She also was destined to be "universal" in time as well as in space, and it was to her that applied the promise of Christ to Peter and the other apostles that "the powers of death shall not prevail" against her (Mt 16:18).
= = = =
Uhhhhhhhhhh, no. That would not be correct at all.
It's clear from Scripture that Christ's Body is and certainly will be called out of every sort of people group on the planet--eventually, even tribal people groups--obviously many having never heard of anything remotely related to Rome.
But that's already happened as the life of Samuel Morris demonstrated around 1900. His story is in the little classic: THE MARCH OF FAITH.
Sammy was a chief's son of a tribe in Africa that had been warring with a neighboring tribe for centuries. And, the custom of that region was that the tribe that lost the war, would surrender their chirf's sons for torture until the ransome was paid.
Sammy had been tied to a post in the center of a clearing for days and tortured.
Now, in the middle of the night on, I think the 3rd evening, he hears a voice say:
GET UP AND RUN.
He's convinced he's hallucinating as he can hardly breath, hardly exist he's so exhausted, tortured, brutalized, suffering, in pain.
A 2nd time, he hears the voice with his ears:
GET UP AND RUN.
He's hanging desperately by his bonds to the post. He's limp. I's a struggle to breathe. He has no energy at all to run and is bound firmly to the post.
A third time, he hears more insistently and loudly:
IS SAID TO GET UP AND RUN.
He discovers instantly that not only have has bonds been loosed by some miraculous power, but he also miraculously had energy to get up and run. He quickly runs out of the tribal clearing of his enemies' camp.
In the jungle, he discovers there is a curious, mysterioius light which moves with the voice he first heard. The light leads him to water and food for I think 2-3 weeks. Eventually, the light and voice lead him to a walled compound. The voice then says:
IN THERE, YOU WILL LEARN OF ME.
The walled compound is a Protestant mission compound. I forget the flavor. I think it was interdenominational.
I think Sammy was around 16 years old at the time. He lived to be in his early 20's.
God was mightily with him. He would always pray looking up and talk to God just as though he was talking to a person standing or sitting beside him . . . as though he was talking to a beloved father.
Sammmy would speak at huge meetings throughout Engliand and I think the USA. It was common at those meetings . . . that whenever Sammy crossed the threshhold of the auditorium door--even unbenknownst to the attendees--even an obscure door in the back or side--the moment he crossed the threshhold, folks would run screaming to the front of the auditorium repenting, confessing and seeking Jesus as their savior--all without any pronouncements from the platform or even without folks knowing that Sammy had arrived.
According to the Roman believers' orthodox construction on relaity--such a phenomenon would not be possible. Salvation can only, in the Roman construction on reality, flow through the Roman hierarchy, traditions, ceremonies, rituals, etc. That is, that God has given them an exclusive monopoly on what Christ died to give all men freely.
Clearly, as the above and thousands of other examples prove, God disagrees about that supposed monopoly.
Bravo, Quix, well said!