First the Question: The Apostle Peter had absolutely NO apostolic authority over the Apostle Paul. True or False?
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And now the answer to the LLM Question of 6-8-2012
Question: There is no Bible proof that the Apostle Peter was in Rome to establish a Church, or for any other purpose. True or False?
Answer: TRUE! Can any Roman Catholic prove by the Book of Acts, in the Roman Catholic Bible, that the Apostle Peter or any of the other Eleven Apostles ever left the land of the Jews to preach to Gentiles? The Apostle Peter sent a greeting from Babylon, (and yes, it was the actual Babylon) in 1 Peter 5:13, but he never sent a greeting to Rome or from Rome, so far as there is any Bible record. There is no Bible proof that Peter was in Rome to establish a Church or for any other purpose. Now, out of the 794 responses we received to this question, 81.3% of you got it right! Once again, very good!! Therefore, NOW, let us take a look at,
What Does the Roman Catholic Bible Teach About Roman Catholicism? Part 5 of 7
THE APOSTLE PETER AND THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM
It is most interesting to compare the commission of the LORD Jesus Christ on earth to Peter and the other Eleven Apostles, recorded in Matthew 10:5-10, especially the command, “Go not into the way of the Gentiles”, with the statement of Peter some twenty years later, recorded in Acts 15:7, “Peter rose up, and said unto them, men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles BY MY MOUTH, should hear the word of the gospel and believe.” When Twelve apostles stood up in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost it was by the Apostle Peter’s mouth that the LORD’s message was given to Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. (Acts 2:5 and Acts 2:14). Some to whom Peter spoke the LORD’s message that day were from ROME. (Acts 2:10). Some from Rome believed, and were in Christ before Saul of Tarsus (The Apostle Paul) was converted near Damascus, as Paul tells us in Romans 16:7. Some mentioned in Romans 16 were saved elsewhere. So there were perhaps some saints, and therefore an assembly, in Rome even before Paul was converted. But there was a Church in Jerusalem before there was one in Rome. But the fact we would here emphasize is, that Peter was the LORD’s spokesman for the TWELVE APOSTLES in using the KINGDOM KEYS (Matthew 16:16-19) beginning on the day of Pentecost for the Jews, and about seven or eight years later when “PETER OPENED HIS MOUTH” (Acts 10:34) and began his sermon to the household of Cornelius, the Gentile.
From the day Christ gave His command to Peter, in Matthew 10:5-10, “go not in the way of the Gentiles”, until he received the housetop vision, authorizing him to preach to Cornelius (Acts 10:20) about ten years later, the Apostle Peter rigidly obeyed the LORD’s command, saying ten years later that it was not lawful for him to preach to a Gentile. (Acts 10:28). When Peter did preach to Cornelius he was rather severely rebuked by his fellow‑apostles and others for opening his mouth to preach to Gentiles. (Acts 11:1-5).
Can any Roman Catholic prove by the Book of Acts, in the Roman Catholic Bible, that the Apostle Peter or any of the other Eleven Apostles ever left the land of the Jews to preach to Gentiles? By the Book of Acts?
The Apostle Peter sent a greeting from Babylon, (and yes, it was the actual Babylon) in 1 Peter 5:13, but he never sent a greeting to Rome or from Rome, so far as there is any Bible record. There is no Bible proof that Peter was in Rome to establish a Church or for any other purpose.
The Apostle Peter had an opportunity to preach to a Gentile while Christ was on earth, as we may learn in the Roman Catholic Bible by reading Matthew 15:21-27. But obeying the command of Christ in Matthew 10:5, instead of trying to get that poor, needy Gentile saved, he and the other apostles said, “SEND HER AWAY.” (Matthew 15:23). About eight years later he obeyed the ‘sheet’ vision and preached to Cornelius and his loved ones. Then several years later he agreed with Paul that he, Peter, would go to the Jews with the gospel and turn over to Paul the task of evangelizing the Gentiles. (Galatians 2:19).
Surely we must often wonder if the Roman Catholic clergy and laity have EVER EVEN READ Galatians 2 concerning Paul’s visit with the men who were apostles before him, including Peter.
Not one of these TWELVE apostles was responsible for the Apostle Paul’s conversion, so far as there is any record. Paul did not work under their authority when he was separated by the Holy Spirit to become the Apostle of the Gentiles. (Acts 13:2; Galatians 1:15-16) (Romans 11:13). The Apostle Paul received his authority and his Grace message from The RISEN Christ by direct revelation, and not from the TWELVE by communication. (Galatians 1:9-13). More than fifteen years after Peter preached to Jews on the day of Pentecost he still made his headquarters at Jerusalem (Acts 8:1; Acts 15:1-7; Galatians 2:1-11). Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit and was in the perfect will of the LORD when he was using the keys of the kingdom of heaven and so he was in the will of God when he remained in Jerusalem. (Matthew 10:23).
Now this most interesting and significant question, how was it possible for Peter to “disciple all nations”, in obedience to Matthew 28:19-20, while remaining in Jerusalem or by agreeing to disciple Jews by going to them with the Gospel as recorded in Galatians 2:9?
Is it not also significant that Peter addressed his FIRST EPISTLE to the scattered STRANGERS and that ‘STRANGERS’ correctly translated should read ‘DISPERSION’, the Jews to whom other Jews referred in John 7:35?
