[mdmathis6]

Nahh, just the ones who are Greek scholars and know the texts....Don't ignore what I said about the context shift in the Greek in that passage in Matthew and don't ignore Ephesians chapter 2 that I also mentioned...All the Apostles and prophets were the foundation of the church,"being joined" thru Christ , the "chief corner-stone". Peter in deed was the first of the great preachers, being empowered by the Holy Spirit...he preached the first great sermons(thru which thousands of Jews were saved in Israel) after the baptism of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost(ironically the feast of "First Fruits", around the time of the first barley harvests of the year in Israel). He was indeed a foundation stone, being used by God to kick off the Christian faith, setting it in action in the world...other foundation stones were Paul, John, all of the other apostles, and old testament prophets with Christ being the chief corner stone. The "serious hoop-hopping" comes when you try to extrapolate out some fictitious apostolic line from Peter and build a pagan religion around it that has no relation to the "temple of living stones" that Christ was building, through the doctrinal foundations of faith...laid down by Peter and the apostles and Old testament prophets(all instructed by the Holy Spirit)...Look at Ephesians 2:18-22 again. There is no blue-print that sets in motion the rise of the Vatican...It was church state political machinations thru which the cult of Peter would arise...and the Eastern Orthodox broke away from it!

[RobbyS]

If Roman Catholicism is a "pagan Religion," then so is Eastern Orthodoxy. But the cult of Peter is based on the prominent role that he plays in the New Testament.

[Catholicguy]

<>You will have to excuse my Christian friends.

They were raised with a certain history they can't let go of. They read the Early Church Fathers and they think those Church Fathers attest to such things as the Mass, Sacraments, Papal Primacy, Purgatory ect.

I think those of us who REALLY know the history, know that right from the get-go, Jesus established His Christian Church purely on an act of will and truth was immaterial.

Look, what you believe is immaterial. Let's all admit that and move on to Faith. Faith is nothing but an intellectual and spiritual assent that Jesus IS Our Lord and Saviour and that He has done everyting and there is nothin for us to do. You will have to excuse Aquinas and conservative, they are just do-gooding pagans. What the hell do they know, compared to you?<>