21 July, 2009

A continuing discussion with LottaLou on the formation of the Church by Jesus and the disciples.

(LottaLou)I'm not in opposition to Christ's Church. Only doctrines that are heresies. Heresies sneak in a number of Churches. That is one of the devil's attack stratagies.

(Cristoiglesia) I guess when Jesus said that His Church, the Catholic Church, is the “pillar and foundation of the truth” that you believe there are exceptions to the rule or that Jesus was using hyperbole. He said His Church will never fall into apostasy when He said the gates of hell will never prevail against it. There are no exceptions nor is Jesus using hyperbole. The Church does not nor has it ever taught heresy and never will as Jesus promised. The heresies come from those separated from the truth outside the Church Jesus and the disciples founded as we have already discussed.

(LottaLou)I know Peter is an important Apostle of Christ & given the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. The other disciples there were also given the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. I believe Jesus was talking to all the Apostles when He said, 'I give you the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven. (I notice that there is more than one key. Jesus said keys.)

(Cristoiglesia) It is true that all the Bishops in apostolic succession have authority from Christ but only one was selected by Jesus to lead the Church and the shepherds of the Church. The Bible records only St. Peter receiving the keys. Please refer to the verses in Isaiah I gave you previously in which Jesus was appointing the leader of His Kingdom whose authority is passed on to others. You are reading a great deal into Scriptures that they simply do not say.

(LottaLou)I believe the Catholic Church is on the Rock Foundation, Christ. But not all the Popes, etc. have been Christians. And a history book helps discern this. (Obviously some Priests caught abusing children weren't Christians.) And Catholic religious or spiritual leaders are human & make honest mistakes too.

(Cristoiglesia)Yes the Bible says that Jesus is the cornerstone and the disciples are the 12 foundation stones of the Church. As for your saying that not all Popes have been Christian, I would guess that depends on how one defines Christian. You also say that priests who have committed sexual abuse are not Christian. Are you trying to draw a parallel that Christians are only those without sin? Just for your information we are all sinners. The Bible tells us that there were only three people ever born who lived without sin and that is Jesus; the blessed mother of God and St. John the Baptist. In spite of sinners and possibly evil people within the Church the Church has never wavered from the truth just as Jesus promised the faithful and all of humanity.

(LottaLou) Rock (Petra) in a Strong's Exhaustive is in M't7:24 built house on a rock. Lu6:48 founded upon a rock. 1Co10:4 they drank of that Spiritual Rock...& that Rock was Christ; Compare w/OT Ex17:6 drinking water Rock(Tsoor). Ps78:35 God is Rock (Tsoor). Ps62:2 He Only is my Rock (Tsoor) and my Salvation (Yeshuah).
In the OT, the Rock is Jesus Christ.

(Cristoiglesia) Yes, In Koine Greek Petra is the feminine gender of rock.

(LottaLou) “Kepha is a curved Rock, not a foundational Rock.”

(Cristoiglesia) No, Kepha is the Aramaic word meaning rock. The shape of the rock does not matter, it simply means Rock.

(LottaLou) Petrus is Piece of the Rock, larger than a stone (litho). So Petrus is of the Rock (Christ) foundation.

(Cristoiglesia) The word is Petros which is a Koine Greek word in the masculine gender that means simply rock. In Attic Greek hundreds of years before Christ but a dead language in the first century records some Greek poetry used Petros to mean small stone but in Koine Greek spoken in first century Jerusalem this archaic usage would have been unknown. As I showed you in the previous post it would make no sense in that usage anyway. The facts are from the original Koine Greek and comparing to the spoken Aramaic Simon was definitely the Rock of which Jesus was speaking. God bless!

In Christ
Fr. Joseph

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