The Bible and the Pope #1

Welcome to the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, Founding Pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hello, I'm Bill Wright. Thanks for joining us as we continue teaching God's people God's Word. Don begins a new message today, so without further delay, let's join him right now in the Truth Pulpit. Well, as we've said many times over the past few weeks, on Tuesday evenings, the 500th anniversary of the Reformation will be on October 31st of this year. And in a gross oversimplification, we could say that the Reformation occurred when the power of Scripture was brought to bear on the Catholic Church. 500 years later, we still need to do that. We still need to bring the Bible to bear on everything that we see, and we need to bring the Bible to bear on the Roman Catholic Church. And that's what we're going to do over the next few weeks here, culminating on October 31st, 2017. It is a privilege for us as a church, it is a privilege for me as a sinful, unworthy man to open God's Word, to stand on the shoulders of the great reformers like Luther and Calvin and Zwingli, who have had such a profound impact on the world under the hand and providence of God as they open God's Word.

And so we want to stand in that tradition this evening. And tonight we start a biblical examination of the Catholic Church. Tonight we're going to look at the Pope, and over the course of the next several weeks we'll look at the Bible and Catholic tradition. We'll look at the Bible and the Mass, the Bible and Mary, and conclude with the Bible and the Catholic view of salvation.

And this is going to be helpful in many ways. There are many in our congregation and certainly in this area that are affected by Catholicism and come out of a Catholic background. But even if you haven't been influenced by Catholicism, this series is going to be very helpful for you in order to see the principles that we've been talking about the past two weeks on a biblical perspective of Church history, where we talked about different principles that guide our understanding of the unfolding of God's plan in His Church.

Principles of divine providence and the preeminence of Christ and other matters along that line. And so we're going to take those general principles and apply them to a consideration of the Catholic Church. The 2016 Pontifical Yearbook released by the Vatican said that there are 1.27 billion baptized Catholics in the world.

That is 17.8% of the world population. And those numbers behoove us to examine the claims of Catholicism. And as we do that tonight and in the coming weeks, there are two extremes that we need to avoid. Some would overlook our differences with the Catholic Church completely. They would say we all believe in Jesus, so can't we just join forces against our declining culture and politics and not get too precise about theology? To them we say no, we can't. I'm mindful as I stand here when I've addressed this in years gone by, people have left and no longer attended our church after I addressed Catholicism in one way or another. And I realize that that might happen again as I do it here this evening and in the coming weeks.

To which I just say, oh well, we just have to stand for truth without regard to the consequences and the way that people might react against it. You see, Rome, by which I mean the Catholic Church, makes truth claims. Paragraph, and by the way, let me just say this at the start, I'm going to be citing a lot of Roman Catholic documents, referring to different things, and it's going to be hard for you to try to get all of that down if you're taking notes. If you have an interest in these things and you want the documentation, I have them all in my notes. If you'll just let me know, I'll be happy to share a copy of my notes with you.

And that perhaps will take some of the pressure off of the notes and trying to keep up with me as we go along. The Roman Catholic catechism was issued in 1994, second edition was issued in 1997. It is the official source of their teaching. And in paragraph 846 of the catechism, it says this, and I quote, they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it. Listen to that again. It says they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would either refuse to enter it or to remain in it. The official doctrine of the Catholic Church is that if you know about it and you reject it, you cannot be saved. And I want to say something here because what comes up every time you deal with Catholicism is people will object and say, well, I know Catholics who aren't like that or I know a priest that doesn't teach that way. That doesn't matter.

That's utterly irrelevant. Because what matters is what is the official teaching of Rome? And Rome has expressed in their catechism what their teaching is, and it is fair and it is right for us to examine it biblically. And so the official teaching of the Catholic Church is if you know about the Catholic Church and refuse to enter it, you cannot be saved.

That is imposing. The Bible says in 1 John 4 verse 1, test the spirits to see whether they are from God. When someone makes a truth claim, and the Roman Catholic Church makes a lot of them, we not only have the right, we have the responsibility to test those truth claims by the teaching of Scripture. We have the right and we have the responsibility to do it, and the fact that they try to preempt the discussion with intimidations and curses upon those who reject their system of religion doesn't hinder us at all. We're not intimidated by that at all because we're under a direct command of God in the Scripture to test the spirits. Now, on the other hand, there's another extreme to avoid, and we want to avoid, on the other hand, a contentious spirit.

I'm not up here trying to pick a fight with anybody. The Bible says to give an account of our hope with gentleness and with reverence in 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 15. We must not only know the truth, but we are to conduct ourselves graciously as we handle it and as we interact with those who do not know Christ. And so, in the truest sense, I'm not an enemy of any individual Catholic as I stand here tonight.

