]

I picture Jesus holding a larger rock in one hand and a smaller rock in the other and saying to Peter he is the latter, and the Lord is the former, and the Church is built on this larger rock. He says this right after saying, "for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven" (Matt. 16.17). What was revealed? That Jesus "art the Christ, the Son of the living God" (v.16). So naturally the Church is built on the One being spoken of. Then Jesus says, "I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven" (v.19). He doesn't give him the key to the Church but to the kingdom of heaven. If Jesus gave Peter the keys to the Church, Roman Catholicism might be true, but Jesus makes no mistake here.

Is. 9.6 says Jesus is the "Everlasting Father". This is not to say He is the 1st Person of the Trinity but that Jesus is the chief as it were.

While petros is used in different instances, the context surrounding Jesus' talk with Peter is that of two rocks, one smaller and one larger, to bring home a point.