[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***Yes.... Nice discussion on Saint Peter's going on here. The antagonist has been...ahem...dealt with by "ZOT" thanks to a Higher Power through the intervention of the Religious Admin. ***

Am I too late to pile on with the words of St. Paul?

"Be ye followers of ME as I am of CHRIST".

When Peter came to Antioch he was to blame for the desention when he ate with the saved Gentiles, till certain men came from James at Jerusalem and he separated himself and the jewish believers from the gentiles. Paul gave the "first POPE" a royal chewing out for his actions.

[mike182d]

"Be ye followers of ME as I am of CHRIST".

This is exactly the point: we are to be followers of Christ, but who is the Christ that we follow? Which one of us was actually a witness to the real person of Jesus as he was alive on earth? Who here is able to verify the testimony in the Gospels with their own personal accounts of Jesus walking on water, healing paralytics, raising from the dead, et cetera. Everything we know of Christ comes from the Church because the Apostolic Tradition that has existed for over 2000 years began with those who had first-hand accounts of Jesus and had the authority to comment on the experience of Him. Therefore, it would logically follow that to properly follow Jesus we would have to know who He truly is and in order to know who Christ truly is, we need Apostolic Tradition. Otherwise, there's absolutely no reason to believe in the four Gospels in the N.T. over the gospel or believe in a Trinity over Arianism. Belief in Christ and belief in the Authority of the Church are the same thing.

[mike182d]

sorry, its early in the morning. The last sentence should read "...over the gospel of Thomas."