I just want to share truth in a way that God might use it to open hearts, to understand, to help you grow in your understanding of truth. And if God would use this series to open the mind of someone that's under the dark chains of Catholicism, then that would be the greatest act of love that we could do for anyone, is to show them the darkness that they have been enslaved to. Now, when I talk about the Catholic Church, I do want to just repeat myself here. I am addressing the system of religion taught by its leadership in Rome. I realize that individual Catholics may differ with their church, but that doesn't change the nature of the system any more than somebody who visits Truth Community Church could presume to speak for what our doctrine is.

When they're not in leadership, they're not in membership or anything like that, someone who is outside the leadership and the authority of a church does not have the capacity to define what its doctrine is. And so we go to their official sources, we go to their official documents, we see what they say in their own documents, their own catechism, and we evaluate it accordingly. And so tonight we're here to bring the Bible to bear on the Pope, the Bible and the Pope. And first of all, we'll break this down into three points.

I can't seem to do a message without three points, generally speaking, but that's all right. Point number one, we just want to consider the Catholic teaching about the Pope, the Catholic teaching about the Pope. And so what we're going to do is we're just going to lay out what they teach, and then later in the message we'll bring Scripture to bear upon it to see whether what they say is true or not. Now, Catholics believe that Christ appointed Peter to be the head of the church, and whoever becomes the Pope inherits Peter's authority, so that they believe that there is an apostolic succession, authority was given to Peter, and whoever sits in the so-called chair of Peter has the authority that Christ originally gave to Peter. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, as I said, is their official teaching. What does it say about the Pope?

Listen to this, paragraph 936 of the Catholic Catechism. And I quote, Catholics teach that the Lord made Saint Peter the visible foundation of his church. He entrusted the keys of the church to him. That is, Christ entrusted the keys of the church to Peter. The bishop of the Church of Rome, successor to Saint Peter, is head of the College of Bishops, the vicar of Christ, and pastor of the universal church on earth. Paragraph 882 says, the Roman pontiff has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole church. One man has supreme, universal power over the entire church. That's their official teaching.

You can look it up. Now, this catechism is built on prior proclamations that the Catholic Church has made. The first Vatican council in 1870 said in chapter 2 titled, On the perpetuity of the primacy of blessed Peter and the Roman pontiffs, says this, whoever succeeds to Peter in this sea, does by the institution of Christ himself, obtain the primacy of Peter over the whole church. Goes on and says, if then, any should deny that the Roman pontiff is the successor of blessed Peter in this primacy, let him be anathema.

In other words, let him be accursed. The Catholic Church, my brothers and sisters in Christ, the Catholic Church pronounces damnation on anyone who denies that the pope is Peter's successor. Chapter 3 from the first Vatican council says this, and I quote, all the faithful of Christ must believe that the Roman pontiff possesses the primacy over the whole world, and that the Roman pontiff is the successor of blessed Peter, head of the whole church, and father and teacher of all Christians, and that full power was given to him in blessed Peter to rule, feed, and govern the universal church by Jesus Christ our Lord. That's staggering.

The Catholic Church asserts that the pope has primacy over the entire world, he is head of the church, father and teacher of all Christians, and has full power to govern the church of Jesus Christ. I have to restrain my emotions just not to react verbally against that. I guess I am reacting verbally against it here tonight, am I not?

But to restrain the righteous indignation that I feel at such blasphemous claims. And you might ask, you might ask, well, are they serious? You know, I mean, people say different things. Do they really mean this? Do we have to take this seriously as though it matters? Are they serious?

They are. Listen to the first Vatican council, also from chapter 3, on the primacy of the Roman pontiff. This is the teaching of Catholic truth from which no one can deviate without loss of faith and of salvation. That's the Catholic teaching on the pope. The Catholic Church teaches that you must completely accept their teaching about the pope or you will go to hell. The first Vatican, again concerning the infallible teaching of the Roman pontiff, says this, The sea of Holy Peter remains ever free from all blemish of error. We teach that the Roman pontiff, when he speaks ex cathedra, that is, when in discharge of the office of pastor and doctor of all Christians and defines a doctrine regarding faith or morals to be held by the universal church, is possessed of infallibility. So when the pope speaks ex cathedra, when he is defining doctrine, they say that the pope is infallible. They attribute to the pope that which we rightly attribute to the Bible alone. Infallible, incapable of error, never wrong.

Are they serious? Well, here's what they say. But if anyone presumed to contradict this our definition, let him be anathema.

They curse those who contradict their teaching on the papacy, to which I say, hey, bring it on. Bring it on. You want a battle? We'll fight this.

This is worth fighting over. Now, Catholics use Matthew 16 as a primary text to justify their view. Turn to Matthew 16, if you will, with me.

