CHRIST NEVER PROMISED
THAT HIS
CHURCH WOULD NEVER EVER DISAPPEAR
The Lord Jesus Christ never said that there would always be true
Christians on the earth until the time he returns in the second
coming. He said, “You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my
Church and the gates of the underworld will never prevail over it”
(Matthew 16).
The powers of the underworld cannot destroy the Church of God for
God is stronger but the members of the Church can destroy it by
apostasy.
Jesus never stated that the Church would always be faithful. The
Devil never prevailed over Jesus on the cross when he got him
crucified. The Devil only thought he had prevailed for Jesus was out
of the way for a while. Though Jesus let Satan, do this he was more
powerful and made a comeback in the glorious resurrection. Jesus
disappeared in a tomb. So the Church can temporarily disappear but
God can bring it back. Also if Peter was the rock as some say then
the promise might only mean that the Church will exist as long as
Peter is the rock and after that there is no guarantee. There is
nothing in the verse about a papal line coming along after Peter.
That is an unscriptural invention.
Jesus told Peter he would give him the keys of the kingdom of Heaven
so that whatever he bound on earth would be bound on Heaven and
whatever he loosed on earth would be loosed in Heaven. We reject the
popular Protestant interpretation that this only refers to him being
given opportunities to open Heaven to pagans and Jews by his
preaching. We favour the idea that Peter was given the charism of
writing and stating what was infallible and infallibly identifying
and rejecting false brethren and accepting the true believers. All
Christians believe Peter had this infallibility. The Catholics
believe it too. Peter was infallible only in a prophetic way. He was
not infallible in the way the pope is claimed to be. He did not even
need that infallibility.
This interpretation fits the facts better than the Catholic claim
that Jesus was giving Peter papal infallibility and the power to
accept people and excommunicate them. Interestingly the Church says
the pope can excommunicate unfairly.
Papal infallibility was not used until the 1800s meaning Jesus was
unlikely to bother mentioning it at such an important time. Also
Peter did not need to be given the power to excommunicate or accept
people. Every religious leader has such authority. The popes have
never claimed to be infallible in excommunicating or admitting
people to the Church.
The Bible says the faith was once for all delivered to the saints
meaning the faith was revealed once. This does not rule out the
Church going apostate leaving people to look at the Bible and
learning from it to restore the faith.
Peter may have been called to be the main rock or support of the
Church not necessarily its head but this would depend on him
remaining firm. It was obviously a conditional prophecy.
Nothing in the Bible is against the idea of a universal apostasy of
Christians. Indeed the New Testament warns about false Christian
teachers who were there from the beginning. They had resorted to
inventing traditions and doctrines and forging documents to make it
seem like they came from the apostles of the Church. Paul tells us
that.
Church tradition may be useful but only if it is very early
tradition. But we must never turn it into an alternative word of God
like the Roman Catholic Church has done. Scripture comes first.
Roman Catholic tradition has no authority from God to back it up so
it must be dismissed entirely.
COMMENT: A lot of good information here. The Pope is not the head of the Church and the Catholic Church has fallen into huge error.
