You wrote:
“You sure have to twist some scripture to get to there...In fact, scripture will never take you there...The Catholic church didn’t exist until 400 A.D....”
Actually it existed since Christ founded it and that was more than 3.5 centuries before A.D. 400. It was already mentioned or discussed (by 400) by Ignatius, Ambrose, Augustine, Lactantius, the author of the Martyrdom of St. Polycarp, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, and St. Athanasius just to mention a few. But you say it didn’t exist until long after some of these men were dead?
“It’s the (c)atholic church you are referring to and it had nothing to do with your church...And still doesn’t...”
No, It is the Catholic Church I am referring to and it is my Church. While you are a member of a Protestant sect - which may or may not even be a century old - I am in the Catholic Church founded by Christ, led by the Holy Ghost and made great and brought to the ends of the earth by the saints and martyrs of nearly 2,000 years.
I know many Protestant anti-Catholics hate that sort of triumphalism, but too bad. The various Protestant sects out there are exactly that - sects. Here today, changed tomorrow, replaced the next day by some other sect.
“Peter’s ministry to the Jew (and Jews only) was a doctrine of faith, and works...That’s what the first three Gospels teach...”
What? 1) Peter’s ministry was to Jews and Gentiles (or have you forgotten the centurion Cornelius?). I am often surprised by how many anti-Catholics don’t remember that Peter ministered to Gentiles as well as Jews. At one moment, these same anti-Catholics throw up Paul’s rebuke of Peter at us as if it refutes papal infallibility and then moments later forget that Peter’s transgression was treating his Gentile converts differently from his Jewish ones! Peter ministered to anyone interested. St. Paul, likewise, was the Apostles to the Gentiles, yet he went to Jews first - always!
“And that’s where your church is at...”
The Word of God tells us that we are a people who in grace have faith and perform works. Hence Paul’s use of the phrase “obedience of faith”.
“After the Resurrection, Salvation was offered to the Gentiles as well...Under a different doctrine...A different Gospel...”
No. There was ONE gospel. ONLY ONE GOSPEL. It was the same gospel offered to every man, woman and child on this earth by the Apostles. Or have you forgotten “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” ( Ephesians 4:5 ). One faith would necessitate ONE GOSPEL. If there were two gospels, then there would be two faiths. Sorry, but what you’re saying makes no sense whatsoever.
“Paul called it his gospel...And if a person didn’t follow Paul’s gospel, it would be anathama on that person...It is a gospel of faith only...Faith without works...Jesus did this to make the Jews jealous...”
Paul did call it his gospel (e.g. Romans 2:16, 16:25). But it did not come from him. It came from God and His Church and all Paul did was preach it - he did not invent it nor did he teach a gospel of his own as separate from that of Christ and His Apostles. Jesus’ every act and word made His enemies jealous. The idea that He would allow two different gospels to be taught by the Apostles just to make the Jews jealous is simply wrong. There can only be ONE gospel. If there are two, then one is wrong. Paul made this clear enough in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15.
“And you guys are stuck in Peter’s gospel...Your gospel and your church are not the church that Paul formed...That church was a mystery from times past and apparently it’s still a mystery to your church...”
Paul formed no Church other than what Christ gave to him. You are actually claiming Peter opposed Paul, that Paul opposed Christ. Nonsense. Christ sent one Church and it taught one gospel through both Peter and Paul.
In the ideas you offered we see the destructive power of anti-Catholicism. Anti-Catholics are so desperate that they would even set Paul against Peter and Paul against Christ just to attack the Catholic Church. How sad.
Like I said, Peter's ministry during Jesus' walk on earth (the Gospels) was to the Jews only...
Mat 10:5 These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:
I don't know what to tell you...God says Peter's ministry was to the Jews only...Apparently your church tradition disagrees with that...You'll have to take that up with God...
No. There was ONE gospel. ONLY ONE GOSPEL. It was the same gospel offered to every man, woman and child on this earth by the Apostles. Or have you forgotten “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” ( Ephesians 4:5 ).
But more than one Gospel...Gospel doesn't mean Lord, Faith or Baptism...
Paul's gosple was the Gospel of Grace...
I. In itself, the word Gospel means good news.
II. Four forms of the Gospel are to be distinguished:
(1) The Gospel of the kingdom. This is the good news that God purposes to set up on the earth, in fulfilment of the Davidic Covenant: (2Sa_7:16): a kingdom, political, spiritual, Israelitish, universal, over which God's Son, David's heir, shall be King, and which shall be, for one thousand years, the manifestation of the righteousness of God in human affairs.
(See) - (Mat_3:2).
Two preachings of this Gospel are mentioned, one past, beginning with the ministry of John the Baptist, continued by our Lord and His disciples, and ending with the Jewish rejection of the King. The other is yet future (Mat_24:14) during the great tribulation, and immediately preceding the coming of the King in glory.
(2) The Gospel of the grace of God. This is the good news that Jesus Christ, the rejected King, has died on the cross for the sins of the world, that He was raised from the dead for our justification, and that, by Him, all that believe are justified from all things. This form of the Gospel is described in many ways. It is the Gospel...
"of God" (Rom_1:1) because it originates in His love;
"of Christ" (2Co_10:14) because it flows from His sacrifice, and because He is the alone Object of Gospel faith;
of the "grace of God" (Act_20:24) because it saves those whom the law curses;
of "the glory"; (1Ti_1:11); (2Co_4:4) because it concerns Him who is in the glory, and who is bringing the many sons to glory; (Heb_2:10);
of "our salvation" (Eph_1:13) because it is the "power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth"; (Rom_1:16);
of "the uncircumcision" (Gal_2:7) because it saves wholly apart from forms and ordinances of "peace"
(Eph_6:15) because through Christ it makes peace between the sinner and God, and imparts inward peace.
(3) The everlasting Gospel. (Rev_14:6). This is to be preached to the earth-dwellers at the very end of the great tribulation and immediately preceding the judgment of the nations (Mat_15:31). It is neither the Gospel of the kingdom, nor of grace. Though its burden is judgment, not salvation, it is good news to Israel and to those who, during the tribulation, have been saved; (Rev_7:9-14); (Luk_21:28); (Psa_96:11-13); (Isa_35:4-10).
(4) That which Paul calls, "my Gospel" (Rom_2:16). This is the Gospel of the grace of God in its fullest development, but includes the revelation of the result of that Gospel in the outcalling of the church, her relationships, position, privileges, and responsibility. It is the distinctive truth of Ephesians and Colossians, but interpenetrates all of Paul's writings.
III. There is "another Gospel" (Gal_1:6); (2Co_11:4) "which is not another," but a perversion of the Gospel of the grace of God, against which we are warned. It has many seductive forms, but the test is one -- it invariably denies the sufficiency of grace alone to save, keep, and perfect, and mingles with grace some kind of human merit. In Galatia it was law, in Colosse fanaticism (Col_2:18); etc. In any form, its teachers lie under the awful anathema of God.