Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Peter the pope
Peter was made pope and the cow jumped over the moon!
I wonder if he wore one of those silly hats, sold eternal life and opened a Swiss bank account?
Matthew 16 and all that Peter the pope nonsense explained.
Look at how this chapter opens!
Verse 1; The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.
Straightway we have the religionists and legalists tempting Our Lord.
Verse 2 Our Lord begins to rebuke them; by verse 4 He has confronted them with their worldliness and lack of Spiritual understanding. They can tell what the weather will be like, like any person can and yet were ignorant of the times they were living in i.e. the time of Our Lord and Saviour - their Saviour, as prophesied in the Scriptures which they were supposed to an authority on.
Verse 5; The disciples have forgotten to bring bread
Verse 6; Jesus warns His disciples about the leaven (Sinful teaching/doctrine of legalism) of the Pharisees and Sadducees (Religionists).
Verse 7; The disciples in their slowness to learn think he is referring to the bread they have forgotten to bring.
Verse 8; Jesus is very quick to make use of knowing their thoughts and rebukes them for slowness in learning and behaving just like the Pharisees, worrying about the trivia of this life; majoring in the minors. He also turns this into a lesson in faith and faith now becomes the theme and thrust of this chapter.
Verses 9 & 10; Have you forgotten my miracles already The Lord says?
Verse 11 & 12 The Lord explains again and they finally understand.
I hope you all understand too, for this is crucial in understanding that religionists (Pharisees and Sadducees) are still with us in this world today and as I move into the next part of this chapter we will see.
Verse 13; The chapter now moves on to Caesarea Philippi and the theme of Faith is resumed as Jesus questions His disciples asking them “whom do people think I, the Son of man, am. Jesus is asking them to see if anyone out there, apart from those present, has faith as it would take faith to verbalise that Jesus is Lord.
Verse 14; They tell Our Lord that some say He is John the Baptist, some Elijah and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.
Verse 15; Then comes the big one! But whom say ye that I am? Jesus is testing their belief and faith.
Verse 16; Peter answers with a Spiritual nuke! His reply to this question is as significant as the creation of Adam and Eve. We must never underestimate this moment in mankind’s history. This is the first human being that has received a communication from the Father verse 17. Jesus also tells Peter how blessed he is to be the recipient of this first Fatherly communication.
Verse 18; Jesus then says (in the original Greek) And I also to thee say that thou art Peter and on this the rock I will build of me the church.
Now notice that megga word ‘this’ then ‘the rock’. Have you noticed Our Lord doesn’t say ‘you?’ Our Lord does not say “now Peter on you, I am going to build my church.” So what is this rock that Jesus is talking about? Easy, it was his statement of faith and belief in Him given to Peter by The Father, that is the ‘this’ this scripture is referring to. Now to support this notice how the Greek explains that the Church will be built of Jesus; “I will build the church of me” not of Peter.
Verse 19; And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven:
Now what are these keys of the Kingdom of Heaven/God that according to the Roman Catholic organisation were given to Peter and Peter alone? The keys are a repentant attitude, the gift of the Holy Spirit and the gift of Grace through belief and continued belief in Our Lord Jesus Christ, these are the keys to the Kingdom of God, which Peter and all believers would receive after Our Lord’s death and Resurrection. This is not a special gift to Peter alone. All those who would teach in the future would have this gift; the ability, with God’s power, to bring people to Jesus. Those people the Father was calling, which brings us to the next part of this verse.
Now here is another bad translation: This part of the verse has the opposite meaning to what is written in the KJV. In the Greek it is written as: and whatever you bind on the earth shall be, having been bound in the heavens.
So whatever Peter binds on earth will have already been bound in Heaven. He, like all of us Born Again will be harvesting the unsaved, binding in the Spirit, but only those whom the Father has ear marked. Peter is definitely not being given any special authority. Jesus is in authority and he needs no man here on earth to be in authority.
The same thing applies to the next part of that verse: In the Greek: and whatever you loose on the earth shall be, having been loosed in the heavens.
These were direct instructions from Jesus to not just Peter but all the disciples. Loosening here means freeing from the Law, and this is the lesson Peter had to learn regarding the dietary laws later on. He was rebuked by Paul. Now if he was head of the church how come he had to take a ticking off from Paul, who didn’t mince his words either? If Peter was head of the Church, there is no way he would have taken such a severe rebuke from someone of a lower order.
Now one final point; Roman Catholics in order to defend their deceptions and nonsense about Peter being the first Pope will site the fact that Peter is now known a Cephas for the first time. Cephas = a stone or a pebble, but Cephas is Aramaic for Peter and Peter was known as Peter or Cephas right at the beginning; see Matt 4:18; when he began to follow Jesus he was already known as Peter or Cephas. There is therefore no significance in Jesus mentioning his name in Matt 16 other than to emphasise that he was the first man to identify his Saviour. It is utter nonsense to suggest that Peter was specially chosen above his peers, especially when it was John whom The Lord loved more; John 21:7.
Here is another question. At what point did the Church begin to amass vast sums of money and its leaders wear all their fancy refinery when the original disciples went out without a penny and Our Lord had nowhere to lay his head?
Finally, if you are or were the least bit unsure of whom The Rock is (for there can only be one Rock) read it here from 1 Cor 10:4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ: The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ
The Simplicity that is in Christ
I wonder if he wore one of those silly hats, sold eternal life and opened a Swiss bank account?