Hear this fact, which to Roman Catholics should be astounding, considering the prominence they have given the Apostle Peter in the Church or Body of Christ. In all of the twenty seven Books of the Catholic Bible, called the New Testament Scriptures, no Catholic clergyman can find MENTIONED BY NAME one Gentile who accepted Christ or Christianity under the preaching of Peter other than the household of Cornelius. We say ‘mentioned by name’. Barnabas, Silas, Mark, Barnabas and other disciples who went out from Jerusalem were Jews.
Roman Catholics, as well as the large majority of evangelistic Christians, have apparently neglected the careful study of the Apostle Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 3:10, “As a WISE MASTER BUILDER (architect), I have laid the foundation. Let every man take heed how we build together (sunoikodomeo) thereupon.”
NOW, WHAT ABOUT PURGATORY
We read in Hebrews 1:3, that when Christ had by Himself, ONCE for all, PURGED our sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. In the matter of purging sin for the sinner’s salvation, this is the true PURGATORY in the Roman Catholic Bible, and in all Christians’ Bibles. Where sin abounded Grace did MUCH MORE (OVER) ABOUND. (Romans 5:20). The Blood of Jesus Christ God’s Son cleanses us from ALL sin, and by Christ all who believe are justified from all things. (1 John 1:7; Acts 13:39)
Roman Catholics do not like to be challenged concerning their ‘PURGATORY’ man made theory, for the same reason that certain men had the Apostle Paul arrested at Philippi, “when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas” (Acts 16:19).
PURGATORY, with the Roman Catholics, is certainly one big ‘hope of their gains’; but is wholly without Scriptural support. Certainly Luke 12:47-48 and 1 Corinthians 3:15, ‘many stripes’ and ‘few stripes’ and ‘saved so as by fire’ in no way teach the PURGATORY of the Roman Catholic Organization, for a Christian is not appointed unto wrath, but to obtain salvation by our LORD Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 5:9), Yes, the Christian is delivered from the wrath to come (1 Thessalonians 1:10), (John 3:36).
The Roman Catholics’ PURGATORY, being purged in fire for a long period, is WRATH TO COME. The believer shall not come into that judgment. (John 5:24). The Bible does not guarantee eternal life to Catholics or everlasting perdition to Non-Catholics, but it absolutely guarantees everlasting life and eternal glory to every believer saved by the infinite, matchless, abounding Grace of the God of all Grace, and eternal CONSCIOUS perdition to every sinner who refuses or fails to meet God by Faith at Calvary, where the LORD Jesus Christ ONCE for all put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself and where God perfects, FOREVER, all who are cleansed by the precious shed blood of the Lamb of God, Who beareth away the sin of the world. Read 1 Timothy 2:4; Hebrews 9:26; 1 Peter 1:18-21; Romans 5:1; John 1:29, and Hebrews 10:14.
God’s Word is clear, “THERE REMAINETH NO MORE SACRIFICE FOR SINS”. (Hebrews 10:26 and Hebrews 10:12).
What does it mean to be justified FREELY by God’s Grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus and His ONCE for all shed blood? (Roman 3:24-26)? The Greek word translated ‘FREELY’ is ‘DORIAN’, which word is translated in John 15: ‘WITHOUT A CAUSE’. Whether you are a Roman Catholic, a so called Protestant, a church member sinner, or some other kind of a sinner, believe that eternal life is God’s FREE GIFT through Jesus Christ. The Roman Catholic Bible says so in Romans 6:23; John 3:36; John 5:24; John 6:47.
No religious dignitaries or potentates were needed to canonize the thief who died on the cross, after his death, to get him out of PURGATORY, for the LORD said, “TODAY, shalt thou be with me in PARADISE” (Luke 23:43) For every member of the Body (Church) of Christ, death means, absent from the body and present with the LORD (2 Cor. 5:8), it means to depart to be with Christ. (Philippians 1:23).
Perhaps those who called the PURGATORY teaching a religious money making racket have been seemingly ungracious. The Apostle Peter spoke of religious leaders who made merchandise of people. (2 Peter 2:3). The teaching of PURGATORY is worse than that.
To the first Church of Rome the Apostle Paul wrote his Epistle, and in the sixteenth chapter he sent greetings to about twenty‑five saints by name and then added, “to all the saints that are with them.” (Romans 16:15). Many of the saints that Paul addressed in his different Epistles did not walk as becometh saints (compare Ephesians 5:3 with 1 Corinthians 3:3), SO, they were not saints because they walked as saints or behaved to please the LORD spiritually. The Corinthians became saints in the manner set forth in 1 Corinthians 6:11. The Ephesians became saints in the manner recorded in Ephesians 2:8-10. Sinners become saints by believing, not by behaving. They SHOULD behave as becometh saints AFTER they become saints BY believing, BY receiving the Grace of God, which they should not receive in vain. (2 Cor. 6:1).
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In Ephesians 1:13 the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul declares that men are saved and sealed by hearing and BELIEVING the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your Salvation. Therefore, here, now, is declared unto you the Word of Truth, the Gospel of your Salvation: "that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures" 1 Corinthians 15:3-4. BELIEVE today. The time is short.
So There You Have it!
Spread this message to everyone you know, far and wide.
Grace be to you and peace, from God: our Father, and The LORD Jesus Christ.
In The LORD Jesus Christ,
The Lion and Lamb Ministry
Pastor David Picos, D.D.
Minister and Ambassador for Christ in the Ministry of Reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18-20)
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