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To: CynicalBear
"Simon Magus the sorcerer was a great influence in starting the RCC as well."

Chapter and verse? Evidence? Or, could it be this is slander?

604 posted on 08/28/2013 6:18:56 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o ("In Christ we form one body, and each member belongs to all the others." Romans 12:5)
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To: Mrs. Don-o
Well, we can start here.

Acts 8:9 But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one: 10 To whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. 11 And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries.

Notice the influence and following Simon Magus had already at that time.

One only needs to do a little study on the Samaritans and the influence of the Babylonian paganism of which Simon the Magus was a priest to understand the blending of paganism and Christianity. Simon Magus went on to Rome.

The Dictionary of Religion and Ethics says that Simon was "a false Messiah, who practiced magical arts and subsequently attempted, by the aid and with the sanction of Christianity, to set up a rival UNIVERSAL [Catholic] RELIGION" (Vol. 11, p. 514).

"When Justin Martyr wrote [152 A.D.] his Apology, the sect of the Simonians appears to have been formidable, for he speaks four times of their founder, Simon; and we need not doubt that he identified him with the Simon of the Acts. He states that he was a Samaritan, adding that his birthplace was a village called Gitta; he describes him as a formidable magician, and tells that he came to ROME in the days of Claudius Caesar (45 A.D.) [actually, 42 A.D.], and made such an impression by his magical powers, THAT HE WAS HONORED AS A GOD, a statue being erected to him on the Tiber, between the two bridges, bearing the inscription ‘Simoni deo Sancto’ (i.e., the holy god Simon)" (Dictionary of Christian Biography, Vol. 4, p. 682).

It’s rather interesting that the years that the RCC says Simon Peter was in Rome are the identical years history records that Simon Magus was actually in Rome and Peter was in Europe.

619 posted on 08/28/2013 7:13:05 PM PDT by CynicalBear (For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ)
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