"And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven." Matthew 16:19
Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is interpreted Peter." John 1:42
Clearly, the Catholic Church (The Church whose leader, The Pope, is clearly in a line of succession from Saint Peter, who was ordained by Christ as the first pope) Is the superior Church.
In others news, the Lutherans have not burned anyone at the stake recently.
Clearly, the Catholic Church (The Church whose leader, The Pope, is clearly in a line of succession from Saint Peter, who was ordained by Christ as the first pope) Is the superior Church.The Matthew verses say nothing about succession. Rome just reads into the verse a succession.
None of the early church fathers interpreted these verses that way. If I recall roughly 20% of the time the early church fathers saw Peter as the rock, the vast majority saw Peters confession that Jesus was the Christ, as being the Rock.
All other verses mentioning the Rock, indicate that it is Jesus Himself and not Peter.
Augustine leaves it up to the reader what the Matt 16:18 means! 400 years after the resurrection, Augustine knows nothing of a Pope's supremacy described by today's RCC.
Historically, there is no evidence of a universal papacy being recognized for the first 5 or 6 centuries by anyone. The Eastern Church never recognized a universal papacy.
The papal claims are a later innovation, like many other traditions of men.