Apologetics: Peter and the Keys

St. Peter and the Keys.

 

Here is part of a correspondence I had recently. People like to throw out a lot of accusations, if you are Catholic. Some may have a half truth, others are just wrong.
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I think I answered your point on  "Petra" and "Petros," but regardless, it isn't so necessary to prove Peter to be head of the Apostles.

Let's look at the passage again.

Mathew 16:17-19
"…17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by My Father in heaven.

18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.

19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."..."

To follow up on my point of lineage, ie. tracing your church back to Jesus through history, the verse "and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it." By saying the Catholic Church fell away  until, whenever your church started, then you are saying "Hades" "Hell" or "death" have prevailed until the 20th century.

But that still doesn't make my main point. In the above passage Jesus gives the KEYS of the kingdom of heaven: "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven."  to Peter. "Keys " are a symbol of office. Jesus is making Peter his "Prime Minister."  Jesus is king, with Peter given the office as his prime representative/minister.

Jesus is “the King of kings” (Rev. 17:14), and as king, he is  “holder of the key of David.”  (Rev 3:7) But it was customary for the king to have a prime minister in Israel (as we can still see in the UK today). The way they gave this office was to award the keys of the kingdom to him.

We can see this in Isaiah 22:22: "I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open."
 
Eliakim was the master of the palace. Eliakim possesses the key of the kingdom, not as the owner, but as one deputed to oversee the king’s affairs. The Apostles would have noticed this. See the parallels? Giving the keys and the power to bind and loose.   

While Jesus gave the power to bind and loose to all the Apostles Matthew 18:18,: “Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on Earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on Earth shall be loosed in heaven.” He gave only Peter the keys to the kingdom-- he is the head Apostle.

That is why Jesus prays for Peter in particular
Luke 22:32: "But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” " Peter was not perfect and neither were the other Apostles.

It was also to ONLY Peter he gave the commission to feed His Sheep meaning the Church
John 21:17 "The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.""

In all the cases when listing the Apostles in the Bible, Peter is listed first.

You claim Peter was never in Rome, and not in scripture, but this is not true.  Peter writes a cryptic greeting from “Babylon.” This was the early Church’s code word for Rome. The term didn’t mean the city of Babylon which figures so greatly in the Old Testament, though the code word was chosen precisely because of what ancient Babylon had done to the Jews–the Romans were doing likewise to Christians.

1 Peter 5:13
"The church in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you greetings, as does my son Mark. "

Historically it is accurate too:

St. Ignatius of Antioch  [A.D. 110] probably knew St. John the Apostle
“Not as Peter and Paul did, do I command you [Romans]. They were apostles, and I am a convict” (Letter to the Romans 4:3 ).

Dionysius of Corinth  [A.D. 170]
“You [Pope Soter] have also, by your very admonition, brought together the planting that was made by Peter and Paul at Rome and at Corinth; for both of them alike planted in our Corinth and taught us; and both alike, teaching similarly in Italy, suffered martyrdom at the same time” (Letter to Pope Soter , in Eusebius, History of the Church 2:25:8).

St. Irenaeus  [A.D. 189]
“Matthew also issued among the Hebrews a written Gospel in their own language, while Peter and Paul were evangelizing in Rome and laying the foundation of the Church” (Against Heresies, 3, 1:1 ).

It isn't important for Peter to have been in Rome for my case.  The main point is Peter was appointed as head of Christ's Church while Jesus went to heaven. The symbol of the "keys" is an office that is handed down. So there has been a pope through the ages from the time of Christ. It just so happens that it all mainly happened in Rome.

As for your accusation of Catholics suppressing the Bible. This is just silly. Who compiled all the books of the Bible? the Catholic Church. Who do you think copied the Bible all through the ages? Monks. Where do you think they found the oldest manuscripts in Greek? In Monasteries. You just don't know the history or the effort it took the Church to preserve the Bible until the age of printing. Not to mention the barbarian and pagan wars, pillaging  and fires that happened.

The New Testament canon was not determined until late 300 AD. The books the Church deemed sacred were read  and preached at Mass from Apostolic times. Early Christian writings were many, some were good and orthodox, some where good teaching but questionable, in the sense of who was the author, and others were fake. To determine which books were the inspired  Word of God took some time to work out. Finally 27 books  would become the canon of the New Testament.

As for corruption, yes , at times churchmen have been involved in bad things. Just like the apostles ran away from our Lord at the time of the crucifixion, and Judas betrayed him. From the beginning, there was scandal. But the teachings remained the same. Reforms were made and corruption  corrected.

All human organizations suffer from this, even the chosen people --the Jews/Hebrews. I am sure I could find scandals in any denomination that has existed for a number of years.

As for charging for masses and prayers. There was a problem with this in the past but not now, to my knowledge.  You can have a mass said for free or make a donation. The donation is minimal, usually about 5 or 10 dollars, it is more like a tip you give a waiter.  A far cry from the 10% of your income demanded by Protestant Churches. The Catholic Church has no set amount one needs to give, only that one should help as one is inspired.

If you want to learn more about the Catholic Church I would suggest this site. It is in question and  answer format. It is a little old but mostly pretty good. There are different years click near the title, It was revised and updated through the years. I linked to the oldest one. There is a search engine too, but only if you open up a year.
http://www.radioreplies.info/radio-replies-vol-1.php