And we'll turn to Scripture for most of the rest of our time now. In Matthew 16, Catholics will quote verses 18 and 19 where Jesus addresses Peter. And he said to Peter, 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.

And so this is their primary text. They say that Jesus spoke to Peter, said you're Peter, on this rock I will build my church. When you look at it biblically, these grandiose claims that the Catholics make about the pope stand on a very narrow foundation, has a very narrow base. And Lorraine Bettner, one of my favorite theologians frankly, a man, I always have to clarify that for those of you that don't know of him, Lorraine Bettner, a man who wrote a standard work on Catholicism in decades gone by says this, disprove the primacy of Peter and the foundation of the papacy is destroyed.

Destroy the papacy and the whole Roman hierarchy topples with it. So that's the Catholic teaching on the pope, that's the biblical basis that they claim, not that they're really, you know, it's just a justification for the assertions they make. But here's what we want to do tonight, having stated what their claims are about the pope, is we want to, first of all, we want to answer, this is our second point here tonight, we want to answer this question, was Peter the first pope? Was Peter the first pope? And we'll answer this in various ways, but in short, the answer to this question, was Peter the first pope?

The answer to that question is nope. Nope, Peter was not the first pope, and that's demonstrably clear from Scripture. First of all, in context, Peter is not the rock.

In the context of Matthew 16, Peter is not the rock. Let's look at the whole context of the passage that they base their claims on. Look at the whole context of Matthew 16, 13 to 20. And by the way, with every false religion, with every false religion, context is always going to be the key.

They will never deal fairly with the context with you. They'll isolate a single verse or two, take them out of context, but if you just read the context and consider what you are actually looking at, you'll find that those verses have been twisted beyond all recognition. And that is certainly the case with the Catholic treatment of Matthew 16.

Let's read the entire passage in order to set it in our minds. Matthew 16, beginning in verse 13. Now, when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he was asking his disciples, who do people say that the Son of Man is? And they said, some say John the Baptist and others Elijah, but still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? 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. Then he warned the disciples that they should tell no one that he was the Christ. Now, let's just ask a really basic question as we consider that passage of scripture.

The most simple, clear, fundamental question that an eight-year-old child with the ability to read could answer. Who is the focus of this passage? Who is this passage about? And it's obvious that it is Jesus Christ who is the focus of this passage in Matthew 16, not Peter. Peter's incidental, because the passage opens up with the statement, who do people say the Son of Man is, in verse 13. Peter gives the answer in verse 16, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, after there has been this explanation of all of the competing theories about the identity of this Christ, about the identity of who the Son of Man is. And so, verse 13, who do people say the Son of Man is? There are different speculations in verse 14. Verse 15, Jesus says, who do you say I am?

Who do you say I am? Peter said, you're the Christ, the Son of the living God. This is all about who Christ is, not about who Peter is. Peter's just giving the answer. Peter is the mouthpiece for divine revelation that affirms Jesus of Nazareth as being the Christ of the living God.

That's the focus of the context. And after all of that clear emphasis on Christ as the Son of God, beloved, it would do violent damage to the whole context to suddenly flip it and make everything about Peter as though Peter were the point of this whole passage. Peter's not the point of this passage.

Jesus Christ is. You say, but what was Jesus referring to when he said on this rock? Well, look at verse 18 with me again.

Matthew 16, verse 18. Jesus says, 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. Catholics say that Peter is the rock of which Jesus spoke, but that's not true.

That's demonstrably false. Peter is from the masculine Greek word petros, and petros refers to a detached stone or a boulder. Picture something that you can pick up and move. It's that kind of rock. When Jesus says, upon this rock I will build my church, he uses a different word. He uses the Greek word petra. It's a play on word petros and petra, but petra is a different word that means a large body of rock. Picture a rock formation in a mountain or a rock foundation underlying the earth's soil, and you get the idea. Something massive, something immovable is the idea behind petra, and so it gives you this sense. It's the difference between a movable stone, petros, versus an immovable slab, petra. Now, notice this.

Sometimes the most important observations you could make are the simplest ones. Jesus used two different words. He did not say, you are Peter, and on you, Peter, I will build my church. He did not say that. He did not say, you are petros, and on this petros I will build my church. He could have said that. It would have been a whole lot more plain if he meant to isolate Peter, but that's not what he said. He said, you are petros, and upon this petra I will build my church. Beloved, basic language, basic language. Different words mean different things.

Different words mean different things. The rock is not Peter, as I will show to you conclusively soon. The rock is Peter's confession of Christ. Go back to Matthew 16 with me, not that you turned away because I haven't directed you to any other text yet. But look in verse 16.

