I very much appreciate your arguments, Daniel.
I would like to ask you, what happened to Peter’s flock? And were the Jews, prior to the stoning of Stephen, still expecting the Kingdom of Israel to come very soon?
Whom did Jesus have in mind as who was to be His church when He told Peter that He would build His church, at the time He said it to Peter, that is?
Thank you always and forever, Daniel. I’ve learned a lot from you during the years.
If you have the time, would you two also chime in on these questions of mine in post 80?
I’m trying to understand the Jewish mindset of the then-thinking Jew who would have been in the presence of, and heard, the Lord. We are looking at it after 2000 years of history. What I try to trick my mind into doing is going back 2000 years and viewing it through the disciples eyes BEFORE there was the church as we know it today. Not an easy thing when you’re an idiot like myself are.
Thank you!
11 But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. 12 When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. 13 As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy.
14 When I saw that they were not following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions?
15 “You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles. 16 Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.”[a]
17 But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not! 18 Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down. 19 For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. 20 My old self has been crucified with Christ.[b] It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.
Reading the Scripture, we see that Jesus was talking to ALL the disciples.
Peteer is the impulsive one who keeps injecting himself into the conversation...
Peter only, or the whole group?
Thank God, and sorry for missing your comment and questions when checking my pings.
"I would like to ask you, what happened to Peter’s flock""
There was no "Peter’s flock" as per the imagination of Rome. While transformed, holy Spirit-filled Peter was indeed the street-level leader among apostolic brethren, and apparently initially the primary pastor of the church in Jerusalem, (Acts 5) and the first to formally preach the gospels to Jews and Gentiles, (Acts 2, 10) and being distinctively named by Paul, as married, (1 Co. 9) and with whom Paul spend 15 days with 3 years after his conversion, (Galatians 1:18) and is one of the apostles whom Paul stated appeared to be pillars, whom Paul sought official approbation by, due to false charges - yet who listed Peter after James - (Galatians 2:9) and exercising a general pastoral role, (1 Peter 1:1ff) yet nowhere do we see see evidence or testimony of,