Matthew 16 and all that Peter the pope nonsense explained.
Look at how this chapter opens!
Verse 1; The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.
Straightway we have the religionists and legalists tempting Our Lord.
Verse 2 Our Lord begins to rebuke them; by verse 4 He has confronted them with their worldliness and lack of Spiritual understanding. They can tell what the weather will be like, like any person can and yet were ignorant of the times they were living in i.e. the time of Our Lord and Saviour - their Saviour, as prophesied in the Scriptures which they were supposed to an authority on.
Verse 5; The disciples have forgotten to bring bread
Verse 6; Jesus warns His disciples about the leaven (Sinful teaching/doctrine of legalism) of the Pharisees and Sadducees (Religionists).
Verse 7; The disciples in their slowness to learn think he is referring to the bread they have forgotten to bring.
Verse 8; Jesus is very quick to make use of knowing their thoughts and rebukes them for slowness in learning and behaving just like the Pharisees, worrying about the trivia of this life; majoring in the minors. He also turns this into a lesson in faith and faith now becomes the theme and thrust of this chapter.
Verses 9 & 10; Have you forgotten my miracles already The Lord says?
Verse 11 & 12 The Lord explains again and they finally understand.
I hope you all understand too, for this is crucial in understanding that religionists (Pharisees and Sadducees) are still with us in this world today and as I move into the next part of this chapter we will see.
Verse 13; The chapter now moves on to Caesarea Philippi and the theme of Faith is resumed as Jesus questions His disciples asking them “whom do people think I, the Son of man, am. Jesus is asking them to see if anyone out there, apart from those present, has faith as it would take faith to verbalise that Jesus is Lord.
Verse 14; They tell Our Lord that some say He is John the Baptist, some Elijah and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.
Verse 15; Then comes the big one! But whom say ye that I am? Jesus is testing their belief and faith.
Verse 16; Peter answers with a Spiritual nuke! His reply to this question is as significant as the creation of Adam and Eve. We must never underestimate this moment in mankind’s history. This is the first human being that has received a communication from the Father verse 17. Jesus also tells Peter how blessed he is to be the recipient of this first Fatherly communication.
Verse 18; Jesus then says (in the original Greek) And I also to thee say that thou art Peter and on this the rock I will build of me the church.
Now notice that megga word ‘this’ then ‘the rock’. Have you noticed Our Lord doesn’t say ‘you?’ Our Lord does not say “now Peter on you, I am going to build my church.” So what is this rock that Jesus is talking about? Easy, it was his statement of faith and belief in Him given to Peter by The Father, that is the ‘this’ this scripture is referring to. Now to support this notice how the Greek explains that the Church will be built of Jesus; “I will build the church of me” not of Peter.
Verse 19; And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven:
Now what are these keys of the Kingdom of Heaven/God that according to the Roman Catholic organisation were given to Peter and Peter alone? The keys are a repentant attitude, the gift of the Holy Spirit and the gift of Grace through belief and continued belief in Our Lord Jesus Christ, these are the keys to the Kingdom of God, which Peter and all believers would receive after Our Lord’s death and Resurrection. This is not a special gift to Peter alone. All those who would teach in the future would have this gift; the ability, with God’s power, to bring people to Jesus. Those people the Father was calling, which brings us to the next part of this verse.
Now here is another bad translation: This part of the verse has the opposite meaning to what is written in the KJV. In the Greek it is written as: and whatever you bind on the earth shall be, having been bound in the heavens.
So whatever Peter binds on earth will have already been bound in Heaven. He, like all of us Born Again will be harvesting the unsaved, binding in the Spirit, but only those whom the Father has ear marked. Peter is definitely not being given any special authority. Jesus is in authority and he needs no man here on earth to be in authority.
The same thing applies to the next part of that verse: In the Greek: and whatever you loose on the earth shall be, having been loosed in the heavens.
These were direct instructions from Jesus to not just Peter but all the disciples. Loosening here means freeing from the Law, and this is the lesson Peter had to learn regarding the dietary laws later on. He was rebuked by Paul. Now if he was head of the church how come he had to take a ticking off from Paul, who didn’t mince his words either? If Peter was head of the Church, there is no way he would have taken such a severe rebuke from someone of a lower order.
Now one final point; Roman Catholics in order to defend their deceptions and nonsense about Peter being the first Pope will site the fact that Peter is now known a Cephas for the first time. Cephas = a stone or a pebble, but Cephas is Aramaic for Peter and Peter was known as Peter or Cephas right at the beginning; see Matt 4:18; when he began to follow Jesus he was already known as Peter or Cephas. There is therefore no significance in Jesus mentioning his name in Matt 16 other than to emphasise that he was the first man to identify his Saviour. It is utter nonsense to suggest that Peter was specially chosen above his peers, especially when it was John whom The Lord loved more; John 21:7.
Here is another question. At what point did the Church begin to amass vast sums of money and its leaders wear all their fancy refinery when the original disciples went out without a penny and Our Lord had nowhere to lay his head?
Finally, if you are or were the least bit unsure of whom The Rock is (for there can only be one Rock) read it here from 1 Cor 10:4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ: The Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ
The Simplicity that is in Christ