Peter answered, let me back up and just keep the context really, really clear to you here. The question is, the question in verse 13 is who is the son of man? Who do people say that the son of man is? Verse 15, he repeats the question in a slightly different way. He says, who do you say that I am? The issue is who is Christ?

That's the whole focus of the context here. And Peter answers the question saying, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Everything in the context is pointing to that confession as being crucial to the question that Jesus raised. Now, when Peter answers it, Jesus says, Simon Barjona, you are blessed that God has revealed this to you.

God in heaven has revealed that to your mind. What has he revealed to his mind? The confession that Jesus is the Christ. All the way through, this is about the confession of who Christ is. And so he says in verse 18, I say to you that you are Peter and upon this rock, I will build my church. The rock is not Peter. The rock is Peter's confession of Christ. The confession that you are the Christ, the son of the living God. That is the immovable rock because, beloved, it is an eternal truth.

Peter was a man chosen by Christ, true to be an apostle, but he was a sinful man, born of flesh, destined to die just as any other man did. That is not an immovable rock upon which to build a church for 2,000 years and counting. What is an immovable rock is who Jesus Christ is.

That's the immovable rock. Beloved, hell itself, Satan and demons themselves, cannot overturn that truth. Nobody can overturn the truth that Jesus Christ is the son of the living God. Nobody can overturn the truth that he is God incarnate, he is God in human flesh, and he is the one who builds his church.

Nobody cancels that out. And as you read on in Scripture, you find that apostolic preaching built itself on the exclusivity of Christ. Let's look at three passages.

I'll have you turn there just to keep your fingers involved in the action. Turn to Acts 4, verse 12. Acts 4, verse 12 says, There is salvation in no one else, and there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. The name of Jesus Christ being the name given by heaven by which men must be saved. It is only for those that confess Christ as Lord that find salvation.

If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. Romans 10, 9 and 10 says, Acts chapter 4 says there is no other name. It is a confession of the name.

It is the name of Christ that is the rock upon which the church is built. There is no debating this. This is not open for discussion.

This is not a close question. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 2. When the blessed scriptures teach us through the Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 1, Paul is speaking of his own ministry here, and he says, And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. He said the summary of the content of my preaching is Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Why? Because Christ is the rock. Because Christ is the confession. Because that is the means by which God builds his church through the proclamation of the name of Jesus Christ. It has nothing to do with Peter. And in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, if you would turn there, 2 Corinthians chapter 4, Paul again said, I'm going to start in verse 1.

It's a little more context than we need, but it needs to be said. Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart, but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. Verse 5, for we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bondservants for Jesus' sake. The gospel is about the glory of Christ. Paul says we don't preach ourselves, we preach Christ Jesus as Lord. Now the whole point of this, remember, is simply to show that Peter is not the rock upon which the church is built. The church is built upon Jesus Christ and upon him alone. And so we see from the context of the passage, we see from the representative examples of apostolic preaching, it's the name of Christ, there is no other.

We determine to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. We proclaim Christ and not ourselves. Why all of this emphasis on Christ?

Beloved, it's because he is the rock. It's because he is the foundation upon which the church is built. Nobody has ever been saved by Peter. Peter wasn't crucified for your sins. Peter was an apostle, the Lord used him. But he is nothing compared to Christ, just as I am nothing. You are nothing compared to Christ. And so the idea of elevating the pope on the basis of Peter is shown to be completely ridiculous, completely unbiblical, completely untrue.

It is a matter of fabrication. Christ builds his church on his name, not on the authority of Peter. And in that manner, Christ gets all the glory alone, as it should be. That's Don Green here on The Truth Pulpit. And here's Don again with some closing thoughts.

Well, thank you, Bill. My friend, there is a pastoral word that I would share with you here today. You know, I'm mindful of the fact that Jesus said that there would be many on the Day of Judgment who would call him Lord and yet be shocked to find that he was going to send them away because he never knew them, it says in Matthew chapter 7.

And my friend, I just want to encourage you to examine your own heart. Do you really know Christ? You know, for so long in my life, there was such an extended period of time in my life where I said that I was a Christian, I claimed to know Christ, but I didn't, really. I was a stranger, I was in darkness until the Lord actually saved me.

Well, my friend, I don't want you to live in that cloud of self-deception that I found myself in many times. Do you realize that Christ died for sinners just like you? Have you turned from sin and put your faith completely in him? Have you been born again? Jesus said you must be born again in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. My friend, my prayers are with you that if you're not saved, God would open your eyes and if you are a brother or sister in Christ to me, God bless you, continue walking with Christ. Trust him because he will deliver you into heaven and it will be far more wonderful than you could ever imagine. That's Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Thank you so much for listening to The Truth Pulpit. Join us next time for more as we continue teaching God's people God's Word.